Time at camp is always a distortion. Each day-- jam-packed with activities, small moments, laughs with friends-- feels long, like we've crammed a week's worth of action into 24 hours. But then you look back on these first two weeks of the summer, and it seems it's gone by in the blink of an eye. As the days begin to blur together, we realize camp is going by way too fast.
RAINBOW CONNECTION
As our tri-state families are well aware of, this summer has been HOT HOT HOT! But before the current heat wave, we had a few days of rain, and Scatico was blessed with a Double Rainbow!
WHAT MUSIC IS Scatico LISTENING TO?
Boys' Side HIGHLIGHTS
Last Sunday marked College Bowl, which is a yearly day long competition in which the camp is split into four teams or "colleges" (Ohio State, Michigan, USC, and UCLA), which are led by the Upper Seniors and in which all campers compete in a range of activities including Capture the Flag, Mass Softball (a one inning softball game where everyone bats), Dodgeball, and an Apache Relay. The day closes out with a memorable campfire, complete with highlights like Screaming Eagle (one team representative has to run around the campfire circle as many times as possible, singing aloud one note, see Josh Mazarin in the slideshow below), pyramid stacks, and pillow fights!
And along with time-honored traditions, come some new and exciting firsts! This past week, boys side came together for the first ever full camp game of Sardines (which is sort of like hide and seek, and involves one person hiding while everyone else has to go search for them and then stay with them after they are found).
The boys have also kicked off the first overnights of the summer! With our talented new outdoor adventure director Jesse Prager at the helm, on July 2 the Sub Juniors pitched tents and slept at the boy's overnight site (it's in the woods somewhere between the boys ball fields and hockey rink). Prager showcased his culinary skills to the Sub Juniors, making chicken, steak, and vegetable pockets (each camper choosing their own main ingredients and spices and wrapping their dinner in aluminum foil to cook directly in the campfire). For dessert? Banana boats! (Bananas split in half and loaded with chocolate and then baked).
Girls' Side HIGHLIGHTS
And while the boys kicked off College Bowl, Girls Side had their first Tribes day of Summer 2018!! Tribes is an exciting, friendly competition (sort of like Color War "lite") in which all of girls side is split into four teams-- Racing Wind (yellow), Blazing Arrow (red), Thunderbolt (blue), and Flying Eagle (green)-- and competes in a series of sports, art projects, and songs, for one day a week over the course of three weeks. With the Soopers stepping up and taking on leadership positions-- teaching songs, coaching teams, and demonstrating spirit and sportsmanship-- and new campers quickly getting absorbed in all the action, Tribes marks a highlight of the summer year after year.
Day 1 of Tribes featured general sports as well as the Swim Meet. Each Tribes day also closes with a "campfire" (it happens in the Social Hall, not around an actual open flame) where each team gets to showcase the songs, skits and dance routines they've been hard at work practicing for the past week. For Week 1 each team performed their "Grace," a song which girls sing at the start of each meal.
The girls have also been enjoying their first hikes of the summer, with the Subs headed to Bonticuo Crag and the Seniors scaling the arduous but worth it for the vista Breakneck Ridge!
Sports Highlights
Congratulations to Lulu Rubin and Kate Metzendorf for winning the Girls Doubles and to Isaac Malkin and Max Silverman for winning the Boys Doubles at Monday's Scatico (going into 10th Grade) Tennis Tournament !! The Sub Senior boys also came in 2nd (out of 8 teams!!) at the Mah-Kee-Nac Football tournament, and Coach Moises Torres led the going into 7th girls to a 2nd place victory at Timberlake!
Friday Night SerVICES
Boys and Girls side both had their first Friday Night Services, a weekly camp tradition that emphasizes all the values of being at camp. Boys and girls sides each conduct their services slightly differently, with the boys gathering on the bleachers down by the waterfront and listening to a "sermon" from one member of boys side (it rotates weekly) who has a meaningful message to share. For the first service, the boys listened to Senior Staff Member and Head of Boys Crafts Ken Vallario. On Girls' side, services are lead by a different division each week at the outdoor "campi"theatre, with bunkmates working together to figure out the lesson, reflection or takeaway they want to share with the rest of camp. The Soopers kicked off the first service of the year for the girls.
Fourth of july
Wednesday marked Scatico's first co-ed activity of the summer: Fourth of July Celebrations! The epic evening kicks off with a full camp BBQ, followed by the 98th annual Talent Show, and then spectacular fireworks over the golf course. Always a special night in which people from all aspects of camp-- from the youngest campers, to senior staff, to support staff-- come together to celebrate, this year's 31 act (!) talent show was particularly awe-inspiring! Some highlight acts included the opening act, a Hamilton rap from Jake Zirolli (appropriately patriotic), full division songs and dances from the Jinters, Juniors and Inters (who performed different numbers from "The Greatest Showman"), a series of dazzling karate moves from Sage Wasserman, a killer solo from Sam Ryan singing Charlie Puth's "Attention", a beautiful rendition of "Angela" by the Lumineers by Sophomore and Inter DL's Jamie Hamburg and Zack Wayne (as Wayne said before he started singing, performing at the talent show was something he wanted to "check off his Scatico bucket list"), a magic show from support staff-member Izzy, and a closing performance of "Brown-Eyed Girl" by ever-popular girls side trio Gaby and Halle Phillips and Allie Burrows, this time accompanied by special guest Dave Fleischner. (A full list of acts can be seen to the right, in a rare artifact from the Scatico 2018 archive!!)
Right after the talent show concluded, everyone headed to the golf course, red white and blue popsicles in hand, to enjoy the fireworks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This summer, Dave Fleischner is leading staff training for both the Counselors In Training (CITs) and Junior Counselors (JCs), meeting with them about once a week to brainstorm strategies, gather their input, and share advice on how to be the best possible Scatico counselors. In one activity for the JCs, Dave had them split into groups and come up with Scatico "slogans" to embody what the Scatico philosophy and values are really all about. Since the JC's did such a great job, we figured we'd share a few of their ideas at the end of each blog post!
"Scatico: D3 sports, D1 friendships"