The Sari Diaries- Friday 7/23/21

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

It has been a humid yet lovely day at #TheRanch2021! It’s Friday night so I am once again sitting at my desk feeling very fortunate to be a member of this community. For those of you who have been reading all summer long, you know that Friday Night Campfires give me all the feels for this place…and I think the campfires have that impact on lots of people around here. So, getting down to business- here’s what happened today:

We were very busy all across camp at activities. In cooking, they made delicious soft pretzels and at outdoor cooking, they made s’more tacos…yum! When I stopped by outdoor cooking, I got a preview of the Trailriders’ lip sync dance. Lip Sync is on Sunday, and campers (and let’s be honest, staff too) are very excited for their performances. At waterskiing, Maddyn C dropped a ski, and then crossed the wakes on one ski! There was also some fun happening in the Gold Club Archery period. Sophie B surpassed 50 golds, Chandler S passed 300 and Chloe C passed 400!! Yes, you read that correctly…between the three of them, they have hit over 750 golds! And finally, in the world of activity achievements, Lilah K climbed up the easy wall blindfolded! I seriously don’t know how these kids do it…pretty incredible!

In addition to all of the activity action, after lunch, we had our first Songfest practice! Each team learned their theme, and began their preparations for Songfest, which is coming up on Thursday! Campers are buzzing with excitement already- it is always a very cool program in which campers work hard with their teams to create an amazing show that they feel a ton of pride for! We shall see how the next week goes but I am confident that we are all in for a treat at Songfest 2021!

And then, during Friday Night dinner, we got some monumental news…the entire CRC community is COVID-FREE! Masks were tossed, hugs were given and we all cheered with joy…it is a real and true happy day. While the entire summer has been special, this round of tests is our official sign that from here on out, camp is camp is camp…and we couldn’t be happier!

To cap off this day, we had an incredible Friday Night Campfire. The theme was Perseverance, and much of it was written by Alex G who also led the campfire. The theme is very pertinent to what many of us (and people around the world) have experienced over the last fifteen plus months. For some, this pandemic has been beyond challenging- there were times when it was difficult to believe there would be light at the end of the dark tunnel that was COVID-19. But some way and some how, despite these struggles, we were all able to be sitting around the campfire tonight- maskless, smiling and genuinely at peace. It was a moment that you could literally feel the perseverance of our community, and it felt so good. I want to give a shout-out to the following campers and counselors who participated in tonight’s campfire: Camryn F & Virginia Sorsana who wrote beautiful sermonettes, Olivia R, Blake R, Regina L, Clementine B, Esmie M and Léa W who read passages & quotes, the CR-Singers for leading us in two songs, Smoss & Leah Berns for singing “Mean,” and the many campers who threw in very thoughtful keylogs!

And that’s all I’ve got for you this evening. We had a day that we will likely remember for a long time…a day that in so many ways was SO CHIPPEWA! Thanks for reading- have a great night!

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari