COLOR WARS WAS AMAZING!!
2016 is an Olympic Year so our Competition Central was too!! The teams this year were:
CANADA: Captained by Maddy M & Paul
FRANCE: with Stephen G & Matt
PERU: Captained by Michelle and Stephen C
SWEDEN: Captained by Maddie W and Spencer
After an impromptu Olympic torch lighting ceremony on Friday, teams were announced in the chapel. Teams first gathered to plan and prepare for the upcoming events that afternoon.
Saturday started with a lot of excitement. Red, Green, Blue and yellow crafts were flying in and out of the craft shop, as all the teams began to make things that represented their country. A big thing that really stuck out to me was the amount of effort that was going into the team t shirts, they will make great mementos for of our campers to take home. By lunch time, all teams were in the midst of completing those and making banners and practicing for the upcoming events like; horseshoes, archery, (Frisbee) “discus,” and so much more.
Dinner time rolled around, more and more team cheers filled the dining hall as Peru, France, Canada and Sweden rose out of their seats to meet the cheers of the captains. It was surely a great sight to see so much excitement in one room. After dinner the waterfront was open for teams to practice canoeing and kayaking, and to work on other events. As the night went on, all the sites were still in full motion, team captains were busily working to finish their banner, flag and anything else that they had in mind.
As Sunday morning arrived, staff and campers alike came into the dining hall wearing their colors. An excited feeling was in the air. It was finally Color Wars Day!! After breakfast, everyone headed down to the council ring to have a very special Eucharist celebration. It was awesome to see everyone getting along and sharing the peace between each other.
When Eucharist ended, all the teams went off to their areas to prepare for the Official Opening Ceremony. Peru was up first with a skit about a group of travelers trying to get to Machu Picchu, they went through a farmers market, where the people there sold tacos, corn, and potatoes (Peru is known to have 3,000 varieties of potatoes and 55 types of corn, crazy aye?). They then went through wild rainforests that had all sorts of animals in it, including an adorable sloth (Michelle) that was climbing a tree (Brad). They then came across a tribe of native Incans, who were holding the original flag of Peru. They then traveled through to Machu Picchu where the whole group came together to sing their chant and song. The current flag was unveiled below the ancient flag, which was awesome to see…I never knew they had two flags! The addition of the llamas was great, including Obama llama and the drama llama, they had some pretty cute Homestead potatos in their group too.
Next up was Canada, their skit started with a hockey team and their coach, Paul, trying to get to their big game. The team traveled along the ‘only road’ in Canada, but on the way there, a porcupine pops their tire and they have to get out and walk. Through their travels they meet a pack of lumberjacks who have maple syrup and pancakes with them (Canada had great costumes!!). As the hockey team is asking for directions, the lumberjacks make the team a banner – red maple trees with the letters of CANADA lashed. The lumberjacks then join the team to travel to Niagara Falls, where they found tourists, bags of milk and a few animals gathered taking photos and milling about. The hockey team then decided to write a giant postcard to Mom & Dad (Addressed to the Lafontaines). The postcard transformed into their flag, which was then raised above the entire group and they sung their chant at this point. After that, the hockey team ran into more animals and a totem pole, which then told them the way to the big game, they played out a game and then as everyone was cheering them on, the winning shot was scored and they sang their team song.
France was on promptly after, with the team captains arriving by hot air balloon. The Montgolfier Brothers were the first to invent air travel and this tied in nicely. They then continued to fly around France checking out different areas, such as: the aristocratic time period, with Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie Antoinette. The three musketeers were up next, along with some other soldiers. The Hunchback and Notre Dame made an appearance. We also got to see the amazing artistic side of France, they had a group of five surround a person and paint them with actual paint! It was pretty cool. The well-known hospitality industry of France was also shown, with a group of chefs around a big pot with a cute mouse in it (ratatouille). Baguettes and croissants also got a mention with some very well made props. To finish, a giant lashed Eiffel Tower was carried out, with a guillotine in the middle of it. The guillotine had three colored balloons: red, yellow and green (to represent the opposing teams). The guillotine was released and popped the balloons, their song began and the chant followed after. They even introduced “French Kiss” – “French” campers dressed as the band Kiss, obviously. It cracked me up.
Finally, Sweden was up. They started their skit with Maddie and Spencer arriving through a time travel portal covered in silver glitter from the year 2017, to meet the team from Sweden 2016. They went back in time to the time of the Vikings. The Viking helmets and swords looked really well made-even though they were made out of cardboard! Thor made an appearance with Oden, and giant Rune Stones were brought out to make Sweden’s banner. The team then went forward in time to look at the royal family and to celebrate the summer solstice with cute fire flames that rushed across the council ring. Maddie and Spencer then travelled forward again to Stockholm to look at the things that make Sweden great, like Swedish fish (even though those are made in Canada), Volvos, Ikea, and ABBA! Sweden then sang their song to the tune of Mama Mia. They ended the skit with one last time travel back to the present day and go everyone in again to finish with their chant, was awesome to see everyone so excited and ready for what the day had in store.
After lunch everyone went back to assemble at their sites once more before the rounds and competition began. Peru was in the lead from the presentations, followed closely by Sweden, Canada and France tied for third place. Walt was saying that he’d never seen such a close point difference from presentations, all the teams did remarkably well and the effort was definitely there from everyone.
Round one started with a burst of excitement and all the teams headed to their events, such as; make my monument, which got groups to make a monument which was well known within their country, Canada made Niagara Falls and France made the Eiffel Tower. Some of the other events were Sudoku, discus- (throwing three Frisbees for distance and control), tug of war, and pool noodle javelin, and the times log saw event.
Round two started shortly after with events such as; a Corn Hole toss relay and Make your Olympic hero - teams dressed up a staff member. Peru made their only Olympic gold medal winner- Edwin Vasquez and France made Lance Armstrong. The South Pacific water toss, was a fun event that involved water balloons. Ascend the Eiffel tower used the rock wall to time teams going up and down. And, Camp Curling was introduced - teams use scrub brushes to pass a baseball through a short course, racing for best time.
Round three was the last chance for teams to earn points for events, so this round included; crate stacking at the high ropes course (high score was 16!!), Marshmallow tower construction, and Sing me back to the start – where teams wrote new songs about their teams to the tunes of well-known camp song. Nukem was played on the beach. Fuel to Keep warmed collected tons of pinecones or ‘fuel’ to keep the Nepalese fires going.
Finally, it was relay time, the one last chance to get your team on top! All the teams spread out to their positions. From the front of the dining hall, to the pool and all the way to the waterfront, everyone waited eagerly to hear the starting siren. Suddenly it sounded and all the teams raced away from the start line, with the matches for the final fire in hand. Out in front was Canada, followed closely by Sweden. Peru was hot on their heels and then France. As the teams went through the relay activities, it seemed that Canada had it in the bag. As the teams headed to archery and then to the pool, Sweden had caught up to Canada. The teams left the pool to shoot basketballs and to be wheel barrowed onto horseshoes. By the time the first team reached the beach, Sweden was out in front, followed by Peru! Apparently, Peru had the best toilet paper wrapper anyone had seen in a long time. Sweden and Peru headed out in the canoes, followed shortly after by Canada. France was last to reach the beach and the team sprinted out in the bay to be met by Sweden coming back in by kayak to fill buckets. Sweden was first away from the beach, followed shortly by Peru and Canada. Peru had a bit of trouble filling their bucket and that gave time for Canada to catch up. As the fire builders arrived from the ball field, Sweden had gained momentum and had a large fire going as Peru and Canada arrived to the site. As Peru and Canada’s fires grew larger cheers erupted as the Swedes rope snapped!! France then arrived at this point and hurried together to get their fire going. Peru and Canada were then the main focus as both fires were equally bright and raging, who was going to come second?! The flames engulfed their ropes and it was a waiting game full of desperation for the rope to snap! Suddenly Peru’s rope burned apart and a large cheer erupted! Canada’s rope then broke and an equally loud cheer erupted. Everyone then turned to France to cheer “Burn that rope! Viva la France!” France’s rope then broke and everyone looked on as all emotions took over the teams. What a sight!!!
All the teams huddled up for one last time together, away from the fires that were burning down. They all came together as the winners were announced:
In Fourth place: France
In Third place: Canada
In Second place: Peru
And in First place: Sweden!!
The trophy was handed over to the team captains, Maddie and Spencer and they held it up victoriously! Team pictures were then taken and as the areas were cleaned up. Everyone headed down to the beach to have a cookout with good old fashioned hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a pretty awesome view looking down the road to the beach and seeing everyone still in their team shirts, all mixed together and in good spirits.
There was a lot of comradery amongst all participants of color wars and this really helped the overall feel of the competition. It was an incredible day and it could not have been possible without the amazing team captains; Michelle, Steven, Maddie, Spencer, Maddy, Paul, Stephen and Matt. And for all the staff that rallied behind them! And of course all of our remarkable campers who really got into it and gave it their all!
Friday night some of the staff on Team Sweden sang a silly song giving the other teams a hard time… but last night they interrupted dinner to share a rewrite of it:
2016 is an Olympic Year so our Competition Central was too!! The teams this year were:
CANADA: Captained by Maddy M & Paul
FRANCE: with Stephen G & Matt
PERU: Captained by Michelle and Stephen C
SWEDEN: Captained by Maddie W and Spencer
After an impromptu Olympic torch lighting ceremony on Friday, teams were announced in the chapel. Teams first gathered to plan and prepare for the upcoming events that afternoon.
Saturday started with a lot of excitement. Red, Green, Blue and yellow crafts were flying in and out of the craft shop, as all the teams began to make things that represented their country. A big thing that really stuck out to me was the amount of effort that was going into the team t shirts, they will make great mementos for of our campers to take home. By lunch time, all teams were in the midst of completing those and making banners and practicing for the upcoming events like; horseshoes, archery, (Frisbee) “discus,” and so much more.
Dinner time rolled around, more and more team cheers filled the dining hall as Peru, France, Canada and Sweden rose out of their seats to meet the cheers of the captains. It was surely a great sight to see so much excitement in one room. After dinner the waterfront was open for teams to practice canoeing and kayaking, and to work on other events. As the night went on, all the sites were still in full motion, team captains were busily working to finish their banner, flag and anything else that they had in mind.
As Sunday morning arrived, staff and campers alike came into the dining hall wearing their colors. An excited feeling was in the air. It was finally Color Wars Day!! After breakfast, everyone headed down to the council ring to have a very special Eucharist celebration. It was awesome to see everyone getting along and sharing the peace between each other.
When Eucharist ended, all the teams went off to their areas to prepare for the Official Opening Ceremony. Peru was up first with a skit about a group of travelers trying to get to Machu Picchu, they went through a farmers market, where the people there sold tacos, corn, and potatoes (Peru is known to have 3,000 varieties of potatoes and 55 types of corn, crazy aye?). They then went through wild rainforests that had all sorts of animals in it, including an adorable sloth (Michelle) that was climbing a tree (Brad). They then came across a tribe of native Incans, who were holding the original flag of Peru. They then traveled through to Machu Picchu where the whole group came together to sing their chant and song. The current flag was unveiled below the ancient flag, which was awesome to see…I never knew they had two flags! The addition of the llamas was great, including Obama llama and the drama llama, they had some pretty cute Homestead potatos in their group too.
Next up was Canada, their skit started with a hockey team and their coach, Paul, trying to get to their big game. The team traveled along the ‘only road’ in Canada, but on the way there, a porcupine pops their tire and they have to get out and walk. Through their travels they meet a pack of lumberjacks who have maple syrup and pancakes with them (Canada had great costumes!!). As the hockey team is asking for directions, the lumberjacks make the team a banner – red maple trees with the letters of CANADA lashed. The lumberjacks then join the team to travel to Niagara Falls, where they found tourists, bags of milk and a few animals gathered taking photos and milling about. The hockey team then decided to write a giant postcard to Mom & Dad (Addressed to the Lafontaines). The postcard transformed into their flag, which was then raised above the entire group and they sung their chant at this point. After that, the hockey team ran into more animals and a totem pole, which then told them the way to the big game, they played out a game and then as everyone was cheering them on, the winning shot was scored and they sang their team song.
France was on promptly after, with the team captains arriving by hot air balloon. The Montgolfier Brothers were the first to invent air travel and this tied in nicely. They then continued to fly around France checking out different areas, such as: the aristocratic time period, with Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie Antoinette. The three musketeers were up next, along with some other soldiers. The Hunchback and Notre Dame made an appearance. We also got to see the amazing artistic side of France, they had a group of five surround a person and paint them with actual paint! It was pretty cool. The well-known hospitality industry of France was also shown, with a group of chefs around a big pot with a cute mouse in it (ratatouille). Baguettes and croissants also got a mention with some very well made props. To finish, a giant lashed Eiffel Tower was carried out, with a guillotine in the middle of it. The guillotine had three colored balloons: red, yellow and green (to represent the opposing teams). The guillotine was released and popped the balloons, their song began and the chant followed after. They even introduced “French Kiss” – “French” campers dressed as the band Kiss, obviously. It cracked me up.
Finally, Sweden was up. They started their skit with Maddie and Spencer arriving through a time travel portal covered in silver glitter from the year 2017, to meet the team from Sweden 2016. They went back in time to the time of the Vikings. The Viking helmets and swords looked really well made-even though they were made out of cardboard! Thor made an appearance with Oden, and giant Rune Stones were brought out to make Sweden’s banner. The team then went forward in time to look at the royal family and to celebrate the summer solstice with cute fire flames that rushed across the council ring. Maddie and Spencer then travelled forward again to Stockholm to look at the things that make Sweden great, like Swedish fish (even though those are made in Canada), Volvos, Ikea, and ABBA! Sweden then sang their song to the tune of Mama Mia. They ended the skit with one last time travel back to the present day and go everyone in again to finish with their chant, was awesome to see everyone so excited and ready for what the day had in store.
After lunch everyone went back to assemble at their sites once more before the rounds and competition began. Peru was in the lead from the presentations, followed closely by Sweden, Canada and France tied for third place. Walt was saying that he’d never seen such a close point difference from presentations, all the teams did remarkably well and the effort was definitely there from everyone.
Round one started with a burst of excitement and all the teams headed to their events, such as; make my monument, which got groups to make a monument which was well known within their country, Canada made Niagara Falls and France made the Eiffel Tower. Some of the other events were Sudoku, discus- (throwing three Frisbees for distance and control), tug of war, and pool noodle javelin, and the times log saw event.
Round two started shortly after with events such as; a Corn Hole toss relay and Make your Olympic hero - teams dressed up a staff member. Peru made their only Olympic gold medal winner- Edwin Vasquez and France made Lance Armstrong. The South Pacific water toss, was a fun event that involved water balloons. Ascend the Eiffel tower used the rock wall to time teams going up and down. And, Camp Curling was introduced - teams use scrub brushes to pass a baseball through a short course, racing for best time.
Round three was the last chance for teams to earn points for events, so this round included; crate stacking at the high ropes course (high score was 16!!), Marshmallow tower construction, and Sing me back to the start – where teams wrote new songs about their teams to the tunes of well-known camp song. Nukem was played on the beach. Fuel to Keep warmed collected tons of pinecones or ‘fuel’ to keep the Nepalese fires going.
Finally, it was relay time, the one last chance to get your team on top! All the teams spread out to their positions. From the front of the dining hall, to the pool and all the way to the waterfront, everyone waited eagerly to hear the starting siren. Suddenly it sounded and all the teams raced away from the start line, with the matches for the final fire in hand. Out in front was Canada, followed closely by Sweden. Peru was hot on their heels and then France. As the teams went through the relay activities, it seemed that Canada had it in the bag. As the teams headed to archery and then to the pool, Sweden had caught up to Canada. The teams left the pool to shoot basketballs and to be wheel barrowed onto horseshoes. By the time the first team reached the beach, Sweden was out in front, followed by Peru! Apparently, Peru had the best toilet paper wrapper anyone had seen in a long time. Sweden and Peru headed out in the canoes, followed shortly after by Canada. France was last to reach the beach and the team sprinted out in the bay to be met by Sweden coming back in by kayak to fill buckets. Sweden was first away from the beach, followed shortly by Peru and Canada. Peru had a bit of trouble filling their bucket and that gave time for Canada to catch up. As the fire builders arrived from the ball field, Sweden had gained momentum and had a large fire going as Peru and Canada arrived to the site. As Peru and Canada’s fires grew larger cheers erupted as the Swedes rope snapped!! France then arrived at this point and hurried together to get their fire going. Peru and Canada were then the main focus as both fires were equally bright and raging, who was going to come second?! The flames engulfed their ropes and it was a waiting game full of desperation for the rope to snap! Suddenly Peru’s rope burned apart and a large cheer erupted! Canada’s rope then broke and an equally loud cheer erupted. Everyone then turned to France to cheer “Burn that rope! Viva la France!” France’s rope then broke and everyone looked on as all emotions took over the teams. What a sight!!!
All the teams huddled up for one last time together, away from the fires that were burning down. They all came together as the winners were announced:
In Fourth place: France
In Third place: Canada
In Second place: Peru
And in First place: Sweden!!
The trophy was handed over to the team captains, Maddie and Spencer and they held it up victoriously! Team pictures were then taken and as the areas were cleaned up. Everyone headed down to the beach to have a cookout with good old fashioned hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a pretty awesome view looking down the road to the beach and seeing everyone still in their team shirts, all mixed together and in good spirits.
There was a lot of comradery amongst all participants of color wars and this really helped the overall feel of the competition. It was an incredible day and it could not have been possible without the amazing team captains; Michelle, Steven, Maddie, Spencer, Maddy, Paul, Stephen and Matt. And for all the staff that rallied behind them! And of course all of our remarkable campers who really got into it and gave it their all!
Friday night some of the staff on Team Sweden sang a silly song giving the other teams a hard time… but last night they interrupted dinner to share a rewrite of it:
Oh, Team Peru, Oh, Team Peru,
We hope we did not offend you!
Oh, Team Peru, Oh, Team Peru,
We hope we did not offend you!
We did not mean to cause drama,
We really like your pet llama!
Oh, Team Peru, Oh, Team Peru,
We hope we did not offend you!
Oh, Canada, Oh Canada,
We really are fans of ya,
Oh, Canada, Oh Canada,
We really are fans of ya,
Your hockey players have great hair
And we liked your polar bear!
Oh, Canada, Oh Canada,
We really are fans of ya!
Oh, Team France, Oh Team France,
We really liked your french accents!
Oh, Team France, Oh Team France,
We really liked your french accents!
You had a great hot air balloon,
Can you take us on a ride real soon?
Oh, Team France, Oh Team France,
Hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh!
We hope we did not offend you!
Oh, Team Peru, Oh, Team Peru,
We hope we did not offend you!
We did not mean to cause drama,
We really like your pet llama!
Oh, Team Peru, Oh, Team Peru,
We hope we did not offend you!
Oh, Canada, Oh Canada,
We really are fans of ya,
Oh, Canada, Oh Canada,
We really are fans of ya,
Your hockey players have great hair
And we liked your polar bear!
Oh, Canada, Oh Canada,
We really are fans of ya!
Oh, Team France, Oh Team France,
We really liked your french accents!
Oh, Team France, Oh Team France,
We really liked your french accents!
You had a great hot air balloon,
Can you take us on a ride real soon?
Oh, Team France, Oh Team France,
Hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh!
Cheers!
Maddy B (Camp's Kiwi in the Office)
Maddy B (Camp's Kiwi in the Office)
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