Battle of the Chickens...I Mean Bands

It's a beautiful, sunny Sunday up at camp for the first time all summer. Everyone say a big thanks to Mother Nature. 

Last week we spent Thursday and Friday doing a million things. The Space Chickens attacked and no one at McGovern was spared from their magical forces. They always make sure to ask Nightwing if she has space in the kitchen's fridge for their gelatinous arsenal. No one ever sees them shuttle in the colorful cubes but they always seem to make it to the back field. 

Their space ships were parked, as always, next to the skate park and wildness ensued as campers and staff ran at the ships and threw themselves into Space Chicken culture. We're grateful that Twist could understand and communicate with them all those years ago or McGovern would have turned into a Space Chicken colony. 

​We paid them tribute by putting them on our camper cards this year! The chicken on the front looks an awful lot like Spinach, I tell you. 

Thursday night saw the debut of Battle of the Bands this year. 

The cabins all picked a song and practiced a few times during the week before picking costumes, props, and perfecting their dance moves on the McGovern stage. Groot and Hoover hosted, so the Pines boys definitely ran the show that night. 

​Bambi, Swamp, and Maps' LEAD campers were shadowing staff that day so they got to join in with cabins while a small group of them made their own band. 

Last year Urb supported a camper who LOVES the song "Me Too" by Meghan Trainor, and you bet she was up on that stage leading the Boulder girls on Thursday. Urb danced along to her trademark dance moves at the back of the Hallman and I just about fell over laughing.

Our staff are the camper's biggest fans at these events. The weird, the wacky, the poetic, the beautiful, the dramatic: we love them all and getting to dress up with them and be kids again is something we never take for granted. According to some campers that tried to guess my age, I'm 38, so it's apparently been a long time since I was a kid. 

The activities these week were just as fun as always. I got to run Crafts for Wednesday and Thursday, and I don't think the glitter has come off my arms just yet. We didn't even use glitter, it was just in the air, I tell you! 

We spent three periods making cards for the donors from the Poker Run, which was this Saturday. The campers drew campfires, cabins, and many other things that represented Camp McGovern for them, as well as a thank-you note. They all signed their names and Spinach made sure they were given to the amazing people took part in the fundraiser this year. 

Veto also spent the last three weeks filming and made a heart wrenching, AMAZING video about Camp McGovern and what it means to our campers to be here. The staff sang the Camp McGovern Song, Linoleum shared his first experience of camp, and we had a delicious lunch. Stark and I were buddies for the day and spent the whole time gushing about our special campers, the fun we have here, and how we face the challenges that always come along with camp life. It was a great event and we're so grateful to those that contribute to Camp every year. 

Space

Ohana, who can't swim, spent some time on the banks of the waterfront taking photos, and Wombo diligently went around to activities to capture the magic. My favourite photos from this week are of Sports with S'Mores and Sprocket when they were playing with rainbow parachute. 

If you ever want to know who takes the photos of our campers, it's rarely me. I'm just the words behind it all. My Care Staff - Wombo, Ohana, Grammar, and sometimes Snaps or Jalapeno, are the ones who do the loop of camp every day to capture their smiles and new adventures. Send them some love and prayers that nobody drops my camera in the next two weeks. I'm clumsy enough that I'd probably do it myself. 

We're just finishing up Opening Campfire and are heading into our second last week of camp, so I'll see you again soon to no doubt talk about how much I'm going to miss this place after the summer's over. 

Stay hydrated and get a good night's sleep, McGovern Family, I'll see you again soon. 
​Pepsi