Sunny Days & Rainy Nights

Posted by Melissa Fitzgerald on July 05

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As a camp director, I am obsessed with the weather forecast. Every morning I check the radar to see if I might be able to predict, prepare for or prevent a rain storm from interrupting our magical day on the mountain. If there was a way for me to order the weather, it would be “sunny days and rainy nights.”

I know that we need the rain to feed our wells and cool down our mountain from the heat. However, in a dream world, it would be sunny all day and rain all night so that we wouldn’t miss one single second of fun in our day. The forecast called for rain ALL DAY today, but we were so blessed with sunshine up until the start of square dance, which we had in the gym. I am so grateful for the beautiful day that didn’t prevent our campers and staff from soaking up all the fun that our camp activities had for them today. Today really was a camp director’s dream, and the smiles in the photos today say it all!

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Favorite Details of the Day

  • Reflect at the Rock: We didn’t have Reflect today because we let everyone sleep in this morning after a very busy July 4th! This was an unexpected and much appreciated surprise for our campers!
  • Meals: For breakfast we had biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage patties and a fruit bar. For lunch we had grilled chicken sandwiches, chips and salad bar. Dinner was spaghetti with meat sauce, roasted broccoli, garlic breadsticks and salad bar. After dinner, the campers and staff erupted in the chant for Gus’, and the cheers were deafening when Bryan agreed to Gus’for all!(Gus’ is our candy and soda shack. The staff and campers stand up and chant “Gus” a few times a week, hoping for a sweet treat on nights we don’t serve dessert. When they go to Gus’, they can choose between a full size candy bar, bag of skittles, sour punch straws or a fountain soda.)
  • Weather: It was another beautiful day on Old Forge Mountain!
  • EP: Tonight we had our first square dance of the session, and it was fantastic! We do-si-doed our partners, did the chicken dance, swung our corner lady and finished the night with our tradition of Footloose!
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About Melissa Fitzgerald

Melissa Fitzgerald

Melissa joined the Highlander family in 2002 and has served in a variety of roles, most recently becoming camp director in 2016 and camp owner in 2019. She lives on camp year-round with her husband (and fellow camp director/owner) Bryan, their rambunctious children - Charlie, Carter and Catherine - and their beloved family dog, Roux.