Culinary Camp's Creative Contribution

   This week we have several themed camps on site for our school age campers.  Indoor/Outdoor Culinary Camp has been busy trying new recipes and creating their own meals throughout the week.  They began the week by having a campfire stew challenge, that was extremely delicious and successful.  The camp was split into teams and required to pick their own herbs, spices, and ingredients for a stew.

    Today the campers presented the rest of the people on site with a dessert that they had made.  They created sugar cookies that were decorated to look like campfires.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their dessert and we thank the culinary campers once again for making our lunch extra special :)

Culinary Camp's Campfire cookies!

Campers passing out their dessert

Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Bike, Hike, and Games Camp

   Last week's Bike, Hike, and Games campers hit the ground running at the beginning of the week with an 11.5 mile bike ride on Monday to get used to the activities for the week to come.  Their off site trips included an overnight bike trip to Penn Yan and a hiking trip at Watkins Glen State Park.  With 8 middle school boy campers, our two female counselors had a week of non-stop adventures.  "Mama bears" Ileya and Alex were rewarded for their hard work on Friday morning when their campers woke early on Friday to make them breakfast in bed. A special Thanks to John Dehority for volunteering to work with the campers this week and make their week memorable.

Ileya and Rebecca sharing Ranch during a floating lunch.

Campers Banana Boating

Alex waking up for her Breakfast in Bed

Campers preparing Alex and Ileya's Breakfast

Explorations Camp Shows Their Creative Side

    After one day of camping our Explorations campers have had many opportunities to try some new things as well as participate in some camp traditions.  After an evening vespers service on Sunday, campers woke up today refreshed and ready to do some great activities with our counselors as well as the staff of the D.R.I.V.E program at Keuka College.  Just one of the activities that was very entertaining to watch was Counselor Painting.  Our campers were allowed to take this time to paint on the arms, legs, and faces of the staff that they will be spending the week with.  Not only did our campers get to show their creative side, but some great memories were made that will last all summer long.

Jeremy, a counselor painting Lindsey, our Coordinator for Campers with Developmental Disabilities.

A camper unleashing his creative side :)

The artists and their finished products.

Meet the Camp Staff: Interview with new counselors Alex and Lacey

Alex and Lacey (both in the middle) during their first time at camp

Alex and Lacey have been campers for several years and are back to join us as counselors this summer! They sat down with us to share some stories about their Camp Whitman experiences.

Tell us about why you started coming to camp. 

Alex: My mom encouraged me to go to camp because she went to Camp Whitman.

Lacey: Our pastor, James Renford, said we should go...we had always been getting the flier in the mail from church and he told us we were old enough. We came to the open house at the end of June, and we said "Ok we like it here, we'll go". My mom went to camp too.

What camp did you do for your first week here?

Alex: It was 4th and 5th adventures.

Lacey: The next year we did footloose, which was the hiking camp. The year after that we did extreme, then extreme again, and then night owl for 4 years. Lindsey (now our coordinator for camps for people with disabilities) was our counselor!

Alex: I also did LIT.

What are some of your favorite memories of camp?

Alex: I remember annoying Sean with the jeep song.

Lacey: He used to wake us up every day with the birdy song.

Alex: Kayaking, learning new songs, and staying up late with night owl, cookouts, cookouts at the lake. Tie-dying and ice cream...duh. Night hikes!

Lacey: Night games with night owl, and staying up late, banana boating, sailing...so many things!
Our entire youth group has been at some point. A bunch of us went to night owl.
It was fun because we saw the same night owl friends year after year, it's a great camp.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?

Alex: A manitee. maybe if I could breathe underwater I would like it more. And manitees are pretty chill..they just do their own thing.

Lacey: I'd want to be a bird. Either a bird or a fish...something that doesn't walk on land. Maybe a dolphin!

Staff Training on the Beam!

Staff training is going on all week this week, with counselors getting lots of hands-on experience working with Pioneer campers, as well as getting to try out some of the activities that we will be leading with for our campers in the weeks to come. 

Tonight, we had the experience of completing several ropes course elements. When they come to camp, our campers get the opportunity to work as a team to complete several fun obstacles at the low ropes course. The staff did several activities, including the Beam. We had to work together to get all us over the Beam. We can't wait to have some middle and high school campers try it later this summer!

Patti was the first one over!

4th year counselors crossed the beam for the first time tonight!

Pioneer Camp's Fun in the Sun

After one day of rain, Pioneer Camp was off to a much better start today and were able to complete all of their planned activities for the day.  After a delicious breakfast we headed off on a tractor ride that took us all over camp to places our campers hadn't seen yet.  The fun continued once we disembarked from the tractor, and began to tie-dye the white shirts our campers had brought from home.  There were many creative designs and no two campers' shirts came out the same :) The rain also held off long enough that our Pioneers were finally able to go swimming in the pool!

Kayla, Cheria, and Payton enjoying pool time

Braydon is all set to jump in the pool!

Pioneers showing their love to Herman the hugging tree.

Pioneer Camp Update

Pioneer fun has continued this afternoon and evening with even more fun activities! Even though it's been rainy, we've been finding all kinds of ways to enjoy camp. On Monday afternoon, we did crafts, games, and moved into cabins. Everyone has settled in very comfortably for the night without any issues. We'll be up early and ready for another awesome day tomorrow! We might even get the chance to do tie-dye or go for a tractor ride.

Joelle teaching Pioneer and family campers how to make God's eyes. 

Brianna with her God's eye. 

Payton and Alex working together. 

Working on a water color project. 

Kayla and our Camp Director, Rhonda, working on a craft together. 

This is the Day....that Pioneer Campers Arrive!

Camp is officially underway with the arrival of our family campers last night and pioneer campers this morning. Pioneer campers are brand new to Camp Whitman and are here for two days to see what camp is all about. So far, we have played some new games, including lizard tag, musical fruit, and the mystery game. Right now, their counselors Ben, Chris, and Ileya are leading them in some fun Repeat After Me songs.

All-camp vespers last night at Sam's Point

Pioneer campers singing the Tarzan song before lunch. 

The rain won't stop us!