Summer Blog Post August 10th

Last night, in the middle of the night, the Senior Boys held their annual Midnight Madness 3-on-3 basketball tournament. It’s been held since I was Senior Boys counselor in the 1990s, and the boys look forward to it all summer long. It comes as a surprise, the boys get a giant pizza party and they play ball into the early morning hours in the Dome with their best friends.

Congratulations to Jax Kaber, Ben Goodfriend and Justin Weinshank for winning this year’s title. Props also go out to their coach Will Stutman and all the boys who played in the tournament.

Midnight Madness is another one of those signature camp memories you can’t make anywhere else. Like Color War and all the other special events happening throughout this final week, Midnight Madness is yet another reminder that time here at camp is finite. There’s achingly little of it left, so these final days and moments are to be savored.

I had the pleasure of witnessing yet another one of those watching the little girls put the finishing touches on their Leagues season. In the title game, one side had built a very large lead in their soccer game. The championship was all but decided with just a few minutes left to play.

One team could have easily given up and wallowed in the loss. Until a voice came from the sideline.

“Can the counselors play, too?”

Leagues, as you know, are played by the campers, coached by the counselors. But in the final moments of their leagues season, those girls chose to all play together. Touching.

The rest of today was split between Choice and Challenge. Cabins were able to choose their own adventure a bit today, and this afternoon, they could challenge other cabins across camp in other activities. For example, the little Blue Jays were just down here having a water fight with the big boys in the Braves and Phillies. Challenge accepted.

Tonight is Awards Night, a night when each division hands out trophies for Tournaments winners, plaques for years at camp, and counselors and their cabins will write last wills and end-of-summer speeches. It is a night to look back on an incredible Summer of 2022.

Tomorrow brings a tinge of sadness as we pack our bags. Everyone will leave out their fanciest clothes for Cabaret, of course, when we’re treated to a special buffet dinner and the final dance of the summer tomorrow night.

Just like that soccer game today, the score is out of hand. Our season’s on the brink. There are only hours left in the Summer of 2022 and there’s nothing we can do to tack on extra time Saturday.

The next two days are our last five minutes.

And everyone is coming off the sideline to get in their last kicks together before we have to say goodbye.