Overnight Camp 3 - Monday

Today marked our first full day here at Camp Amicus, and it was quite busy one indeed! For most of our campers and staff, today began officially with breakfast. However, those bold enough participated in polar bear dip, a quick swim in the pool beforehand.

After we'd all eaten it was off to camp-wide game! Twice each day, our entire team plays a large-scale game, after breakfast and before bed. Today's morning camp-wide game was gold rush. One of the many capture the flag style games in our repertoire, two teams have a pile of beanbags at the far end of their side of the field, and the objective is to finish the game with as many beanbags as possible.

We then moved to social skill, which we will have every full day. Our social skill blocks aim to teach important life skills that our campers can use even after leaving Camp Amicus. The theme of today's social skill was Problem Solving. Being resourceful and open-minded when confronted with a problem was a big focus of our social skill activities today. Social skills are taught through a mixture of games, activities, and group discussion. We spend this time in groups of 12, in our head counsellor groups. We had some free time and then lunch after this.

We then spent time in our head counsellor groups again in what we call a skills block, doing either swimming and archery, horseback riding, canoeing, or giving a group the option to pick their own activity. A popular activity during this time is called Gagaball. Campers enter an octagonal ring and hit a ball with a closed fist, and if hit with the ball below the waist, they're out! The objective is to be the last one remaining, and believe me, Gagaball gets very intense. Each of our head counsellor groups will get the opportunity to partake in each of these skills!

Afterwards, we had rest hour. In this time, campers must be in their bunks, either reading, sleeping, playing cards, or another quiet, restful activity. It gives each and every one of us a break from our otherwise busy day. Then, it was time for choice! Each full day, campers will get to choose one of four activities, facilitated by a staff member. Two of our choices today, tie-dye and screen printing, gave campers the opportunity to bring a custom t-shirt home with them! After choice, we had a half hour of free time before we had dinner.

After dinner, our last activity of the day is our second camp-wide game, which today was a straightforward game of capture the flag. We ventured into the forest a little bit for this game, so bug spray was a must! After this, we headed back to our main lodge to prepare for bed. 

Overnight Camp 3 - Sunday

August 18

We have landed safely at Kamp Kiwanis! After loading off the bus around 3, we moved quickly to 2:6 time. At Camp Amicus, we work in a 1:3 ratio of counsellors to campers, so 2:6 time is time for a pair of counsellors to get to know the six campers that they will be spending the rest of the week with.

In today’s 2:6 time, campers set up their bunks, made their braids if they don’t already have one (braids are made of fabric and hang off one’s shoulder, firstly to identify them as a member of Camp Amicus, secondly to hold ‘bling’ that campers and staff can make for each other) and made Group Contracts. Group Contracts are an important part of camp culture, as it allows 2:6 groups to outline behaviours that they do and do not want to see from each other (such as being patient with each other and hitting, respectively).

Before each meal, we sing a fun, non-denominational grace before eating. We then have trivia! In order to determine the order in which we eat, trivia questions are rattled off, and if a camper gets the question right, their entire table gets to line up for food. After dinner, our camp manager Quack outlined some of the fundamentals as camp, such as the 3 Rs (respect for ourselves, respect for others, and respect for the environment) and formally introduced our counsellor coordinator Bagheera, our program coordinator and head counsellor Chinook, our other two head counsellors Luna and Willow, as well as our nurse Rally.

We then had a few minutes to change into warmer clothes before Campfire. We love campfire! We headed as a group to Kamp Kiwanis’ large fire pit, received some popcorn, and watched some great performances before heading back to get ready for bed.