Day 8, August 20: Rah, Rah, Sis, Boom, Bah!
Last night, we were divided up into five teams. So, we emerged from our cabins this morning, wearing our respective colors: blue, green, pink, red and yellow. The tension of friendly competition began to rise between the green and blue teams during breakfast, but was kept at bay by some delicious donuts. After we finished eating, we all gathered around the flagpole for our opening ceremony. Sue sang the national anthem and the Ashmere banner was raised.
Thomas and Noble, our guest judges, explained the rules. We used clues to find a location around camp and then had to complete an activity together to receive another clue. During the activities our thoughtful judges awarded points based on factors like sportsmanship, inclusion, style, accommodations and success. The most important rule was to have fun of course! Each team started at a different station, but for ease of explaining, we are going to follow the route of the Green team.
The first location we visited was the fireplace in the main cabin. There, Mike led us in some camp related trivia. He asked us questions like “What is Sue’s middle name?” And “What are 3 of Ophelia’s favorite foods?”. We would collaborate our ideas and then submit our final answers to Mike to tally up the points. We only had 1 minute to answer each question, so we had to be quick and work together well. It was a fun meeting of the minds!
Next, Noble was waiting for us on the tennis courts. There was a bag of tennis balls on one end of the court and buckets on the other. The task called for us to pick up one tennis ball at a time, sprint to the other, then toss the tennis ball into one of the buckets from behind the 3-point line. Different buckets had different scores, so we did our best to aim for the higher scoring bins. The yellow team used a wet floor sign so the tennis ball could be rolled into the bucket and the red team used the golf cart to drive Jason up to the buckets. Shout out to Jake from the green team for cheering on his team despite his fear of tennis balls, he was a true team player!
After working up a sweat, we headed to the picnic tables to hydrate. There, Thomas was waiting to lead us in a modified game of ‘Flip Cup.’ We each chugged a polar seltzer with the flavor matching the team color (EX: lime for green, ginger for yellow, cranberry lime for red, etc.) then had 3 chances to flip the cup. Shout out to several of our friends who decided the most effective way to down the beverage was to shotgun the polar seltzer. We all left with full bellies and full hearts.
We meandered from the picnic tables to outside the lodge, there we found Julia and plenty of craft supplies. She explained we had to create a tinder profile on construction paper for a member of our team. After choosing a lucky single, we worked together to make a top notch dating profile. We helped them take photos for the profile and craft a detail-oriented bio.
Last, we met Maggie near the lakefront for the final challenge: “Ring of Fire.” This challenge took teamwork and flexibility. First, we formed a circle by holding hands and then passed a hula hoop from person to person. We had six minutes to move the hoop go all the way around the circle as many times as we could. The yellow team lifted Shirley into the air to majestically float through the hoop. The pink team decided to use Nancy’s hat as an extension of her to make sure she was included in the hoop challenge as well. It was a great competition to get wiggly and creative!
Finally, we met by the bonfire for the most challenging and serious competition of all: skits! We were tasked with creating skits regarding the origins of this magical crew. The blue team gave a beautiful Adam (Izzy Nova) and Eve (Ryno) story, and the red team depicted Ashmere (Sam Smith) being birthed from Isabelle and Keenan. The pink team basically told the story from the point of view of frosty-makers at Wendy’s and the green team just made a ton of poop references. The yellow team had a beautiful chaos to enlightenment tale, which of course ended with Shirley being lifted into the air as we all chanted the beginning part of “Hooked on a Feeling.”
Once the closing circle had ended, we headed to lunch! There we learned what teams came out victorious. The blue team came in first place, with red in second and yellow in third. The pink and green teams were slightly disappointed with the loss, but when asked for comment they said “(they’re) just glad both teams had fun.” Don’t ask Kate Traquina though, she is still asking for a recount!
After some rest time, we suited up and headed down to the lakefront. Some of us braved the waters, swimming and kayaking and floating in the waves. Others of us stayed ashore and prepared our studio night skits. Then we showered and ate dinner on the patio. We welcomed new chef’s this week, Kate’s mom Robin, Carol, and Jaden. They prepared a stir fry complete with spring rolls and homemade oatmeal cookies. We got to eat a delicious meal and enjoy the beautiful sunset.
Then for our evening activity, we went to the main cabin for studio night! We had singing and dancing performances that were fantastic. Shirley danced with Keenan, as she pied Sky and Bailey in the face! Mike hosted a game show in which Morgan was the star contestant. George did ventriloquism with his puppet Freddie, it was phenomenal! Then a song came on about finding a person’s other half, and nearly half of the dining hall stood up to go dance. None of us were quite sure what was going on, but then as the song went on, people started pairing up who had the same names. Soon enough, at the end of the song all, all the Skys, Jakes, Bens, Kara/Caras, Isabelles, Myles/Miles, and the 4 Sams were dancing together! All of the acts were incredible!
All the love, Ashmere
