Our beautiful day at Tripp Lake Camp began with a sneak peek of the Inter I age group show, The Wizard of Oz! As our campers surrounded the flagpole at assembly, the amazing Inter I group locked arms and skipped across campus singing, “follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, follow follow follow follow follow the yellow brick road.” It was an energetic way to start the day and created a buzz amongst the girls for what was to come that night in OTW.
From there every age group was off to the races as the Jrs headed to their team games while AJs spread out between various art shops like enamel and nature arts and crafts. Enamel is one of the most unique art shops that we have here at Tripp Lake. Most campers and counselors have never experienced this art form which makes it that much more enticing. The process of enameling has multiple steps but at Tripp Lake it’s essentially taking copper pieces in different shapes and applying powdered glass on top to create different designs and colors that can then be made into jewelry, pendants and other specialty items. I don’t know about you, but this is definitely not an art form we had available in school which makes it that much more special for the girls.
The AJs also worked on their time capsule under the dining hall today which is a wonderful tradition they always look forward to. The JRs had a lot of time down on the waterfront after their team games and cycled through canoe, kayak, sail, and water skiing. The Subs took on some team games today as well in field hockey and soccer! The Inter IIIs played team games in basketball and lacrosse, the Inter IIs played lacrosse and field hockey, and the Seniors played each other in basketball and lacrosse.
For Friday evening services, the Inter IIs and Inter IIs came dressed in their whites to lead songs for the camp community, while our wonderful assistant advisor Emily Flach was chosen as the staff member to share words of inspiration and wisdom with the campers. Emily Flach is part of the incredible Flach family that has been associated with Tripp Lake Camp for a long time. Emily spoke on growing up at TLC and her family‘s connection and how it relates directly to the connections that a lot of our campers have with Tripp Lake and their families. Although we certainly have a lot of campers who did not have family members attend Tripp Lake previously, there are also many that have deep roots in Tripp Lake’s history and that is something we really treasure.
We closed out this day with a magical performance of the Wizard of Oz by our Inter I age group. These campers have not had much time to prepare for their show so they were incredibly brave to take the stage and embrace the challenge of performing in front of their peers and counselors. Theater is one of the only activities where the entire age group participates together, and therefore it’s a really important time for them to learn how to work together as a group to meet a common goal. In this case, that common goal was putting on a fantastic rendition of the classic musical where they worked hard to learn lines, songs, dances and so much more over the past couple of weeks. Our theater team has been working diligently to prepare the campers, while also designing the sets and costumes. The result of everyone’s hard work paid off tonight as the audience was enamored with all the performances.
The show was fun, engaging and memorable. Of course there were certain roles that had more lines and more stage time, but that truly didn’t matter because it was all about what this age group was able to accomplish by intentionally spending time together to present something they were incredibly proud of. And we’re so proud of each of the girls for putting their all into whatever role they were given. In those final scenes when Dorothy is clicking her sparkly red slippers while stating “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”, we instantly sensed a calmness amongst the audience. You can’t help but think that for a lot of our campers, they really view Tripp Lake as their home away from home. We know they all love and adore their own homes and families, but it’s truly magical that they are able to have this other home where they are equally encouraged, loved and supported. We can’t wait to see what our other age groups put on in the weeks to come!
Kind Regards,
Leslie and Katie
