The Sari Diaries - Thursday 6/20/19

Dearest Chippies,

Can you believe it has been a full year since I shared a Thursday evening with all of you? I personally cannot, although I am grateful to be back in the North Woods at the only place that ever really feels like home to me. For those of you who are new to these parts, my name is Soph Aloaf and I am back at CRC for my 16th summer. My camp talents include bubble letters, the 4th of July slip ‘n slide and—for better or for worse—rambling right here every Thursday night. As you can probably tell already, my posts are a little fluffier than Sari’s, but I hope you will grow to love Thursday nights as much as I do—tangents and all.

Now onto the good stuff. What happened today at #TheRanch2019 you ask? So many good things. I started my day out at Random House, where Blackfoot and Trailriders campers worked together to build time machines. One group went forward in time to Unicorn Land, another went back to dwell with the dinosaurs and the third went under the sea. All of their creativity was admirable, but I am surprised that no one seized the opportunity to build a machine that 8 weeks from now will turn back the clock and allow us relive the impending summer. It is only day four, so I won’t blame these campers for looking forward rather than backward. But given the widespread impact of a creation as important as a Chippewa time machine, I will have to talk to tomorrow’s class about making this happen…

As for other activity achievements, Ellie L got up and around on two skis and Noa C got to the top of the hard wall and the easy obstacle on her first time climbing EVER! Right after dinner, we had a grand opening for our new gaga pit, which will certainly compete with tetherball for most popular rest hour activity. It was also just brought to my attention that Joslyn A has been spreading inspirational rocks all over camp, and that they have brought smiles to many staff members’ faces. Overall, today was a day filled with excitement and laughter—one of those days that reinforced just how lucky I am to be here, surrounded by some of the most fun, caring, all-around incredible people I have ever met. It feels so right to finally have amazing kids and staff back running around this place and filling it with joy and purpose. After all, they are what makes camp everything that it is.

The excitement of the day thankfully continued into tonight, which was Big and Little Sister Night. This is one of my favorite programs for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of the connections between campers who likely would not otherwise interact with each other. It is always so fun to see campers young and old, new and returning creating friendships that will last longer and run much deeper than the Cathy’s earned if they win. This summer was certainly no exception, and after sharing many moments with each other over the past few days, big and little sisters swarmed the Center Fire Circle in onesies and costumes and tutus to play games with their sibs. As a participant myself (my big sis, Sophie F, and I crushed the egg toss), I can attest firsthand to how fun this night was. The CITs did an incredible job planning and overseeing the program. Congratulations to the winners, Izzy R and Julia E (who won for her 3rd year in a row… impressive!), on your well-deserved victory!

And there you have it, friends. Another spectacular day in Chippyland. I still haven’t fully wrapped my mind around the fact that camp is in full swing. But I couldn’t be happier or luckier to be a part of the amazingness of the past few days, as well as everything that is yet to come.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

Sincerely,
Soph Aloaf