An Incredible Start to Second Session! July 20, 2022 We have had an amazing start to our second session! As soon as the busses arrived at camp, the fun began and has continued through this evening. Yesterday, campers participated in our regularly scheduled “Tasty Day”. During this day, campers partake in safety rotations around camp with treat themes. They learn about waterfront safety, fire safety, take our swim test, set goals for the summer, visit our amazing health center for lice and health checks and enjoy many treats along the way. Our senior cabin girls began dressing up in red and white anticipating the announcement of our second session color war! It was a hot day on Meta Lake so we made the day as water-oriented as possible, even setting up a large slip and slide! For evening program we played the senior cabin Gunk Game. During this game, cabins are asked trivia questions. If they answer correctly, the cabin selects a member of the panel to “Gunk” with things like spaghetti, flour, egg, and dyed pudding. It is filled with laughs and a bit of a mess in the best of ways! Breakfast yesterday was pancakes, we had sub sandwiches for lunch and lettuce wraps for dinner with brownies for dessert! Today was the American Camp Association’s Camp Kindness Day. The day set out to focus on the work we do at camp to teach kids about the impact that kindness can have on one another. To celebrate at Marimeta, we began the day with blueberry muffins and spent our morning completing cabin activities. Cabins were able to sign up, as a group, for activities together. Lunch was chicken fingers and salad and was followed by our kindness day afternoon. Campers had the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities including; painting kindness rocks to be viewed throughout camp, writing kind notes to campers or staff who have been helpful to them, participating in a kindness video which you can view here, or having fun on the waterfront with friends. This afternoon, the whole camp then partook in a color run in honor of camp kindness day. Campers ran (or walked) from the waterfront to the end of camp, around the backside of cabins 6 and 7, and finally between the health center and cabin 1 to the middle of the field. Along the way, staff was stationed to surround campers in colored powder. At the end of the run, we gathered for an all-camp photo, and campers were then surprised with red and white powder being thrown on them for our red and white team announcements. Little red and white teddy bears were labeled with each camper’s name and spread onto the field for them to find out their team assignment. Once that occurred, we announced our captains and little captains for the summer of 2022 Red VS White. Red and White will continue throughout the remainder of the session with various events (some sports related, some creativity related, some teamwork related). The winner will be announced at the end of the session. One of our favorite things about our color war leagues is that every camper gets a place to shine. For some campers, they shine in the all-camp relay while others get to display their jacks skills in a rainy day tournament. After the announcement, we had an all-camp rattlesnake, where campers hold hands and run into the lake in their clothing! Campers then showered before dinner which was ribs, spinach, and tater tots! The evening program tonight consisted of our T-Shirt relay where campers must pass the team shirts around, silently, around the circle until each team member finds their shirt and puts it on. Whichever team can complete the task more quickly, wins the event. This was followed by our red and white hunt, a hilarious activity where red and white disks are hidden around camp. The goal is to collect the disks but team members can only call over their captains to get a disk by yelling “moo” or “oink” to get their attention. No one is allowed to use other words to instruct their captains on where the disks are hidden. The team that can collect the most disks, wins the event. One of my favorite parts about our red and white competition is the sportsmanship and life lessons it teaches our campers. When the winner of an event is announced, the first thing a team does is sing a cheer to congratulate the other team. When dressing up for an event, each team member ensures to include the other team’s color in their dress-up to show their support. When our captains are announced, their cabinmates pile on top of them to hug them and congratulate them. Marimeta has always been a supportive and loving environment. It is through this event, even in times of competition, that girls are able to take risks and hone their skills. We have a saying that on the field we are red and white but in the cabin we are pink. At the end of the day, we compete for fun, and we are here to support each other and have an incredible summer. Tomorrow we will begin our regularly scheduled activities. Campers will receive their individualized schedules based on their sign-up sheet and will travel to their activities independently! We are looking forward to more fun times ahead! Love the happy times, Jami