June 10th

We have been having the best time under Old Bald! It’s hard to believe the first week of the session has already come and gone. Every Monday and Thursday at lunch, table assignments change in the Dining Hall. On the first night of camp, both campers and counselors fill out a survey with categories like birth month, favorite color, and hometown. Twice a week, we use those answers to reorganize the tables so that everyone has the chance to meet new people and spend time with campers of all ages. We don’t tell them the category when they switch tables, which makes it even more fun! Each table has to ask questions and gets to know one another while trying to figure out what they all have in common. For this past rotation, we grouped everyone by their hometowns! In a more recent tradition, we play songs in the Dining Hall for each state represented. When your state’s song comes on, your whole table jumps up and runs around the Dining Hall. With songs like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Sweet Caroline” for the Carolinas, and even “International Love” for our international campers and staff, it makes lunch that day very eventful!

Our History: Our goal is to create a future based on the best of the past, including honoring those who have loved it and given it their best. At Camp Merrie-Woode, we are incredibly proud of our history. For 108 summers, we have welcomed girls and young women to the mountains of Western North Carolina to explore the wilderness, challenge themselves through outdoor adventure, strengthen their character, and make lifelong friendships. Over the course of these summers, many willing and capable leaders have stepped forward to guide the campers in their development and inspire them to become the best version of themselves. Others have devoted countless hours to establish the Merrie-Woode Foundation, ensuring that Camp will remain the beautiful sanctuary it has always been. Each in their own way has fulfilled Dammie’s Day’s vision, as she expressed it in the Merrie-Woode Plaque: It is because there is a kindred spirit in you that you have recognized what Merrie-Woode stands for. God has given us a place of rarest beauty and since I first beheld it, I have tried to match His gift as best I could with permeating love and honesty. It is a composite thing made of all those who through the years, have loved it and given it their best.