The Sari Diaries- Wednesday 6/24/15

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

Just when I thought this place couldn’t get any better, today happened. It was an incredible one and confirms what I previously thought to be true…#TheRanch2015 is going to be the best summer ever. Our staff are amazing, our campers are out of this world and together, we are in the world’s happiest place. Here are today’s highlights to help explain why I feel this way…

1. The first day of regular activities is always exciting, but we were lucky enough to have the absolute perfect weather, making it even better. I had the privilege to play first period tennis with the Senior Tennis Team. This group is comprised of members of Lakeview along with some CITs. While my game is a little bit rusty, I was very impressed with their skills. I am looking forward to hitting with them most days throughout the summer! For the remainder of the day, I visited a number of other activities and got to witness the motivation and enthusiasm of both our campers and staff. Overall, it was a very successful day of activities…lots of fish were caught, a skier dropped a ski for the first time, campers learned the safety procedures for cooking, the wall was climbed and swimmers were even excited to jump in the lake!

2. Tonight’s evening program was the Opening Staff Show. The staff have been working on acts for over a week and were excited to perform in front of the whole camp. Some serious talent was displayed, but there was plenty of laughter as well. Cliff performed a camp favorite, “Right Field,” age groups showed off their dancing skills and the boys surprised us all with an amazing rendition of the Backstreet Boys song, “Backstreet’s Back.” The returning senior counselors danced to “She’s In Love With a Boy,” which my age group made up in 2000…yes, it has been performed at least twice a summer for the past fifteen years! The show was awesome and the campers were quite entertained.

3. After the final number, Duncs (always the best DJ) started the first official dance party of the summer! It was a dance party to remember…seriously the best one ever. From Blackfoot to Lakeview and from returning counselors to first year staff members, everyone was dancing and singing and having the time of their lives. As people were leaving (reluctantly), I had two Lakeview campers, Aliza K and Jessica K, come up to me and tell me that they wanted to come back to camp forever and that this dance party solidified that. That is quite obviously music to my ears and further proof that this is a magical place.

4. As I walked around camp tonight, I had the opportunity to hang out with Boots and Cactus. When I got to Cactus, there were four girls playing Picwits which was a new game to me. It is just like Apples to Apples but with photos and it was so fun. By the time I left (I had to play a few rounds), the entire cabin and counseling team was in a circle playing and giggling. That is a great group with some fantastic counselors! From there, I went into Boots and that was nothing short of entertaining. They sang me a number of songs including a couple about their big sisters (they are prepping for tomorrow’s Big and Little Sis Night). This is another extremely cohesive group already and it was great to spend some quality time with them.

5. Finally, I came back to the office to find about ten members of Lakeview working on 4th of July. We all took a break in our work to play some Catch Phrase and discuss how crazy it is that they are now the oldest campers in camp. It feels like yesterday that they were the youngest nuggets here, and cute as could be. Now they are still pretty cute, but they are also fantastic leaders and role models to the Chippewa community. In the dance party, they were dancing with the younger campers and making sure that everyone was involved. After the evening program, they went to visit their little sisters and tuck them in. And then they arrived in the office to plan the 4th of July program which is a huge responsibility that they are excited about taking on. We are thrilled that these are the girls that our campers get to look up to this summer. They are stepping up to the plate and setting the tone for the entire camp…it is wonderful and not something we are taking for granted!

And now you all know why I feel like I have the best job on the planet. Tomorrow Soph-Aloaf will be blogging and she will share all of the excitement around CRC that the new day will bring. Thanks for reading tonight…I apologize for the length but hope you enjoyed the detail!

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari