Dear Treetops Families,
It was a pleasure to have so many of you on campus for Visitors’ last weekend! Watching campers run into their families’ arms as they arrive at Morning Council is always a highlight of the summer for me, as is the way they show their families everything they’ve learned and have come to love over their weeks at Camp. Whether that was while demonstrating their newly honed skills at the waterfront, showing you their handmade crafts in the shops, or introducing you to their favorite farm animal, I hope you enjoyed sharing in all that your child has accomplished this summer, and the countless ways that they’ve grown.
This past week provided many opportunities for campers to practice resilience, a skill we value highly at Treetops, and knowing the importance of overcoming challenges. Yes, campers can be sad to bid their families goodbye after their weekend visit, but they also understand there are just three weeks left of the summer and many more exciting activities and experiences to come.
This week began solemnly with our Senior Camp Chicken Harvest, a community event that many reflect on as one of the most impactful of their Treetops experience. Campers, who have raised our meatbirds from the time they were baby chicks, feeding and watering them, and dutifully moving them to fresh grass each day, partake in the harvest, understanding that the chickens have been raised with love and care, for the purpose of feeding our community.
It’s a somber and reverent morning when campers come to gain a newfound respect for the lives of these animals that they have been caring for, as well as for the deeper perspective they gain of where their food comes from. To partake in this important cycle of life is a privilege that campers value and appreciate. By lunchtime, this huge task is complete, and campers, though challenged by the experience, slowly get back into their daily routine, perhaps a little wiser and more attuned to their role in the natural cycles of life in the world around them.
Meanwhile, Junior camp toiled in the garden during this week’s hot Community Morning, harvesting the season’s garlic. It was a huge task, made easier by the many hands of campers and counselors. Knowing that the garlic in our tasty home-cooked meals was grown on our land, carefully tended by our Garden Harvest crew, and ultimately harvested by Junior Camp is yet another way that our campers understand their key role in the food chain and the cycle of life on the farm.
Our Supers have also worked hard on a community project this week, a Camp tradition in which they identify a need on campus, and dedicate their time and effort to “giving back” to our community in their final year at Treetops. This year’s Super project, completed this week, focused on making improvements at the waterfront: converting the existing changing stall to an outdoor shower, and building two new changing stalls attached to the life jacket shed.
In completing this project, Supers employ skills that they’ve gained in the woodshop and work together towards a practical purpose. As those who have come before them, they approached the project with excitement and pride, knowing that their efforts would be appreciated and utilized by campers and staff for many years to come.
At this point in the summer, campers are fully settled into the daily rhythms and routines of Camp, attuned to the day’s flow, and able to dig even deeper into their activities. The waterfront has been a bustle of activity, even as we’ve had a few chilly days; the water remains warm and inviting. In the shops, Junior campers have molded whimsical butter dishes and decorative bowls, started more advanced embroidery projects, and continued their mastery in the weaving shop.
In Senior Camp, campers spent their time crafting precise needle-felting projects and carefully putting the finishing touches on their beloved canoe paddles. The latter project, in particular, has taken weeks and, for many campers, has reinforced the value of hard work and seeing a task through to completion. Their pride is palpable as they carry their paddles around campus, eagerly showing them off to passersby.
Off campus, campers have embarked on the most challenging trips yet: more mileage and higher peaks, longer paddles and more portages, as well as Senior Camp’s triple overnight trips. These extended trips not only help campers develop bonds within their trip group, but they also connect campers to the wilderness in new ways as they spend days in the wilderness with only the gear they can carry on their backs or haul in their canoes. Campers learn to read maps, plotting their routes and estimating the time it will take to travel from point to point, and gain new perspectives on the value of working and living together in their micro-communities. We are eager to welcome tripgoers back to campus tomorrow, when we will no doubt be regaled with accounts of their adventures.
As we enter the penultimate week of Camp, I hear the same refrain from various campers: it’s going too fast! This is evident as we look around us: the annual flower garden is bursting with blooms, and the decorative corn there now towers over campers’ heads; the sun is setting earlier, and the nights grow cooler. Amid all of it, I reflect on how fortunate we are to have spent these last five weeks of summer together in our beautiful mountain home and how grateful I am that we have a couple more yet to come.
With gratitude,
Hannah Edwards
Camp Treetops Director