Day two of Color War had us running all day! Today hosted one of the original events of Color War from 1964 and what we call today the Old Forge Run. This run at the old Camp Highlander, located in Highlands, NC, was called the Blue Valley Run. When Camp Highlander relocated to the current campus, they renamed the run Old Forge, since that is the name of the mountain that is home to Camp Highlander today. Today’s winner of the Old Forge run was the Red Dragons!

We kept running at the Lower and Middle Pentathlon, at kickball and elephantball games, on the tennis court, at the flag ‘em game and ended the daytime events with a running relay - the Carolina Streak. The Carolina Streak is a relay race all over camp with 12 campers from each team.

My favorite part of the day was during today’s Carolina Streak. The Red Dragons were a good bit ahead for most of the race, and towards the end of the race the Blue Knights caught up to find a Red Dragon runner had fallen. The Blue Knight stopped to check on her friend in the middle of the race and in that moment compassion beat competition. These are the moments of Color War that take my breath away. I am so proud of our campers who are living out the mission of love at Camp Highlander. Forgetting about competition and choosing to care for a friend is the greatest WIN I could ever hope for!

Of course, we did more than run today, and Color War is not just all about athletic talent. There are events that require intelligence, problem solving, artistic talent, musical gifts, performance talent and even listening skills. Today we had campers competing in pictionary, the team plaque, connect four and more. I love that Color War provides a wide variety of events for a camper to showcase their talents and interests. Tonight in our Teen Idol, we saw amazing dance performances, vocal performances, instrumental talent and even a lip sync competition. It was fantastic!