RFK Boise 2021 Camp

Buddies and Staff

Day Three - A Birthday Bash and Much More

Top: Prince Moses, an Egyptian (played by campers)
and Sue watch as a Hebrew slave (camper) works.
Bottom: Moses, flees Egypt, no longer a prince.

The early life of Moses has many connection points for our campers, most of whom are foster children. This morning during J-Zone teacher Sue Carpenter continues the discussion of Moses, an adopted Hewbrew baby, later grew to be one of the princes of Egypt. Knowing his Hebrew roots, Moses sought out the people of his birth family to learned more about them.   One day seeing an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrew slaves, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand, which angered the Pharaoh.

The pyramids of Egypt, or a close facsimile 

Tomorrow we learn about the consequences of his actions and where God takes him from this moment on.

Camp mascot Kid Royale encourages positive interactions, like sharing and being kind, by awarding prizes for "Acts of Kindness" to the campers.  Usually the prizes are themed with the Bible story of  the week, for this camp, the story of Moses.  To support the story, Kid Royale is handing out stuffed frogs.

Kid Royale with one of his frog prizes eyeing a new sign added to his puppet stage. The sign reads,
" Frog parking only. All others will be toad." Pretty sure this is the work of Sue.

 

During camp we like to celebrate all of the campers' birthdays. To accomplish this, the camp and staff throw a big birthday party, announce every campers' birth month, and then watch as the campers tear into their presents. The party wraps up with dinner and cupcakes. 

Birthday presents wrapped and ready for the campers

Uncle Bill and Aunt Kim distribute the gifts.

The final event of the day is the Give it a Go Show, where campers can share their many talents.  This year we had singers, musicians, mathematicians, dancers, face painters, artist, and magicians.  All were cheered on and applauded for their performances.   Our camp is a safe place to take a chance and "Give it a Go".  

Camp Buddies (counselors) share their talents with a song

The smiles of the campers as they left the stage indicated they had a lot of fun and a great night.  We're looking for another fun filled day tomorrow.

  

Day Two - Olympics Dreams

 The sun is just starting to crest the mountains. All is quite for now, but we cannot expect that to last too long. There's a lot of activities planned for today.

The morning is filled with Breakfast Club and J-Zone. 

After lunch holds activity time and hanging out on the water.  Some camper and buddies ride the new paddle boards and kayaking, while others are happy to swim and play in the sand. When not at the waterfront, campers can enjoy the activity center where they can paint faces, ceramics, build bug boxes and work with beads. 

And of course, there is that feeling of wild abandonment as you fly down the zip line with no hands. 

Here is the daily Fishing Report: boys 50, girls not telling. 

We said we like to catch 'em. We didn't say we liked to touch 'em.

The day is capped off with the Olympics, Royal Family Kids style.  

Spectators could choose from events like Wet Wild Relay, Balance Bean 

Walk, Olympic Rings, Noggin Nudge, Toss Across- Tic, Tac, Toe, In the Bag Relay Race, Gaga, Volleyball, Basketball and Skeeball. 

After the awards ceremony, it was off to bed to get rested up for another big day tomorrow. 

Hooray Day One Has Arrived

 Day One has finally arrived and not a moment too soon. Buddies and staff have been preparing to make Camp 2021 one of the best ones ever.  Buddies spent the morning putting their finishing touches on their posters , which they use to greet their campers, welcoming them to camp.  While the buddies and staff wait for their campers to arrive, they do a couple of rounds of the "Starfish" which helps them warm up for the big day ahead. 

The bus arrives and buddies and staff cheer them into the driveway, waving their posters and then it's onto the lawn for the buddies to wait patiently until their camper is off the bus. Next on the agenda is a quick picture together before they begin their weeklong adventure. 

Fishermen and fisherwomen were out in force today catching over 60 fish. Several accounts have been given with some saying the girls are ahead in the number of fish caught and others touting the boys as being ahead.  Apparently the contest is pretty close.

It is a camp tradition to provide new quilts  for new campers, and since most of our campers were new to camp this year, there were a lot of quilts to be given away.  We have been told these quilts quickly become treasured items for our campers. 

Another Day One tradition is offering each camper a new stuff animal.  A new quilt and stuffed animal is gong to make it easier to sleep tonight.