Elegant Etiquette Dinner

I'm just back from observing a very classy Etiquette evening. Truly the campers were exposed to a high level of culture and exceptional quality cuisine at this event.  In the early afternoon the girls of dorms 1 and 6 began transforming the Field House hall into an elegant restaurant setting and wrote out the place cards, while counselors organized the place settings.

In the meantime, we were working hard in the kitchen to prepare the usual meals and the courses for the etiquette dinner. The fine dining menu consisted of:

Bruschetta (slicked french bread, with tomatoes and feta cheese)

Pumpkin Soup

Spinach, roasted walnut and strawberry salad

Beef Wellington with new potatoes and green & yellow beans

Layered strawberry, icecream & chocolate covered strawberries

At 6.30pm the diners started arriving which included faculty and worker guests. Each girl camper was escorted in by a brother dorm camper. With everyone dressed in their elegant best, the girls looked so feminine and elegant and the boys very gentlemanly. The table plan was set up in the foyer so that guests could easily find their seating. The young men held out the chairs for the young ladies to be seated. 

Mr Turgeon opened up the evening with some appreciative remarks and opened the floor for toasts. There were good number of interesting toasts, thanking the counselors, staff, Mr Flurry and Mr Armstrong. Then introduced Mrs Turgeon who spoke for about 20 minutes on some of the main keys to proper formal dining etiquette. Further on in the evening Mr Turgeon was topicsmaster and got every camper standing to answer some enlightening questions such as: "What has been your favorite meal at camp" (surprising fish got more than one vote), "Given the theme of Perfection, what area of your life are you working to perfect?", "What are the characteristics of your best friend?", "How will your friends and family see a change in your when you  go home?". It was wonderful to hear campers speak about how they were impacted by the sermons and what changes they are striving for in their lives. The personalities of the campers came out too, as some are so eager to raise their hands to several questions, while others are a little more shy but have great things to say when they did answer. There were many funny and heart-warming answers throughout the session. 

The servers were from the congregation and I marvelled at their precision in how they operated - they were like an army, walking out in precision, circling the table, waiting and putting down the plates in unison! 

This was the first of 3 Etiquette dinners. The next 2 will be on Tuesday and Wednesday. The other dorms not attending the dinner participated in Wacky games and faculty home visits.