Today was Sunday Funday, and to be honest…EVERYTHING about today falls under the “Favorites of the Day.” We had the BEST day at camp, and it all started with a surprise breakfast. When the dining hall doors flew open after the bell at 9:30 this morning (late sleep in on Sunday too), campers and staff broke out in celebration with the sight of 70 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. That’s right…I said 70 dozen! Eight-hundred and forty delicious, warm glazed donuts waiting for our campers and staff to devour, and devour is exactly what they did!

Thanks to a fantastic local donut shop, Hen Dough, we had delicious gluten-free and vegan donuts for our campers with dietary restrictions. The highlight of this breakfast was when one of our vegan campers said to me, “This the best day ever. I haven’t had a donut in two years, and I am so happy I could cry.” (Cue the tears from me.) It is in this moment that I am reminded why I love my job so much. It is the small details that make all the difference!

After breakfast, we gathered at Reflect at the Rock for chapel. Chapel has been a Sunday tradition at Camp Highlander since 1957. Typically, at chapel, we read a book with a moral lesson and break down that lesson with life application. Today’s book was The Rainbow Fish, and our lesson was on generosity and giving of yourself. Karl closed his lesson saying “I have learned in life that it is far greater to give than to receive.”

Camp clean-up and camp games followed chapel. Each cabin is assigned an area of camp to clean by picking up trash to respect our mountain home. This is one of the ways we teach our campers about integrity - respecting nature and others. It’s awesome to see 480 eyes scanning the ground, searching intently for the littlest piece of paper and proudly throwing it away to do their part. I honestly haven’t figured out how to make them do this all week, as it would make camp clean up much easier, but I am grateful that they are learning about responsibility and how good it feels to give back.

Lunch today was chicken Caesar wraps, pasta salad and salad bar. After lunch, we enjoyed a longer rest hour so that campers and staff could write their postcards home to parents (coming soon to a home near you) and also catch up on their rest from a long, fun-filled week.

Sunday Funday is how we lovingly refer to our afternoon activity put on by our head counselors each session. Session A’s Sunday Funday is The Director’s Cup. This is an all-camp competition between boy’s camp and girls camp for the Golden Cup. The teams are broken up into the divisions of Juniors, Intermediate and Seniors to compete in a variety of fun games and challenges. Today’s events were bombardment, sponge relay, balloon stomp, freeze dance and human word. Girls took Senior Camp, Boys took Junior Camp and Intermediate Camp was a tie that had to be settled by the leadership team musical ice bucket challenge. With Bryan and I as the last two standing in the musical ice bucket challenge, the Director’s Cup went to…Boys Camp!

The screams were deafening as the boys rushed the assembly court to surround their fearless leader, Bryan. I couldn’t stop smiling, as I watched these boys jumping up and down in celebration of their win. As I turned to see the faces of the girls, I beamed like a proud mama as the girls broke out in unison “We are proud of you, say we are proud of you, boys camp.” I was humbled to see our core value of integrity lived out in each and every one of our campers - “Win with integrity. Lose with integrity.”

Everyone raced to the dining hall for dinner after an active afternoon of competition. Dinner was a huge hit. We had fried chicken, corn on the cob, kale salad and cornbread. The line for seconds did not go down the whole meal. They could not get enough!

After dinner every Sunday, we go to campfire to reflect on the week we just had and get excited for the week ahead. Tonight, we recognized our honor campers and honor cabins for the week. These are the highest honors an individual or a cabin unit can receive at camp.

Honor campers are nominated by their counselors for their kind and respectful nature, their selfless attitude in the cabin, their positive attitude about activities and their overall camp spirit. The activity counselors then vote on the campers based on their interaction and observation of those campers throughout the week.

Honor cabins are also voted on by activity counselors for their teamwork, cooperation, selflessness, generosity, joyful attitude and love shown to others. Honor cabins stand out as leaders on camp for their participation in Evening Programs, activities and camp events.

Session A Week 1 Honor Campers and Cabins:

• Junior Camp - Amelia S.(Cabin 17) and Lowell L.(Cabin 19)
• Intermediate Camp - Fairfax N.(Cabin 10) and John Parker(Cabin 28)
• Senior Camp - Keira C.(Cabin 3) and Everett C.(Cabin 29)
• Honor Cabin for Girls Camp - Cabin 1
• Honor Cabin for Boys Camp - Cabin 33

And to wrap it all up with a great big bow,we had the perfect ending to a perfect day - warm cookies and milk in the dining hall before everyone went to bed.

Most camp directors will tell you that Sundays are the hardest days at camp. Sundays tend to be family days for most people, and if campers are going to get homesick, Sunday is the day the tears start to fall. Not today…today on Old Forge Mountain, we were all smiles, laughter and sunshine. I can hardly contain my happiness. Today really was a GREAT DAY!