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Red and White Announcement 2019!!

We had an incredible Red and White Announcement this week!

On Wednesday night at dinner, Carmen realized that her wedding ring was missing! She freaked out in the mess hall (as anyone would) and left the meal to go looking for it. Frankie left soon after to help her, as well as some of our counselors.

During General that day she had been playing soccer in the middle of the field, so she figured that’s where it would have to be! Right after dinner, the campers came out and started to help her look. Even with every single camper and counselor in the field, we could not find it!

Next, Carmen remembered that she was on the tennis courts earlier that day. She asked everyone to go up there and search. Upon getting to the tennis courts, they were covered with a bunch of red and white rings! Each ring had a girl’s name on it, and it’s color represented her assigned team!

After that, the camp excitedly sat down on the tennis courts and heard the announcement of captains for Red and White 2019!! To celebrate the announcement, the girls competed in their new little teams in a couple rounds of Team Competition! The Red and White announcement was such a memorable and special evening at CMFG!

At Marimeta, we switch up the red and white teams randomly every summer. This means that each summer the girls have no idea which team they’re going to be on. We believe this makes the announcement more exciting, and ensures that long term conflict or harsh competitiveness does not build between the girls.

Why Do We Have Required Activities at CMFG?

At Camp Marimeta, there are certain required activities that each camper must take. These include swimming, tennis, kayaking and canoeing.

We feel each of these three activities help develop well rounded, safety conscience, cooperative young ladies.

Why Swimming?

Although there are many reasons why we believe swimming is a fun and necessary activity, the most important is that swimming is a skill that can save your child’s life. From beaches, backyard pools, to Meta Lake, we want to ensure that campers feel safe near any body of water. In addition, many people enjoy swimming as a way to cool down and relax on a hot, sunny day.

At camp, the girls take a swimming class every day of regular activities. In the class, the campers switch off doing swimming lessons and free swim every other day. Our swim instructors are certified by Starfish Aquatics Institute and follow their curriculum for lessons on G Day. These lessons include learning a variety of different strokes. As the girls become more advanced, they start working on some endurance training.

Why Tennis?

Every camper will take a tennis class every other day during regular activities. Tennis is a lifetime sport. Throughout their lives, our campers can play tennis in a competition setting or in more of a social environment. Tennis is both a physical and mental sport, so it helps our girls focus on the game while also working their bodies and minds.

To teach tennis, our wonderful instructors fly in all the way from India every summer to help our girls hone their skills. This is Manny and Pan’s 21st summer at camp, and we are so grateful for the commitment they hold for all of our girls and camp in general. We LOVE them!

Why Kayaking and Canoeing?

Until their 8th grade summer, we require all campers to take kayaking and canoeing three times a week as a part of their regular activities.  Not only do we find boating to be an important life skill, it also plays a large role in the development of communication, teamwork, and leadership skills.  A canoe will not navigate properly without the girls speaking and working together to achieve a common goal.  These are valuable lessons the campers learn that will apply to almost every aspect of their lives.

These required activities benefit Marimeta in a variety of different ways!

Welcome to Second Session 2019!

Second Session 2019 is off to an outstanding start!

After another INCREDIBLE visitor’s weekend, the girls enjoyed an afternoon of General Waterfront out in the hot sun! Finally, at around 4:30, the buses from Chicago arrived at camp. Then they were greeted by an ecstatic group of campers and counselors. Next, cabins were announced! Consequently the girls spent the rest of their time before dinner unpacking and organizing their new cabins.

At Marimeta, we believe Second Session is a great opportunity for a fresh new start. Over the weekend some counselors switched cabins. In fact, we even had some campers switch cabins! Above all we try to get the campers talking about new things in contract to reliving the first session.

After eating some delicious pizza, the evening activity on the first night of camp was Counselor Hunts! During this night, each counselor dresses as a different animal. With cabin groups, the campers run to each counselor and try to guess what animal they’re dressed as. In fact, this year we had a creative group of creatures, including a sloth, caterpillar, and the Loch Ness monster!

The first day of the session was another Safety Day! Therefore, campers signed up for new activities, got more lice checks, and had loads of fun playing games like dodgeball and volleyball with their new cabins. After that, at night we kicked off second session Olympics! The olympic activity was Game Night! So, each team rotated through a series of competitions including capture the flag, rock, paper, scissors, shake and pop, steal the bacon, making up cheers, and sharks and minnows. What fun!

We are beyond excited for all of the laughter, happy memories, and new friendships that these next weeks have in store. To sum up, Second Session 2019 is already one for the books!

Banquet Night at Marimeta 2019!

Banquet Night at Marimeta is so much fun!

The last dinner of the session is known as banquet. Tonight, the girls will dress in their Mari Meta league team shirts and sit in their little teams. On this special night, activity awards are given out to campers who have excelled in their activities.

Activity medals are awarded to honor girls who are always participating in their activities. Above all, they spread positivity and show excellent sportsmanship in competitions.

In addition to activity medals, a variety of beads are given out as part of our Bead Program. The Bead Program is an incentive program that encourages positive deeds and behavior. At the end of each session, a select few campers and counselors receive either an Earth, Space, Moon, Galaxy, or E.T. bead. These beads are for those who have gone above and beyond the everyday duties of a camper or counselor. All captains of the Mari Meta league will also get a bead to commemorate their captainship.

An important thing to acknowledge is that not every single girl will receive a medal or bead tonight.  While we wish that everyone could receive a bead or an award at banquet, we believe it is an important life lesson to learn that sometimes we don’t always get the award. It is a reminder to continue to strive to be the best we can be! We encourage our girls to congratulate those that do win, and be mindful of those who haven’t.

Finally, to end Banquet Night, Nicola announces the winner of Mari Meta League 2019!

We had the most AMAZING session, and we’re so excited to see what next session has in store!

Five Year Night at Marimeta 2019!

We love Five Year Night at Marimeta!

Five Year Night is a tradition at camp that has carried on throughout camp history! Every summer, the five year campers receive their five year jackets. In fact, they are given to them by their friends who are already in the Five Year Club.

The Five Year Club is our way of recognizing the girls who have displayed a great amount of commitment to Marimeta by returning for five summers! To sum up the night, they celebrate this commitment by going out for dinner on Five Year Night!

On this night, the entire camp gathers on the waterfront. Then, one by one, each camper or counselor receives their five year jacket. Usually, along with the jacket, their friends have made them a little cardboard piece of artwork. Above all, these gifts are another way to commemorate this special night.

In addition, as well as five year jackets, we honor girls who have been at camp for ten years with 10 Year Rings! In fact, this summer we have two counselors who have been at camp for longer than ten years. Consequently, these counselors have shown an incredible dedication to camp. They’ve been at CMFG for as long as some of our Lodgies!

Five Year Night is a special night at Marimeta, and one that many girls look forward to during their first four summers at camp!

This week, we have so much to look forward to! On Tuesday, the four-week campers are going to Town for Town Day. Thursday is packing day and banquet, and on Friday we are so excited to welcome family for Visitors Weekend!

We’ve had an incredible first session!

Finding the Happy Medium in Parenting

It seems like it is getting harder and harder to find the happy medium in parenting styles.

Can we, as parents, find that “sweet spot” that will produce happy and self-suffient children. Here are some ways to finding the happy medium in parenting, from the article How to Raise Successful Kids Without Overparenting.

  • Have your children set their own goals and schedules. We need to let them succeed on their own terms. In addition, we also need to let them fail on those terms as well.
  • We all want our children to be happy but many of us are going about it the wrong way. Therefore, we should be working on raising ethical, principled and productive children. Happiness hopefully will follow.
  • Love them unconditionally! Schooling is important but not the most important thing.
  • Chores are essential for all children! They should chip in without being asked. We all have things we have to do even if we don’t want to.
    • Remember, whistle will you work. By helping our child learn that we have a choice in how we approach these task, we can teach them that we can find the fun in all most anything.
  • All the little things matter…. Read to your children. Put your phone down and away when they are talking to you. Greet them with excitement when they return home from school.

Please follow the link above to four wonderful Ted Talks that go further into detail on each of these bullet points.

To Sum up, we have such a hard job as parents finding the perfect balance between not being over protective and being too lenient.  Either way, we can only keep on trying to improve how we handle all that is thrown our way. Let’s hope we can all find that happy medium in our parenting style.

Camp Marimeta incorporates all of these points into our daily camp life.

Campers are responsible for setting up their own activity schedule. Embracing the Marimeta morals is a must. Teaching tolerance of everyones differences is an on going project.  All campers have assigned chores on a daily basis for the betterment of the cabin. In addition, they also have to waitress for their table once a week. Stopping and asking how was your day and waiting for their response is something the lodgies do daily.

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2019 Marimeta MTV’s are Here

Camp Marimeta MTV’s are here, ready to perform!

Every summer, Senior Cabin works endlessly from the very start of the session getting ready to perform their MTV’s for the rest of the camp. 2019 Camp Marimeta MTV’s are ready to go! Usually the SC campers are partnered up for these dances. This summer Senior Cabin girls, each get to created their own!

MTV is one of the biggest Mari/Meta League events. In fact, it counts for the highest points in the competition so it is a very important occasion. The girls around camp start to plan their own MTV’s from when they are still ranchers! Traditionally it is one of the most anticipated evenings at camp!

Each senior cabin member chose a song, created costumes, and assigned lip-syncs for their respective songs. In fact, all session long, the girls teach their MTV groups everything they’ve organized. For many girls, MTV’s are their favorite activity at camp!

Here’s what’s happening tonight:

On the third Saturday of first session, the whole camp gathers in the Rec Hall.  Then, every group gets their turn to share their MTV with the rest of the camp! After weeks and weeks of hard work, they get in full costume with smiles bright and perform their dance. Usually some groups even go all out with full bodies of paint and teased hair! Each MTV is judged by the lodge on creativity, lip-syncs, costumes, and dance. Consequently, it’s fierce competition every summer!

After that, on Tuesday of next week, the CIA’s will host the MTV awards! On this evening, the camp will rewatch each MTV. In addition, awards will be given to the group with the best score in each category.  Finally, one award is also given out to the group who had the highest collective score, and is given the title “Best Overall”.

Marimeta MTV’s are going to be a huge hit this summer!

Here are a couple of pictures of our MTV’s from last year:

4th of July at CMFG!

The 4th of July is so much fun at Camp Marimeta!

For many campers, Independence Day is their favorite day at camp. Here’s a quick breakdown of our incredible 4th of July:

We start the day with a short sleep in, until Senior Cabin wakes every camper up by going through the cabins banging pots and pans… a special Marimeta tradition!

After getting completely decked out in red, white, and blue gear, the girls gather in the middle of the field for a particularly spirited raising of the flag. We ate croissants for breakfast and then cleaned our cabins while jamming out to American classics.

The morning was filled with an activity called Captains Duels. Each captain on both the Mari and Meta teams battle one-on-one in a water balloon fight. The ultimate goal is to get their opponent completely soaked in water! While these duels are very competitive, the captains always start and end their fight with a supportive hug. They were so much fun!

Next, we enjoyed our annual 4th of July barbecue! The kitchen staff prepared an outstanding meal of bbq chicken and brisket sandwiches, Texas slaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, potato salad, and a camp favorite: corn muffins!

Following lunch, the girls played Message to Martha! This game is played every single summer on the 4th, and is loved by all campers! In this competition, the goal is to run from one side of camp to the other without being sprayed by water. One team is on offense (running) and the other is on defense (spraying water). The senior cabin members on both the Mari and Meta teams worked tirelessly to develop a strategic plan to get the most girls on their team across camp without getting sprayed. What fun!

In addition to Message to Martha, Senior Cabin led the rest of camp in a special Marimeta tradition: a rattlesnake!  A rattlesnake is a spontaneous activity where the entire camp grabs hands and runs into the lake no matter what they’re wearing. It’s such a fun way to cool down after spending so many hours hanging in the hot sun!

To end the day, the boys from Menominee will come over to camp for a social! Monster Entertainment will also join us with loud speakers and fun music. We’ll dance the night away while also getting to see our brothers, cousins, and friends at Menominee. At the end of the night, we’ll sit down at the waterfront and watch an amazing firework show! It’s the perfect end to such an exciting day!

From all of us here at CMFG, Happy 4th of July!!!

Camp Marimeta Kindness and Gratitude Days

At Camp Marimeta we have two different days of activities known as kindness and gratitude days. Usually, these are alternated throughout the week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are K-Days. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are known as G-Days.

The K of K-Day stands for Kindness. At Marimeta, we value kindness as one of the most important attributes of community, friendship, and togetherness. We emphasize its importance by naming one of our activity days “Kindness Day”. Consequently, this reminds the girls to spread kindness all across camp throughout the day!

So what does “Kindness” mean to us at Marimeta?

Although we believe kindness involves being nice to other people, doing the right thing whenever possible, and trying to make others happy, we also know that there is a deeper meaning to the word. In fact, this can be taught and embedded into the way our campers interact with one another. We think that it’s important to acknowledge that while often the kind thing to do seems crystal clear, sometimes it’s a little foggier. It can be tricky or confusing for some girls to know what counts as kindness, both toward themselves and other people. While many behaviors might seem kind, some do more harm than good. We try to teach campers at Marimeta that kindness is rooted in empathy and acceptance. Usually, this starts with respecting one another (in and out of the cabin), even when they have disagreements.

The G of G-Day stands for Gratitude. Every single camper has this beautiful privilege of coming up to Marimeta each summer. We believe that the girls should be consistently mindful of this great privilege and recognize the impact it has on their lives. G-Days are the perfect time for the girls to share their gratitude for camp, and for anything else that they feel lucky to be apart of.

What does “Gratitude” mean for us at Marimeta?

At Camp Marimeta, we think that living life with gratitude means actively choosing to focus your attention and time on what you appreciate. Being grateful means so much more than just saying thank you. Gratitude is different from other caring emotions such as compassion, because it can be learned. That’s good news, as there are a variety of ways to teach it and model it to the campers. One of the most important aspects of this is simply setting aside a little bit of time every day to acknowledge the many things that deserve gratitude in our lives. Taking that time to appreciate what you have is one of the keys to cultivating gratitude. Creating a “grateful environment” at camp can help kids carry gratitude into their lives at home as well.

Kindness and Gratitude days are so much fun!

How We Make New Friends at Camp

I was recently reading an article in Psychology Today that was titled “Make New Friends But Keep the Old… Or Not”.  It made me think of how many campers make new friends  that last a lifetime.  Is it due to the fact that they to learn to live with others despite their differences?  Could it be that having no screens (tv, cell phones etc…) encourages more conversations?  Maybe it’s that so many of the activities are geared towards personal and social development.  For example, when things may not be going their way at home they usually turn to you as parents for support but at camp they are more likely to look to their counselors and cabin mates.

We work daily at camp to foster these friendships by asking them to pick activities that they are interested in. This helps encourage like minded friendships to bloom.  At Camp Marimeta we work with conflict resolution often when cabin issues arise.  We encourage the girls to make new friends by placing them in different teams and groups for special events.  We also switch tables weekly to cultivate new relationships. With all that said, camp is a great place to help create lasting friendships, however camp is only 4 or 8 weeks of your daughters year.  It is difficult to change a child’s thought process or help them learn healthy social interactions that will stick with them in that small time frame.

Here are some ways you can help your child cultivate friendships at home during the school year:

  1. Ask them, “How do you see yourself? How do you show people your values?” Make them do some soul searching, so they can find friends who will be a good fit.
  2. Remind them that not everyone of their friends will be their BFF. There are many different kinds of friendships.
  3. Work with them on their conversational skills. This may seem easy, but in todays digital world it is much harder then we think it is for them. Ask them to keep the conversation positive and upbeat. Moreover, encourage them to actively listen.
  4. Teach them to fight fair. Friends will argue and that is o.k., but that doesn’t mean the relationship has to end, if they can learn to take a step back when needed.
  5. Be careful how you express your opinions when speaking  to your children about their friends.  If you have a strong opinion regarding their friendships, watch the way you word it.  Your opinion is valued and you want to get it across effectively.
  6. Help your child develop meaningful relationships with other adults. In fact, having these stable realtionships will help them navigate the ups and downs of teenage friendships.

Reference: Ways to Help Your Teen make and Keep Good Friends