It’s amazing how fast a summer goes at camp! Kicking off Session Three yesterday made that real. We’ve always said a week’s worth of stuff happens every day at camp- a hundred small triumphs, a handful of tiny disasters, a big load of fun- every single day! Once all the campers arrive and have met everyone, had a camp tour, and done a swim test (gotta get that out of the way first thing!), they then split up former and new, and all the former campers head to the gym and get painted up and ready to welcome the new ones, who have no idea they’re about to head to Tribal Selection. It’s an energetic event where the new ones are called one by one to pull a red or blue chip out of a box, thereby deciding forever if they are Awahili or Waya.
Tribes are important at camp. When Rambo and I were making decisions about what components the camp program would include, we knew we wanted to be able to split camp for competition, and that having all ages and both genders on tribes would be one more intentional way to help kids meet new people, and more importantly, to identify with others in a united cause. Everybody wants to belong to something, and tribes are tribes for life!
As a nod to the former culture of this area, we chose Cherokee words; Waya for wolf, and Awahili for eagle. Waya are red, Awahili are blue, and each tribe has its own cheers, songs, and ways to show pride for their team. It’s funny how even though fate decides the outcome, campers tell us that each tribe has its own “flavor,” and they even make predictions about what tribe someone who hasn’t been to camp before would most definitely be on, based on the characteristics that person displays.
Tonight’s evening game was Battlefront, and it has a Star Wars theme to it. Stride has a gift for coming up with awesome games that are only played at Strong Rock. It was fun to listen in over the walkie talkie this evening because program staff in charge of “bases” kept a running report of which tribe controlled which base around camp. Tomorrow we’ll see who won! Those points will go toward the “Honor of the Warrior” award, which is given at the final campfire at the end of the session. It honors the tribe who acquired the most points over the entire sessions through evening games, finding the arrowhead (which is hidden around camp with clues given daily), and a variety of other smaller competitions, such as which tribal trashcan is fuller!
The most coveted award is Pride of the Tribe, though, which is given to the tribe with the most overall spirit and best sportsmanship throughout the two weeks. It is voted on daily by the summer leadership team folks who are always paying attention! As we say at Strong Rock, there are winners and losers, and that’s okay! What matters is how the defeat is taken or if the win is gracious. Tribes are an awesome part of the camp program. Tune in daily to see which tribe is the victor from the day before!