The schedule for a typical day at Adventure Day Camp 2006...

9:00 Morning Drop Off: Mom (or Dad) dropped me off at camp, and a counselor escorted me from the car to my counselor’s tribe table.

9:15 After all the girls in my tribe had arrived, my counselor led us all to the King’s Dome (covered sports court) for our morning pow-wow. We sang a bunch of songs, yelled crazy chants and cheers, took attendance, watched some counselors do a super funny skit, and heard our tribe’s schedule for the morning. We prayed as a group, and then everyone went off to first period!

9:45 For First Period we had King’s Dome games, so our tribe and another girls’tribe stayed in the K-Dome even after the pow-wow was finished. Today we played some basketball games. I’m not usually crazy about basketball, but we did a lot of different fun games to work on running and dribbling, shooting, and passing. We divided into teams and did some relay races and contests…we all had fun!

10:40 For Second Period we went to the Lake to go Canoeing. We were all excited and kind of nervous for canoeing. The canoeing teacher first taught us the safety rules, how to put on and use the lifejackets, the parts of the canoe and paddle, and then explained and showed us how to canoe. A few of our girls had never been a canoe before, so it was fun helping the others learn. We all practiced canoeing around on the lake and then had a timed race to go around three buoys way out on the other side of the lake. It is harder to go fast and steer straight than you’d think!

11:30 Third Period is the last period before lunch. Today, we had Arts & Crafts for the first time. Today, we received our camp theme T-shirts and tie dyed them ourselves! We used three different colors and learned some really cool and different ways to tie dye. Those of us who finished early got started on weaving ourselves a multi-colored lanyard for a zipper pull or keychain.

12:25 After arts & crafts, we all headed to the restrooms to wash up in time for lunch.

12:30 Hot lunch in the conference center. Today we had chicken strips, mashed potatoes, green beens, and strawberry applesauce. It’s all you can eat, so I got seconds and thirds on applesauce!

1:10 After lunch we all met under the shelter near the pool for our mid-day pow-wow. This was a short pow-wow with singing some songs, having devotions time with our counselor, and hearing about our electives schedule for this afternoon. This week, we could choose two options between High Flyers, Aquatics, and Mountain Man. I chose High Flyers and Mountain Man, which means that I’ll do High Flyers for two afternoons and Mountain Man for two afternoons. In High Flyers, we will do several high ropes activities, including the “pamper pole” and the climbing wall. Both are kind of scary, so some campers didn’t choose high flyers. The counselors hook you up in a belt and use spotting ropes for everything, but it’s still scary for lots of other kids. Then, when we do Mountain Man, we’ll learn how to make a shelter in the woods, what plants are o.k. to eat and which are not, how to build and start a safe fire, and other stuff like that. So, at the end of the mid-day pow-wow, we divided into groups and went to our elective areas.

1:35 During Elective Period my High Flyers group went to the high ropes area not far from the King’s Dome. While we were walking there, our counselor explained some of the rules we have to follow when using high ropes. Once we got there, the ropes instructor explained more rules and procedure, then showed us all how to put on the harness belts and helmets. Today we did the Pamper Pole. After you are hooked up to the spotting ropes, you have to climb a 35-foot telephone pole with little clips for steps. If you wanted to, you could then climb on top of the pole. The final challenge was to dive off of the pole and try to grab a handkerchief that is hooked to a little buoy about ten or fifteen feet away. I was too nervous to get that far, but I climbed all the way to the top of the pole and sat on it before the let me float down using the ropes and people spotting (they call it belaying). My favorite part (well, besides floating down from the top of the pole) was encouraging and cheering for each other to give our best effort, no matter how far we each could go. It was a big “team” thing.

We also took a short break in the middle to have our afternoon snack, which was animal crackers and otter pops.

3:35 We were all glad for Final Period, when we went to the swimming pool. The water felt great, and I even saw my little brother’s tribe (from Summer Day Camp) since his tribe had swimming at the same time. I went off the diving boards a few times and played with my counselor in the pool.

4:30 After we dried off and got dressed, we got all of our stuff together in our bags and backpacks. Then, we put our stuff at the tribe drop-off/pickup table and went back to the King’s Dome for our afternoon pow-wow. At the afternoon pow-wow, the counselors finished the funny skit that they started in the morning pow-wow, we did lost-n-found, were given a Thursday night sleepover information page for our parents, and then were dismissed to go to our tribe tables for pick up time.

5:00 Pick Up Time: All of the moms and dads drove through the drop off circle like they did this morning. We all waited for our rides at our tribe tables…before I even saw my mom, a counselor ran over to our table and yelled for me that my mom was here. So, my counselor and friends yelled “good-bye” to me, the counselor walked me over to our car, and we left for the day.

A few notes on campers’ daily activity periods:

1. Every day is a “new day” with the camp schedule, with no two days following the same schedule. Most non-elective activities are offered approximately 2 times per week, with the exception of swimming, which occurs once per day. All campers experience the activities mentioned above as well as archery, group chapel/Bible time, nature, canoeing, sports court sports (floor hockey, dodge ball, basketball, etc.), field sports (softball, kickball, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, etc.), and Low Challenge (team-building events).
   
2. The Thursday night sleepover is a standard component of Adventure Day Camp. After a dinner cookout and evening of fun activities, the campers will sleep in tents (in nice weather) or indoor sleeping areas (for unbearably hot or rainy nights). Campers continue this entire time to be under the supervision of their counselors and the camp leadership staff.
   
3. Even the weather can’t keep us from having fun. If we experience a tornado warning during the camp day (or Thursday night), Camp Loughridge has adequate safe space throughout the campus. All restrooms and the pool bathhouse/locker area are concrete and steel-reinforced FEMA rated tornado-safe structures to accommodate the full capacity of summer campers and staff.
   
4. Rainy days are GREAT days. Special activities are reserved for rainy days only. “Poncho” hikes, indoor games, short Christian kid videos (with popcorn too!), tribe skits times, special King’s Dome (covered sports court) games, and other fun activities make for special memories and a fun day. Rain won’t stop us!