It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s just Kaytee and Taylor in the trees!

Howdy, folks! Olive Oyl here with lots of news for you all! It’s been an exciting few days on camp with with lots of trainings, meetings, and drills as we get ready to welcome campers in one week exactly! Woohoo!

Let’s play some catch up…

Thursday we had a drill at the pool in the morning to get our staff acquainted with our emergency procedures. All went well and we can safely say our counselors are feeling confident and ready! In the evening was the unparalleled Contra Dance, where we gathered in the Rec Hall and danced the night away to the foot-tappin’ tunes of Smokey and his band. We did the Grand March, the Road to Boston, and finished off with a classic Square Dance. It’s a staff training tradition to celebrate our hard week of training with some good music and moves. It was awesome as always and I sure worked up a sweat! Be sure to check out all the great pics. After a good night’s sleep, we got ready for our fun Friday in Camden, a town about 45 minutes away from HVC.

Yesterday morning we had a meeting after breakfast talking about identity– what makes us different and in what ways we’re the same. We all came together to share our thoughts about our experiences in life and how to deal with these issues once campers arrive. We then switched gears and got ready for the day off, starting off by caravaning to nearby Camden for a picnic lunch in the beautiful state park. We enjoyed the view while munching on sandwiches, and then staff were free to explore downtown and have the day to themselves. This morning we’re back on the grind, with a discussion about gender this morning at breakfast and our adventures staff, Brad, Ashley, and Mila, leaving early this morning for their Maine Wilderness Trip Leader certification trip. We can’t wait to hear all about it when they get back! And of course, another group of staff is up on the ropes course today getting a chance to leap and climb and jump through the trees!

By around dinnertime tonight we’ll know our class schedules for the first two week of first session (exciting!). To help us prepare for our classes, tonight we’re having a workshop on teaching styles– with stations talking about classroom management, diversity, and how to start a fire 101 (so everyone can feel prepared to lead a s’mores cabin night). After that we’ll gather in the Dining Hall for lesson planning night, where we brainstorm ideas and projects for our classes and get the chance to share, discuss, and pick the brains of new and returning counselors.

Well, that’s all for now, folks! Stay tuned for more updates as we continue with our danger area drills, our staff gets to experience the ropes course, and we continue with training and lesson planning!

Ta-ta,

Olive