The Final Night

What a summer it has been! It is hard to believe that our final night of camp has passed and that tomorrow, all of your campers will be returned home to you. Tonight, we had our traditional banquet dinner and counselor campfire. Banquet was prime rib, salad, tater tots and Red and White cupcakes for dessert to celebrate the conclusion of our second session color war. During banquet, campers received awards, our overall captains gave speeches and we announced the winning team. Nicola did her reading of the points and campers were delighted to add “no bonus” for events where our teams tied. In the end, while both teams were incredible, our Red Team won our 2022 color war. After our announcement, all campers and counselors changed into longs and longs and headed up to Wilderness Point for our final campfire. Each counselor gave speeches to their campers and other staff reflected on our summer. I wanted to include some excerpts of what Nick and I shared with the girls tonight.

How lucky we all are to have a place we love so much, that makes it this difficult to leave. 8 or 4 weeks ago you stepped off the busses. Tears were shed while saying goodbye to your family, your friends, your pets. And tomorrow, tears will be shed leaving your summer home, your summer sisters, your summer pets. 

In movies and TV camp is depicted about the fun, the late nights, the crazy color war events. And while is camp is about this and that makes it incredible, it’s also about each of you growing and becoming the best versions of yourself. You are all changed women than who arrived at camp on your first day. You’ve learned new skills-maybe how to rig and de rig a sailboat, hit a killer tennis serve, or how to ski around lake Meta. You’ve also learned how to perserve through hard things, how to advocate for yourself, and how to communicate your feelings.

To every amazing individual here, remember that. You are special. We believe in you and we will continue to create an environment where you can grow and learn. We can’t promise that things will be easy. In fact, we hope that when you come across challenges, which of course you will, you will think back on how you learned to persevere at camp. When you return home tomorrow, please remember to stand up for what is right even when it’s the harder thing to do, to cheer on your friends, to take care of our beautiful earth, to be honest, to love one another, to put others and your community at the forefront. We will always be here for you, we will continue to hold high expectations for you and to support you to meet them. Each and every one of you is destined to do great things. Go out and do them, do this fearlessly and know that you can’t have happy without the sad, you can’t have easy without the hard, and you can’t have success without failure. 

When tomorrow morning comes remember the best thing about camp is that you have this special place filled with amazing people. And because one summer ends doesn’t mean it’s over. Camp will follow you back home. You now have new friends, new memories, and another place you can continue to return. Instead of focusing on the sadness of leaving, please remember how fortunate you are to have this place that you love so dearly. Please always remember, you are Marimeta and Marimeta is a part of you. We love you, MWAH. 

To review our incredible summer, you can watch our highlight video here. As we close the door on another great summer at Marimeta, we know that it will live on in our hearts forever.

Love the happy times,

Jami