Day Three: RFK Definitely Has Talent

     Woodworking Paint Tent                 

It's amazing how much fun you can pack into one day. Camp offers a lot of activities that are sure to strike a chord with our campers. While in the Activity Center, they can choose to build toys from wood and give the a good coat of paint to give them a polished look, The paint isn't limited to just the wood products.  Ceramics and faces are fair game for a coat of paint as well.  Bead Centers, where things like gecko key rings are made, can

provide another artistic outlet and if none of those activities fit the bill fishing is available.

This looks like a good point to give an update on the Fishing Derby. What was an informal derby has become a formal derby now. The camp staff is working on creating fishing medals to be awarded for the biggest fish and most fish caught.  The campers fish tally as of today is 100 plus.  We're not sure how many the Osprey have caught since their last run at the fishing pond, but we're pretty sure it's more than the four we saw caught earlier in the week.

Our Crossing Guards Have Flair

Sometimes we need the  help of our Crossing Guards to reach some of our events. We think it's a nice touch that this Crossing Guard has included one of the world's largest flowers as a part of the overall traffic management scheme.  

When not at the Activity Center, campers can spend time at the waterfront. Today was a perfect day to go sailing and some of our campers did just that, There's definitely something peaceful about gliding along the water with just the wind to power the boat over the waves. 

Sailing at Camp

At RFK, we like to celebrate our campers' Birthdays with them regardless of when their Birthday really  is. With that in mind, an afternoon is set aside to have a Birthday Party. Several Gifts are selected for each camper, placed in  a single large box and wrapped in brightly colored paper.  The campers' birth dates are called out for each camper as they collect their gift box and then the camp sings the "Happy Birthday" song to them to kick off the gift opening frenzy. This is one of the highlights of the camp for our campers.

Birthday Party - Presents Waiting to be Opened

Another highlight for the campers is our RFK's Got Talent show.  This show gives the campers the opportunity to share their talents in a non-judgmental atmosphere.  Some of the talents are pretty mainstream, such as singing, dancing, and puppet shows, while other can be more unconventional such as a tad pole touching demonstration.  This year's participants had fun and had the experience of getting up in front of an audience and performing, which is good skill to have.

Ping Pong Ball Juggling

Mind Meld Ear Wiggling

Puppet Show

So ended our Day Three for this year's camp.  Looking forward to another fun filled day tomorrow.

Day 3- Hello Sunshine

We woke to a beautiful sunny day today. We didn’t waste a minute getting back to our favorite outdoor activities. The woodworking, face painting, beads and pond were buzzing with

activity. In addition to our crafts and sports the campers had the option to take a sailboat ride on the lake during their swim time. This is a great time to experience the silence and beauty of the creation around us here at camp.

 

If you’ve been following our camp blog over the years, you’ll

know that we like to have a joint camp birthday celebration.  Today was the day for that celebration.  We opened presents, sang the Birthday song to each camper and had cupcakes and ice cream.

Of course every Birthday party has to have decorations and ours was

no exception.  Tables and walls were decorated with all sorts of décor that let the campers know that we were serious about celebrating their birthday.

 

You could tell that the campers definitely enjoyed themselves by the smiles on their faces.  In fact the counselors and staff members had pretty big smiles as well.

 

Our camp grandma and grandpa travel from Australia every year just to be a part of our camp and spend time with our campers.  The campers quickly connect with  Grandma and Grandpa and love to spend time with them showing them what they have made as well as listening to Grandma and Grandpa as they read books to them. This year our grandparents had quite a time reaching us.  Due to missed flight connections it took our grandparents almost seven days to reach us.  Many people would have given up with these type of trials facing them but not our grandparents.  They persevered and they were welcome by the cheers and hugs from the campers, counselors, and staff.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for going to such great lengths to spend time with us.