It has been one busy day here at camp! Sundays are special days for many reasons. First, campers are allowed to sleep in a little extra, coming to our “Lazy Breakfast” whenever they please (as long as it pleases them to come to the lodge sometime before 10 am). Sundays are also the only days when campers are allowed to come to breakfast in their pajamas, which, as we all know, is a very special practice for children and teenagers. After breakfast, everyone gathers together under the Service Tree, an old white pine tree at the center of camp which
It’s day 4 of first session and I am so pleased to see camp in full swing. Though all the activities are running and evening programs have been fantastic, there is one special development that always acts as a true signal of camp resuming its normal pace: the noise level. I can always tell the exact moment when things are really operating at full capacity–when the decibel level in the lodge reaches a pitch loud enough to send the dogs far away to some distant stretch of grass where they can doze in the sun far from all that cheering
Birch Trail summer of 2010 has officially begun! All of our campers have arrived safely at camp and we are so happy to have everyone together at long last. It is one of the great joys of my job to see old friends reunite as they step off the bus and onto the grounds of their home-away-from-home. Lots of sunshine and gorgeous weather welcomed the campers back to their summer home, and even with some flight delays the travel details went according to plan. We hope you’ve all had a chance to take a look at the cabin pictures we
Staff training will soon be drawing to a close, and the whole crew here is very busy getting the last-minute touches all set for the campers to finally arrive. And though we should all be enjoying the last few nights of real sleep, most of us are too excited for camp to officially begin. We’ve had enough peace and quiet all winter, and are anxious for the kids to arrive! Over the last week, I’ve been amazed to watch this group of 124 staff members come together as one cohesive unit. Every year, I’m awestruck to see how tightly-knit a
Staff training began today with a wonderful group of new and returning staff members taking part in a special BT tradition. Each staff member was given a small coleus plant seedling, a flower pot, and some potting soil. As they transplanted the young and fragile plants, taking care to handle the roots, we guided them to think about how much this process is like caring for campers. As the seedlings were moved from their comfortable environments, we instructed the staff to make that transition as gentle and comfortable as possible, thinking all the while how much this process is the
It’s a beautiful spring day here at BT, and camp has begun to fill up enough to set up three tables in the lodge. Our Wilderness Trip Leaders have been in training for over a week now and I couldn’t be more excited about our amazing crew of trip leaders this year. We have been fortunate to work with some exceptional Trip Leaders in the past, all of whom carry a deeply seeded appreciation and love for nature, but this year’s trip staff has already proven to be extremely dedicated to teaching the many life lessons that camping can teach.
I’m going to do something new this year, trying to keep up with the increasingly digital world; I’ll be posting a blog two or three times a week this summer in order to help inform our camp families on the daily happenings at camp. So many wonderful things take place here during the summer that don’t make their way into the reunion video, website pictures, or letters home, and I want everyone back home to feel as involved as possible. So if you have any suggested topics or things you would like to know more about, please email me at
