The Sari Diaries- Wednesday 6/25/25

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

What a day we had at Chippewa Ranch Camp for Girls (and as some say, horses). Here goes the run-down of it all…

Meals
-Breakfast: Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs & Bacon
-Lunch: Meatball Subs
-Dinner: BBQ Dinner!

Birthdays
-Maisy B celebrated her 14th birthday on Mackinac Island with the entire cabin of Trailriders!

Lost Teeth
-Sienna B from Lucky-X

Activity Achievements
-Olivia R & Dylan K each hit their 50th gold at archery today!

What Else Happened Today?!
-During cabin clean-up today, something amazing happened- the Tri Cabin completely cleared their clothesline! The entire crew worked together to get every dry towel and bathing suit to its rightful owner and the clothesline was empty!

-For most of the day, we were able to enjoy our regular A Day activities. After the past couple days of extreme heat, it felt good that the temps dropped a bit. At swimming, campers loved the water aerobics that the swim staff led and the sailors were way out on Dam Lake enjoying the breeze. On land Random House had their testing day- they have been making bridges throughout the session, and today they found out how much weight their bridge could hold. One bridge held 15 pounds and the another held 20…quite impressive!

-This afternoon, the cabins of Blackfoot and Silverspurs headed to Silver Lake to begin their camping trip experience…they played in the lake (despite the rain beginning and the cooler temps), they enjoyed the playground and they bonded. We thought maybe the rain would put a damper on their time off camp together but we were wrong. According to their counselors, it only enhanced the experience! Due to the weather they had to return to camp as opposed to camping out for the night. What I loved most was that when they came back to camp they were begging for the trip to be rescheduled…they were legit looking forward to it…this warmed my heart. And don’t worry, we will certainly reschedule!

-By about 3:30pm, the rain was coming down fairly hard and so we pivoted to a Rainy Day Program. The Grab Bag Skit program was a huge hit! Each cabin was given a bag with random items and a skit prompt. They had about 45 minutes to create their skit and they took this quite seriously. We then all met in the theater to watch the skits. They were hilarious and incredibly creative! In the end, Boots was crowned the winner…their prize is amazing…they get to cut the line at Sunday Morning Breakfast!

-And tonight was Cabin Night. An evening for cabins to come together in various ways and connect. Horseshoe was in the Cooking Academy doing a Chopped competition…it was awesome. The cabins of A-Frame, C-C and Bowed Legs made slime and then made a slime smoothie…I had never heard of this but it was a combination of everybody’s slime. Copper Stripes did a very cool group painting project in the Main House. And Rafter^X had an individual and bunkmate lip sync competition. I was called in as a guest judge, so I had the great privilege of watching these performances. They were cute, collaborative and sweet…each and every camper was proud of what they were doing. As I witnessed this all unfold, it was clear to me what a massive impact #TheRanch2025 is already having on our youngest campers. They are finding their way into the love that Chippewa provides, they are becoming more and more comfortable at their summer home, and they are discovering that they are supported and celebrated by their cabinmates and counselors….how cool that even at ages 7 & 8, they are already feeling the magic of Chippewa?!

-To end the evening, we have had visitors in and out of the office checking in. Our most prominent visitors were the campers of Lakeview. They have been working hard to plan 4th of July and they are rocking it! It has been fun to help them navigate the process and think through the details. They are such a fun, silly and talented group and I am excited to see how their summer unfolds as they lead this camp all summer long!

The crazy thing about camp is that today feels like enough has transpired for it to have been a week. That said, these days are literally flying by. It is hard to believe that we are almost halfway through first session…while it might be cliché, it is certainly true that at CRC the days are long (in the best way possible) but the weeks and months go way too fast.

So with that, I’m out. It has been nothing short of a spectacular day on Dam Lake and I can’t wait for another one tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari