June 20th: Final Shows!

Our first session of the summer is wrapping up! While we are so sad to see these campers go, they certainly go out with a bang!

The last day of Camp looks a little different from our usual routine. After breakfast, campers spend some time packing before heading to Castle in Chapel (which we’ve lovingly coined “Chastle”). The youngest three cabins finally get their turn as Castle hosts, and after leading us in a song, we move into one of the most meaningful parts of the morning: awards!!

Here at camp, we offer levels and certificates across a variety of activities, and our final day is our chance to celebrate the hard work and progress these campers made over the past three weeks. This year, awards were given for passing levels in Kayaking, Archery, Tennis, Tumbling, Riding, and Mountaineering. We also celebrated a record number of new inductees into the Bullseye Club and Dam Swimmers (see the campers reciting the Dam Swimmers' pledge below!).

Following lunch and rest hour, we head into one of the biggest highlights of the session: Final Shows! Campers have been preparing all session long in Riding, Dance, Acting, Music, and Tumbling, and it is so fun to watch their friends and counselors cheer them on. We kick things off at the covered arena with the drill team, whose “Lion King”-themed performance featured costumes and even painted horses. From there, we move to the Castle and King Arthur’s Court to watch the rest of the performances. Some standout moments included Michael Jackson–inspired Tap and Hip Hop routines, a guitar class performing “Riptide,” and a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders–inspired Tumbling routine.

To close out the afternoon, we gather at the tennis courts for the grand finale: the Camper & Counselor Tennis and Pickleball tournament finals. Both matches were incredibly close, and it was so much fun to watch (and quietly cheer on) these duos!

As the session comes to a close, we can’t help but feel both proud and a little bittersweet. These campers have grown so much over the past few weeks, and we have loved every second spent with them under Old Bald. Watching bonds form and a mutual love of Merrie-Woode develop has been truly special. As a favorite campfire song says, “we’ll all be back again next year!” Until then, we’ll be holding onto these memories and celebrating what an amazing June session we had!