Cabin Day Smiles

This afternoon we happily cast aside our regular schedule for activities to give each cabin group a chance to do something together. Ordinarily, campers select their daily activities individually, scattering all the members of a cabin according to their personal preferences. It’s possible to do things with cabin mates, go swimming or zip lining for example, but it’s also common to have a totally different activity schedule from the other girls in your cabin.  Our “Cabin Day,” which happens on Wednesday afternoons, reverses that.  Each cabin group sticks together, and with assistance from its counselors, plans a whole-cabin activity of some sort.

Our two cabins of Juniors banded together to enjoy a unique “Spa” experience at the Carrier House, the childhood home of Rockbrook’s founder, Nancy Carrier, and now the house where Jeff and Sarah Carter live with their family. With Sarah, the Junior counselors, and the camp moms all helping, the campers rotated through four different stations. One made “slime” using white school glue, borax and food coloring. I think the idea was that the slime was “good for your skin.” Another station involved a huge array of nail polish. Multicolored manicures and pedicures for all! The third station involved facials of a sticky “mud mask.” Sarah gave tours of the house for the fourth station, explaining some of the interesting history of Rockbrook along the way. All four stations took place simultaneously giving the girls plenty to do, giggle and smile about.

The Middler cabins branched in all sorts of directions for their cabin day. One made pottery and then took on the challenge of making ice cream using ziplock bags, salt and ice to freeze the cream. Another cabin went down to the garden to pick flowers and make individual bouquets. One cabin got particularly messy making tie-dye t-shirts. An adventurous cabin packed a few snacks and headed off to Rockbrook Falls hiking and when they returned switched gears and decorated tote bags. Probably the most impressive project hatched from a cabin who wanted to thank some of the non-cabin staff members at camp, like the kitchen folks, office workers, nurses and maintenance staff. They designed a “Compliment Board,” a bulletin board where campers could post compliments for these staff members. It was a sweet thoughtful gesture!

Finally, the Seniors switched things up completely. The entire Senior Line dressed up in wacky costumes (of course!) and went bowling! They had a great time inventing silly bowling techniques, singing along to the jukebox, and posing for photographs. Cheers erupted with every strike, and dance moves with every gutter ball. To cap off the evening, we made a stop at Dolly’s Dairy bar so everyone could sample their favorite flavor of ice cream. It’s always an exciting event to visit Dolly’s. After finishing their cones, the girls tonight sang all of the senior songs flamboyantly entertaining the other Dolly’s customers. It’s quite a sight, our group of zany, costumed, ice-cream-sugar-charged girls singing together. You can’t help but smile seeing so many people having such a great time.