Category: Theresa

Thursday! Party Time! Excellent!

6/27/2014

Thursday H10 and H4 worked on woodburning their pieces of camp. Day Camp 1 made sand art prayers in the Pavillion. P1 made some really cool books in the Craft Shop while H1, Day Camp 2 & H7 made fantastic tie dye shirts. P5 learned how to flip canoes in the bay and spent a good chunk of their morning paddling around in the sunshine. P3 learned survival skills from their counselors, Will and Kevin. The boys found that if they shave the bark off of a cedar log and light it with a flint, they would get a raging fire very quickly. P7 planned their chapel while at archery and led the whole camp on Friday morning. In P6, some campers enjoyed lashing a tepee in their campsite during a cookout.

Speaking of tepees, The service session CIT's were organizing old tarps in the Rec Hall and uncovered an old one that Teri and her Retreat Pathfinders painted in 1998. We're working to find enough poles to try to set it up next session in Boy's Homestead... we'll keep you posted!

Thursday Nights at camp are for Socials! Homestead had a Scooby Doo Dive In Movie at the pool. They were served psychedelic snow cones and Scooby Snacks (puppy chow). Don't know what puppy chow is? You coat chex cereal in melted chocolate and then cover the chocolate with powdered sugar. It's a camp favorite. You can also add peanut butter to the chocolate, use white chocolate or mix ingredients like cinnamon, cocoa powder or cake mix to the powdered sugar coating. It's a camp favorite! And Ketih and Emma had some episodes of Scooby Doo projected up on a screen at on the deck of the Quail's Nest Staff Lounge. The kids had a blast - and the staff had fun too.

The Pioneer Units had a beach party in the Pavilion and called it the Tidal Wave Tango. P5's counselor looked up all of his campers names in Hawaiian and made them name tags. P4 wore lyrics to a beach song on their name tags and P3 wore Hawaiian & beach phrases like Aloha, Mahalo & Surf's Up! P1, P2, P6 & P7 wore flowers in their hair. They danced to surf tunes and pop music dj'd by the Eriksen Cousins - Paul and Lars.

Though the weather has been a bit cloudy this week, the sun keeps peaking through at Camp Arrowhead and all planned activities have commenced without any rain drops!

Today we're packing and preparing to return home. Tonight we will attend Eucharist. Every unit is in charge of a a part of the service and Father Tom from Christ Episcopal Church in Milford with celebrate. After the service we will have our end of Session Campfire. All the groups meet up at the dining hall and silently process to the Council Ring for the fire. Every unit will share a skit to share and Walt's leading the fire tonight so it's sure to be a fun one!

Peace & Adventure Are Out There!
Teri & Theresa

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Mid-Week Madness!

6/25/2014

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Tuesday morning Day Camp 2 were the very first camper group to lead Chapel. They read from the Beattitudes and lead us in singing I Like Bananas.

High Ropes was busy busy busy! P4 traversed our four bridges. P1 lept from the pamper plank. P6 & H2 both screamed (or held their breath) on the Giant Swing.

H9 & H10 gardened with Paul at the Environmental Center and H4 disected owl pellets. H7 dressed up as animals for lunch. H6 kayaked after siesta. H8 made cards with Doreen.

Tuesday night the Waterfront Staff hosted many Homestead groups for Pirates and Mermaids Bonfire at the beach. There was a lot of hula hooping! S'mores were roasted. Pineapple was toasted. And many a brave pirate and mer-person helped to capture the evil Sea Monster (aka Chet, a waterfront staff member) and forced him to walk the plank (or just off the bottom of the beachtower, into the bay). Thankfully no staff were injured in the making of that memory!

Wednesdays are always exciting at camp Arrowhead. Dining Hall closes after lunch to bltiz the kitchen and everyone cooks out for dinner. All of Homestead ventured out to their homes in the woods at Outpost and grilled burgers over their fires. Once the chocolate and marshmallow from their s’mores was wiped from their faces, they played capture counselor before heading back to main camp for free swim.

In the mean time - Pioneer Units cooked out in their units and gathered at the Pavilion for a Potluck Dinner. Each unit cooked for 50 people and shared what they created with the other groups. P1 made twice baked mashed potatoes with bacon, cheese, and scallions, P4 made chicken with a BBQ sauce made from a reduction of ketchup and CocaCola, and P5 made mega egg burgers with a spicy sauce. P6 and P7 tested their cookware skills and used a Wok and Dutch oven to make pineapple stirfry and baked mac and cheese. For dessert, P2 made griddle pretzels with cinnamon and sugar and P3 made campfire ice cream cones stuffed with marshmallows, banana, and chocolate. After they filled their bellies they played games together around the Pavillion.

Peace,
& Adventure is Out There!
- Teri & Theresa

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Leadership Pathfinders?

5/20/2014

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Have you ever wondered about our Pathfinder Programs? Well, we asked some of our senior summer staff to write about them.

Pathfinders are our oldest campers - entering 10th and 11th grade. They are co-ed group (with separate sleep areas, of course). Counseled by senior staff, each Pathfinder group has a particular focus during their time at camp, while still participating in general camp activities. Many of these campers progress to become part of the staff.

Theresa is one of our 2014 Unit Leaders and recent graduate of Immaculata University. In the fall she will transition from part time to full time as the Youth Leader at her home parish. This will be her 7th summer on staff. She co-counseled the very first group of Leadership Pathfinders in 2012 and will oversee the program this summer - which is precisely why we asked her to write this post! (We sometimes refer to this unit at the Leadership Training Group (or L.T.G.) Pathfinders as an homage to our camp history. We used to call our Counselors in Training, LTGs)

Leadership Pathfinders is a hands-on program that works with students to better their leadership and communication skills. Campers in this program participate in a comprehensive leadership training run by their Unit Leader and do volunteer work both in the community, and for the Camp Arrowhead Family. They also learn some of the skills and character traits they need to be future staff members in Camp Arrowhead’s Counselor in Training program.

Camp’s last group of Leadership Pathfinders attended third session in 2012. Each morning these campers met with their Unit Leader and learned various leadership strategies that not only strengthened their skills regarding work with others, but also enhanced their own innate leadership styles by learning from other important leaders. They took part in various exercises that taught them how to be better listeners, and observers while working with others. These exercises included the low ropes course, the rock wall, and high ropes course. They needed to work as a team to complete tasks that were more complex than other camper groups on these courses, such as blindfolded, or working as a team without speaking. Canoe trips and other team work activities such as overnights may be part of the program in the future.

Journaling was a large part of their experience and during their morning block with their Unit Leader, these campers would hear quotations by famous leaders and react to them. Their counselor also read them the novel, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I learned While Editing My Own Life” by Donald Miller, which is memoir with the motif that all people should write a story for themselves that
they can be proud of. Also in their journals, Leadership Pathfinders would write about their leadership experiences and how they thought they could become better leaders.

Service was a large part of the Leadership program. Each day there was an opportunity for service at camp or in the community. They took a trip to the Indian River Life Saving Station to do landscaping and cleaning of the museum there to prepare for a big program. From this experience, they were able to understand how they could help their community, and feel the special happiness that comes with servanthood. While at the museum, the tour guides gave them a special history lesson and tour. Other service projects included cleaning the boat yard and friendship garden, helping run the Homestead camper's Minute-to-Win-It themed social.

While their week at camp is based on leadership strategies, these campers also take part in all traditional camp opportunities such as sailing, cook-outs, bonfires, and craft shop activities.

As a former counselor of this program, I found it not only beneficial for the campers, but enlightening and encouraging to see how much they had to offer and wanted to give back to others. I am very excited to see this program return because several Leadership Pathfinders have become current staff and it is nice that they can understand some expectations of a staff leadership before they enter the staff community. I am even more elated to help run this program during the summer of 2014 because not every student, or camper understand that being a leader is a very important role, and there is a proper way to go about it. It will be exciting to meet this years Leadership Pathfinders and get them excited about leading others and more importantly, becoming the best version of themselves!

Adventure is out there!
Theresa

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Thursday! Party Time! Excellent!

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