Get to Know Our All Levels 2 Week Camp!
Editor’s Note: This post was written by Camp Photographer & Communications Assistant Will Ciardelli
What a start we’ve had to our All Levels 2 week session! Despite the dreary weather, the campers and staff have been bright in spirit, and high have high hopes of the days to come. Our Head Counselor Alevia and our Assistant Camp Director Ezra took charge in leading the drop-off day ice breakers. They successfully entertained everyone as the kids got to know each other through games like rock-paper-scissors evolution, and passionately discussing hot topics such as chocolate vs. vanilla and the baked beans vs. the refried beans. They were less successful in keeping everyone dry with all the rain!
For dinner, campers indulged in barbeque chicken before watching the counselors act out their Olympics-themed rules skit in togas made of old silks. For the evening activity, campers started preparing for the lip-sync battle with their counselor group which is planned for Wednesday. This battle is bound to be an interesting one as we will witness the Canadian national anthem (Bergus’ group) take on a variety of animal sounds (Cory’s group), among others, all of which will be quite the spectacle.
As the campers move through this coming week they will start their days going from tent to tent taking classes in the different disciplines we offer here at camp such as aerials, acrobatics, clowning, juggling, unicycling and stilts. Unicycling has been such a camp favorite for some of our campers that they even brought their own unicycles! Many campers had never ridden a unicycle before arriving on Sunday, but are now beginning to ride while holding on to the railing in the Balance Barn. Some campers are even getting close to being able to ride on their own!
During our afternoon choice time blocks we offered Chinese pole, taught by our acro coach Patrick – another favorite skill for some of the campers. For those who of you unfamiliar with Chinese Pole, it is an acrobatics discipline that involves performing tricks with or without a partner on a vertical pole covered in a rubber material that’s typically 20-30 feet tall. This skills requires strength and precision and a whole lot of practice, but these kids are fast learners and already collecting many different tricks and moves they may put into their upcoming showcase next week.
Our juggling classes have been held in the back of Mama Mia our aerials tent. We will be getting a new juggling tent at the campus, which we will be set up tomorrow by our amazing tent crew here at Smirkus. So we will transition into that new space tomorrow to allow even more room to practice, and a better atmosphere for juggling classes and a place for our campers to train their new skills! We are so excited to see what the rest of this week and next week will look like here at camp, and are ecstatic to see what the kids will think of to include in the coming showcase. The campers are giddy to perform for their grown ups – we hope you are getting excited too!