On The Ropes with CF

The Camp Friendship Ropes Course is a very popular and important part of camp. The ropes course is used for vital team building activities for staff and campers, it offers challenging events both physically and mentally. Campers are able to participate in both low and high ropes course activities in the summer where they are presented with challenges to help them learn to work as a team and achieve specific goals.

This past Thursday we had a little refresher ropes course training ourselves. It was a great opportunity to work on our very own team building exercises. While not all of the CF year round staff were able to participate it was a great exercise for all who did. All staff who work for camp year round not only work hard in their specific areas but even help out with groups and other facets of camp. Our Ropes course is a big attraction for many of our visitors and this means we need qualified staff on hand. So our resident expert and Camp Director Ray Ackenbom took a few of us out on the course for a little refresher for those already trained, and beginner training for others. As always it was all good fun.

Alina shared some photos of the event with me since I was unable to attend. I have this silly need for having my feet firmly planted on the ground as often as possible. That’s not too say I haven’t entertained my tree climbing inner child in the past but that time has passed. Anyway I have some great photos to share of Zee, Ray, Alina, Robin, and even Sheri our registrar on the ropes just click the images for to enlarge and to see the rest.

See you soon,

Cris

Week 7 – We Waterski Too!

Week seven marked the end our final two week session of the summer but we still have two full weeks of camp left full of fabulous activities. This week we had some fun highlights such as the final Horse Show of the season. Our riding campers have been working very hard the past two weeks for the show and they all did beautifully. I had the pleasure of watching the show for about an hour and got some great photos of our riders during the show. Camp also had two Challenge Adventure Trips go out this week to West Virginia for our Horseback Trail Riding and Combo Challenges.

During the week our campers participated in many activities such as, fencing, dance, low & high ropes, mountain biking, mountain boarding, water polo, and so much more. One of our archery classes had a friendly little challenge going on when I visited them this week. I believe the boys vs girls archery challenge was a pretty close race by the time I left the range. The boys may have been ahead by a few points, but don’t tell the girls I told you that.

Our canoe class this week were practicing rescue procedures on the lake during my visit. It seemed like a wise lesson to cover to me. During the two canoe periods I visited, first the older campers were volunteering to be rescued while the campers/counselors in the canoe would perform the proper rescue procedures. Earlier Mini Camp had also enjoyed a similar volunteer session with their counselors.

Well that’s a small taste of what went on this week during some of our activities and as always there’s tons of photos on our site if you want to know more. However this week I finally got to go on our Waterskiing/Wakeboarding Sports Clinic on Lake Ana. I got to sit on the boat for a few hours, take some photos and watch our campers waterski and wakeboard to their hearts content.

It was great fun! I was very impressed with the campers skills on the water. We did have a couple of successful jumps on the wakeboard and a few wipeouts, but that’s all part of the challenge. We all had a great time on the lake, had a bit of sun and a few clouds but that didn’t stop us. I hope to join them again for some tubing in the coming weeks, if I’m lucky that is.

Well that takes care of this week, next week is our big soccer match against our neighbor camp TripleC camp and everyone is very excited. I unfortunately will not be able to attend so no photos from me but I’m sure I can round some up from all the other cameras that will undoubtedly be snapping away during the game.

See you next week.

Cris

Note: The week of August 3-9 we will only have one photo update on Wednesday the 6th and no update on Friday. We may have more photos for the session upon my return but they will not be uploaded until the following Monday. I’m sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you can understand.

Week 6 – Plenty of Great Weather!

Our final two week session of the summer has begun and what a beautiful week it has been. While we did enjoy a tiny bit of rain here and there it was for the most part great weather all around. This past week I did not get to attend any of the evening activities but let me tell you about what I did get to see. Great activities, happy campers and exciting counselors. Our counselors are still bringing the excitement and fun to camp this summer, even after 6 weeks of camp there’s no stopping them.

This past week we had some great activities and challenges for our campers. Our Challenge Adventure Trips this past week were Rafting and Caving, two of our campers favorite trips. Riding camp has been very hard at work preparing for our final Horse Show of the season coming up next Friday. I believe you’ll find some photos of lessons in the show ring on our site.

I had the opportunity to spend some time at quite a few of our activities this week and it was great fun. Early in the week I stopped by one of our morning canoeing activities and according to the counselors they were ahead of schedule. Apparently the lesson covering capsizing canoes is not until the end of the week. Lets just say on day one it was covered. I guess the counselors had to jump in sooner then expected, but it all went well.

Our ropes course had some excited visitors this week for Low and High Ropes activities. High Ropes got to try out a new challenging obstacle during my visit and it did look like a challenge. The Dragon’s Tale was also in full swing for the larger group of campers. Some photos are certainly on our site for you to peruse. Our low ropes participants enjoyed some challenging team building activities.

It has been another great week full of awesome activities. Mini Camp enjoyed their swim lessons at the pool and some very interesting pottery during Arts and Crafts. Soccer as always is a very popular and challenging activity for all involved. Our counselors are still preparing for our upcoming game against Triple C Camp.

This coming week I hope to have some photos of our Waterskiing Sports Clinic. I’ve been meaning to go but something always comes up, but not this week. It’s going to be great fun. So be on the look our for those and we’ll see you next week.

Cris