Camp Echo Lake – Inter Boys: Week 3 Recap
Visiting Day came on the heels of a very busy week for the Inter Boys, filled with many special events and exciting moments…
On Monday, the Inter Boys kicked off the summer-long, all-camp program called “Fuzzy Feud.” Similar to Family Feud, the groups all compete to answer the top five responses to a camper survey.
While Fuzzy Feud is similar to Family Feud, there are some distinct differences. When a group fails to win the buzzer round, that team’s counselor is “treated” to a water balloon, face painting or a pie in the face by the opposing team.
The survey questions in the game included: “What do you think of when you think of Glenn Begly?” – “What is the most popular color fuzzy?” – “What is your favorite all-camp event?” and many others. Everyone enjoyed a lot of laughs throughout the event, with the Upper Inter Boys East emerging as the overall winners.
The Lower Inters Boys had their first campfire on Tuesday night, bringing an incredible amount of enthusiasm to all of the songs and showing an equal passion for making (and eating) s’mores! Although the competitive songs like “Little Red Wagon” (see Week 1 Recap) ended in a tie, the boys were confident that they will take the win at the next campfire.
On Thursday night, the Lower Inter Boys went on their first big trip of the summer, showing off their mini putting talents, and enjoying some ice cream as well.
On Thursday, the Upper Inter Boys took part in a longstanding Camp Echo Lake tradition called “The Great Egg Drop.” Groups are split into teams and are given a water balloon, straws and tape. The goal is to create a device that will protect the balloon from popping when it is dropped to the ground. The creativity and engineering talents that were exhibited that night were remarkable! All of the boys enjoyed themselves, and based on the results, I think that some Upper Inter Boys have a future as an engineer.
After a candy party and general swim at the end of Visiting Day, the Inter boys donned their best costumes (some funny, some scary) and went to Halloween In July, which was hosted by the Lower Village campers. The boys had some of the most impressive costumes in the camp, and were very enthusiastic about all of the events that took place.
After the Halloween festivities ended, the entire camp proceeded to the lower baseball field for another one of Camp Echo Lake’s oldest traditions – the Tribal Torch Lighting. Sitting with their teams (Iroquois or Mohawk) the torches were lit and the Tribal themes were announced, absolutely thrilling the Inter Boys!
The theme for Iroquois this year is “DC Comic Universe” and for Mohawk it is “Marvel Comic Universe.”
Challenge Night was the last major event this week. Each boy had the choice to compete in one of the following activities: Home Run Derby in the Thunderdome, a baseball game, a 3-on-3 Beach Soccer Tournament or American Gladiators.
American Gladiators is an event that we have been doing for the past few years at Echo Lake. It features an obstacle course that the boys try to navigate without getting hit by a dodge ball, while also completing certain tasks. It is essentially a mix between dodge ball, gymnastics, hide-and-go-seek and running.
A great night of competition was capped off with our new Challenge Night tradition – Boys Canteen ‘Neath the Pines.
The boys had a variety of inter-camp games this past week against Baco, Brant Lake, Raquette Lake and a few other camps competing in baseball, basketball, soccer and tennis.
The Upper Inter Boys are excited to travel to Baco this Thursday for round 2. We also have 6U and 7U basketball, and 7U soccer at Baco this coming week.
I feel that the boys learned a valuable lesson this past week…take the time to enjoy every moment of camp!
With Visiting Day now behind us, a number of boys told me how quickly they thought the summer was going, so they are intentionally taking the time to fully appreciate each day that is left of camp.
This coming week, we have Inters bowling, Tribal Track, Tribal Inter Arts, Tribal Swim and a number of exciting Trek trips. We are looking forward to seeing the Lower Inters performance of Shrek after all of the hard work that the boys have been putting in to prepare.
The Pines Police Precinct is starting to fire on all cylinders as the weeks go forward, and are getting closer to cracking their case! They have recently set up a lie detector device and are employing all of Boys Camp to help track down suspects. Stay Tuned!!
