Camp Echo Lake – Junior Girls: Week 4 Recap
This past week, the Junior Girls participated in an evening program called “Fuzzy Feud,” a takeoff on the game show, Family Feud. Each group had a counselor and five campers represent them on stage as they identified the top five answers of surveys that were given to Echo Lake campers prior to the event. For example – “Name the top five campfire songs.”
Only counselors were allowed to buzz in for their teams. If a counselor buzzed in too late, or got an answer wrong, their campers were able to smash a pie into the counselor’s face, hit them with a water balloon or paint their face for getting the answer wrong. I have never heard louder cheers come from the Junior Girls as I did on that night! They really got into the game, and got a big laugh out of seeing their counselors get very messy. Overall it was a great night for the girls.
The Frosh Girls enjoyed their first TREK overnight. Each Junior group has one night where they are able to camp out in the woods down by TREK. They begin the night by telling stories in their pajamas, exploring TREK and of course, enjoying s’mores!
This particular TREK overnight happened to be extra special. The TREK staff had previously challenged the Frosh Girls to a gaga match, with the winner getting extra s’mores. Needless to say, the girls were fired up to win the gaga match. Motivated by s’mores, the Frosh Girls crushed the TREK staff at gaga. This was the first time that this happened in the history of TREK overnights. It was a night that the Frosh Girls will never forget!
The Frosh and Lower Juniors attended their second campfire of the summer this past week. Once again, they sat under the stars on a beautiful Adirondack night and learned Echo Lake trivia from Laurie, sang songs about animals and junk food, indulged in making and eating s’mores, and read the story The Giving Tree. During the campfire, the girls were reminded to enjoy every second left of the summer, which is now at the halfway point.
The Upper Juniors enjoyed a fun night with me, as we played “Liar’s Club” (see Week 3 recap for game details). The Upper Juniors discovered during the game that our counselors are great, funny actresses.
On Saturday night, the entire camp met at the Amphitheatre for the Junior Girls’ theatrical production of Aladdin. Almost every one of the girls was involved in the production in some way, either acting or on the stage crew.
They all dedicated many hours to making the play a success. It was amazing to see all of their hard work and dedication pay off with their performance. The audience enjoyed hearing some classic songs from one of the greatest Disney movies of all-time, and erupted in well-deserved applause during the final curtain call!
It was inspiring to watch the girls practice for the play the last couple of days. I was very impressed with the hard work and dedication that they showed, spending hours upon hours practicing the songs for their performance. I think that they all learned a valuable lesson about the benefits of hard work.
Every Wednesday, the Upper Juniors get a taste of “Inter life” during their afternoon “camp within a camp.” This is a new program that started this summer, where the girls get two periods in a row at one activity area of choice. This extra time helps them to improve on a targeted area with more specific instruction and coaching. They are all enjoying this program, and benefitting from it greatly.
Next week, the Juniors will be heading out to Putt-Putt at “Around the World” for evening activity (please don’t tell them though, because it is going to be a surprise on the day of the trip!).
