Perfect weather for the Track Meet

A very successful Track Meet took place this evening. The weather was great - cooler temperatures and a breeze. This year the events were held by age group which gave more opportunities for the campers to participate. Check out the pictures in Album 13.

First camper dorm song 2G

2G were the first dorm to get their song together and they performed it for us at lunch today. Great job 2G!

Who keeps your campers in clean clothes?

Melissa Burks loading up laundry

The other day I had lunch with Melissa Burks and found out more about the lovely ladies that are responsible for doing laundry for the campers. Mrs Burks is assisted by 9 other Edmond ladies who volunteer their time to keep our campers cleanly clothed. They are: Christy McCarthy (assistant), Cathy Henderson, Rachel Hyde, Adar Nice, Kristen Rambo and Heather Morley.

The laundry is taken to a large laundromat in Guthrie where the 13-24 loads a day are processed, As you can imagine this is a lot of work plus many times the ladies have their little ones with them. So we give a big shout out and thank you to the unsung heroes of keeping our campers looking good and smelling fresh!

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.

Campers serenade kitchen staff

At lunch today, the girls of dorm 4G had prepared a song for the kitchen staff. What a delight!

Fantastic Sabbath and Dance

Wow, what fantastic packed day. I woke up this morning with the sun streaming through the shutters and the words  this "Streets of a New Town" from the Phillly Singers running through my head "I think I'll go on my verandah to catch some sabbath morning sun...".

Breakfast was delicious skillet pancakes with fruit, cream and turkey bacon. Then off to services where we heard a inspiring messages from Mr Brian Weeks and Mr Joel Hilliker. Camper William Wallace provided a piano solo for special music.After services we also got the happy news that Mr & Mrs Vejil in NJ were celebrating the birth of their firstborn child - a boy!

After fellowshipping for a couple of hours Mrs Miller, Shane Granger, his Mom and I went out to Cool Greens for dinner.  We topped it off with some delicious coconut frozen yoghurt.

Back home to for a short rest then we headed out again for the final dance at the Field House. As well as general dancing, this time there was a dance competition with each dorm selecting a couple to represent them. The winners were Alexa Turgeon and Albert Clarke from dorms 6.

See album 7 for Sabbath pics and album 9 for the dance  - here.

Trampoline Day

The campers were treated a special afternoon at the trampoline park. Half the campers went for each session. A pizza and salad lunch was provided at the park which was nice for the kitchen staff who are usually very busy on a Friday preparing the usual meals plus Saturday's and this Sunday is also etiquette dinner so not having to prepare lunch today lightens our load a bit. You'll see from the pictures and videos how much fun the campers and workers all had.

More videos are loaded and check out the Album 8 for the photos. Also some earlier pictures from today are in Album 7.

4G sporting their coordinated socks

I have dinner with a friend tonight at a Mediterranean restuarant and then we'll enjoy biblestudy with Mr Burns giving the message.

Happy Sabbath to you all and many thanks for all your kind comments on this blog!

Morning basketball, whistle while you work

We had a busy day preparing the usual meals and starting on prep for the Etiquette dinner. This is an event where the campers have a formal dinner - 4 dorms at a time.  The first one will be on Sunday night.

I'm staying with the Hilliker's Snr so I see that Mr Carl Hilliker leaves with us every Tuesday and Thursday to go and play basketball with a group of HQ congregation men. I snuck in on them and got some shots of the action. It's great that they can be so energetic that early - I'm sure it gives them a great start to the day.

Every day a dorm helps clean up after the meal in the hall - cleaning tables, putting up chairs and running the dishwasher. You can tell that the campers are getting in the swing of camp as today dorm 4B broke into song while working in the kitchen. It was fun listening to them. Here is a clip of "We are the Champions".

I had another day of great fellowship having a lunch with Melissa Burks at Panera Bread and dinner with Aimee Goulet at Old Chicago. It's like being at the feast!