Reflections on Last Year's Session

Reflections
Looking back on 2011
by Trevor

© Jesse White 2011Well, for two years in a row now, we've had our beach back. YAY! The river is such a big part of camp: swimming, canoeing, tubing, sunbathing, sand castles, digging water channels through the beach, making minnow traps, diving off the raft, sitting on the beach with friends and family, or just looking down at the river from the front lawn, cabin porch, or top of the path.

One of the biggest, most popular, most exciting, and best-attended events of the 2011 session was Emily Woofenden's “Slaying the Dragon” party. As part of their study of the Book of Revelation, her religion class built an amazing 7-headed dragon piñata and held a camp-wide event to help slay the dragon! Several people of all different ages spoke about ongoing struggles to conquer their inner demons. Then the Sparks lined up for a turn with the whiffle bat while the entire camp cheered loudly at every resounding thwack! Turned out it was a very sturdy dragon because it took those kids a long time to break it open and spill all the goodies on the floor below.

A much, much smaller but equally appreciated event was this year's Alice F. Vigerstad Memorial Old Lady Canoe Trip. © Ian Woofenden 2011Three wonderful old ladies --- Louise Woofenden, Denyse Daurat, and Lois McCurdy --- each in their own canoe, were accompanied by five attendants in a leisurely afternoon paddle downstream to the town beach where beach chairs, cheese and crackers and other snacks awaited them before the short trip back to camp.

© Trevor 2011We were pleased with our new cook who, in turn, appreciated both the new bake oven and the newly-reconfigured Cooks Quarters above the kitchen. Thanks to a great Work Weekend crew, the walls of old Room 10 (the tiny “hospital room” across from the old Ladies Room) were removed and a long wall was built creating a back hallway connecting the upstairs bedrooms to the Girls Dorm. You can now walk from one end of the building to the other upstairs without going through the Cooks Quarters.

Another new addition this year is that the Board voted to make the FNCA Outreach Committee an official committee of the Assembly. This group has been operating informally for several years, but now has official status, by-laws, officers, etc. The results of their labors are already evident, too! Campers got to see the brand new FNCA Display: a full-color cloth banner in a metal tabletop frame. Special thanks to Outreach Committee members Beki Greenwood for her design work and Jon Crowe for both producing the banner and managing the first annual FNCA Display Tour which will see our display set up in a different church each month February-July 2012 as well as at Convention.

Other 2011 camp highlights included a dynamic lecture program, a very active Flames Group, the still new Opening Weekend Program and Afternoon Book Club, extremely well-attended adult discussion groups after lectures, and several social gatherings in Adrienne Frank Hall.

And a good time was had by all.