The schedule for a typical day at Summer Day Camp 2008...

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 guys 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 off to first period!

9:45 For First Period we had Sports Field games. Today we learned some games on the soccer field and then divided into teams with another tribe and played a game of soccer.

10:40 For Second Period we went to the Arts & Crafts cabana. Today, we received our camp theme T-shirts and tie dyed them ourselves! Those of us who finished early got started on weaving ourselves a hemp WWJD bracelet.

11:30 Third Period is the last period before lunch. Today, we had archery for the first time. After we got to the archery range, a counselor taught us all of the safety rules and showed us how to hold and shoot the bow and arrow correctly. I had 3 or 4 turns to shoot arrows and hit the 10-point bullseye!

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

12:30 Hot lunch in the conference center. Today we had corn dogs, corn, fruit, salad, and pudding for dessert. Yeah, it’s all you can eat!

1:10 After lunch we went back to the King’s Dome (covered sports court) for our mid-day pow-wow. This was a short pow-wow with another funny skit and finding out our tribe’s schedule for this afternoon.

1:35 During Fourth Period we went into the conference center for Chapel/Bible time. While we were walking there, our counselor said that sometimes we’ll have chapel time at other parts of camp, mainly in mornings or when it’s not too hot. Chapel was FUN, especially lots of singing some rowdy songs as well as some neat worship songs. Today, we read a story in the picture Bible about Daniel. Our tribe took turns talking about times in our lives when we felt scared like Daniel might have been, and then prayed that the Lord would help each of us at times when we felt afraid. At the end, we made up a skit to help us memorize the camp theme verse that is on our T-shirt.

2:35 For Fifth Period we walked to the area where they do “Low Challenge.” The counselor explained to us that low challenge is an activity time where we have to do some unusual contests or challenges together to learn to work as a team. We played three different games, including one game where half of us had to walk through an obstacle course wearing blindfolds while the others gave us clues how to do it. We played the last game on a big log about two feet off of the ground, and we had to stay on the log while switching places with everyone. If anyone fell off, we had to start all over again! Oh, also, we 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 Sixth Period, when we went to the swimming pool. The water felt great. The camp’s new pool is big and has diving boards and a “sprayground” in the corner. My counselors got in and played in the pool with us.

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 did at the other pow-wows, we did lost-n-found, were reminded about our special dress day tomorrow (crazy hat day), 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 activities are offered 2-3 times per week, with the exception of swimming, which occurs a minimum of once per day. All campers experience the activities mentioned above as well as nature, high challenge (high ropes), canoeing, dance (group performance routine, girls only), sports court sports (floor hockey, dodge ball, basketball, etc.), and field sports (softball, kickball, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, etc.)
   
2. Even the weather can’t keep us from having fun. If we experience a tornado warning during the camp day, 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.
   
3. 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!