Campers awoke this Saturday morning eager to take advantage of another wonderful day here at Camp Timberlake. With most boys passing the halfway point of their session, everyone is determined to make the most out of each day he has left at this fantastic place. This morning started out in style with a delicious breakfast of sausage and French Toast, a crowd favorite. Dash V of Little Piney claimed to have eaten seven pieces of toast, which must be some sort of record for a person his size. After breakfast, everyone headed outside to the morning yell, where Counselor Rusty urged his fellow Timberlakers to seize the day and not let a little rain stop them from having the time of their lives at camp.

The boys heeded Rusty’s words and hustled off to chapel where they were treated to an outstanding message from Counselor Joe. Joe encouraged everyone with a message that our God is bigger than any problem anyone may have. After chapel, it was off to cabin clean up, and once the cabins were immaculate, everyone was ready for morning activities. Not a single camper let rain stop him from enjoying the activities today! In the morning activities, the boys tore up the archery range, with Jack G. leading the way by nailing a couple of bullseyes. In pottery, the campers were able to try their hand at “throwing” clay on the wheel. This is a process where a boy will put a ball of clay on a rotating wheel, and then use the spinning of the wheel to mold a piece of clay from a ball into a pot. The Sheehan brothers, Hugh and John, were naturals and earned the nickname, “The Potegies.” (Everyone enjoyed that awesome nickname!) Over at climbing, the campers scaled the challenging wall inside the Mike and truly started to learn the ins and outs of rock climbing. The tennis class took a break from playing tennis, and instead Counselor Charlie taught the class about the various rules of the game, surely a great life skill to have!

After morning activities, everyone was starving and the kitchen had cooked up just the thing, meatball subs. The campers devoured their subs with gusto, but, just when they thought it couldn’t get any better, the kitchen started serving S’more pockets. It is tough to quantify the extreme level of excitement generated when S’more pockets are served. Its as if the kitchen staff was handing out free XBox’s or something, it truly is incredible how pumped up the kids get. S’more pockets are just what they sound like, essentially a pre-cooked S’more, but instead of in sandwich form, they appear like they are mini Hot Pockets, only filled with marshmallow and chocolate instead of meat and cheese. S’more pocket dessert day really is a highlight of the session!

At the end of lunch, the much anticipated results of cabin cleanup were announced. This has been an awesome session for cabin cleanup, with nearly all the cabins scoring at least a 9 out of 10 each day. With such strong showings across the board, it takes an especially clean cabin to take home the prize as cleanest cabin of the day. And today, the youngest cabin of them all, Tomahawk was victorious for the first time this session, scoring a perfect 10! Tomahawk cheered while the reigning champions, Little Slaty, wondered what could have possibly gone wrong.

Once everyone had heard the scores, campers and counselors all headed up to the best time…. Rest Time! After 30 minutes of relaxation, everyone enjoyed an hour and a half of free time where climbers continued to strive toward bars in the Mike and countless other campers spent time strengthening the friendships they have made through this first week of camp. After free time, it was time for afternoon activities! Over at Lake Doris, the kayakers played a lot of kayak polo, which is just like water polo, except instead of treading water, players are paddling around in kayaks. Brian S, Jack H, Hank B and Harris C all stood out in kayaking class and served as terrific role models for the younger campers in their class. Up at Spencer’s Green, soccer and team sports class didn’t let the rain prevent them from having fun. The campers played a new game called Silent Football, which is nothing like it sounds like. Campers sit in a circle and use a variety of hand motions to pass an imaginary football, while not talking, laughing, or smiling. Obviously, it is incredibly difficult to keep a straight face when playing a silly game like that, which is the whole point. Campers loved seeing their friends crack smiles and laugh even though doing so would result in a stern, but light-hearted, lecture from the “Commissioner” of the game, Counselor Brandon.

Once afternoon activities finished, everyone ran off to a great dinner of chicken alfredo and anticipation started mounting for the announcement of the evening activity. Counselor Charlie donned the red helmet, whipped the crowd into a frenzy before shouting “BATTLEBALL!!” The announcement was met with loud cheers and the whole camp started looking forward to the games. Battleball, Timberlake’s version of dodgeball, is a crowd favorite and everyone was playing as hard as he possibly could to try and win the game for his tribe. The lower cabins and upper cabins each play amongst themselves, and this time, the Iroquois came out on top, winning both lower cabin games and one of the two upper cabin showdowns.

After the tribal contests, it was time for the grand finale, the staff vs. Greybeard. The staff easily dispatched the High Schoolers in the first game, and maybe we were a little cocky to start the second because the Greybearders came out firing. One by one staff members were going down, until, all of a sudden, it was down to the Hutzler brothers, Seth and Eric vs Counselor Andrew. The brothers took down Andrew to complete a stunning upset of the counselors! The Greybeard boys stormed the court and celebrated with their friends, a great ending for a great day! (Unless you’re on staff. Can’t believe we lost!) Thats all I have for you today and we are all looking forward to a relaxing Sunday tomorrow!

Brandon C.

Little Piney Counselor

Professional article writer