The Setting

July 22, 2024

I think you will receive this missive as an email today.  But, from now on, you’ll have to remember to go to your Camp InTouch account to find both my blog and all the photos associated with it.

Sara is a professional photographer and her offerings are superior.  She really knows how to find boys in the midst of action, “arms and legs a-chugging” as it were. Sara is good, too, at encouraging counselors and staff to take photos of their activities and especially those off campus.  You’ll soon see what we mean.

My pictures mostly are designed to allow you a landscape view of camp happenings. Between Sara’s and my pictures of yesterday afternoon and evening, we were able to establish the setting, i.e., how camp looks at the very moment.

After lunch yesterday, we went immediately into three activity blocks, no rest hour for once, to get the boys moving after a mostly sedentary morning of waiting around for everyone to arrive.

One of the blocks was down on the waterfront where campers were tested for their swimming proficiency.  I hate to use the word “test” at camp, but our knowing how well the kids can handle themselves in the water is an essential element of information.  So, test them we did and just about everyone was happy to put that one behind them.

At 4:30 we met as a full camp at the beautiful Council Fire spot down by the lake.  The message from Rob, Mike and Klaus was unmistakable – bear with us for a concentrated bit of time today and perhaps Monday will become a full day of uninterrupted camp activity.  It was Rob who remarked that the boys seemed quite OK with the plan.

We want to do just about everything in cabin groups for the first day or so, for obvious reasons. The boys are even eating meals with their cabinmates. However, trust me when I tell you that 21 days from now your son will know just about everybody on the grounds.  Kingswood is way too much an “open society” for that not to happen.

But last evening, each cabin operated separately with three agenda items to deal with in any order of preference.  A tour of the grounds (for the benefit of newcomers,) a cabin meeting to go over both camp rules and cabin procedures, and then a group game.

All of those orders had been fulfilled by our 8PM all-camp gathering at “The Theater in the Pines,” the camp stage through which stately pine trees grow. There we reviewed some of the most significant camp rules, made the first heads-up announcements on the morrow, and ended the event with some nice musical performances mostly by counselors, but not without our normal encouragement for boys to step forward and ask to be included next time.

That’s how we do it, and the stage has been set for three terrific weeks of camp.