Wake-up
7:10 |
Camper wake up every morning to a staff (cabin advisor) greeting them with a cheerful smile, sometime accompanied with a song. Campers have until breakfast to shower in the Bath House and get ready for the day. |
Polar Bears
7:20 |
A refreshing early morning
dip in the lake! This builds group unity and wakes you up fast!
The waterfront staff turns on the heaters under the docks at
4 am, so the water is very nice. |
K.P.
7:45 |
Kitchen Patrol: In groups
of two, campers take turns setting their cabin's table for
each meal. At the beginning of the week, campers create a
rotation schedule with their counselor. |
Flag Raising
8:00 |
The whole camp gathers in the
flag
area to raise the flag. Each day a different cabin, their counselor and a staff member perform this patriotic ceremony, which they planned and practiced the previous day. |
Breakfast
8:10 |
Community is build in the Washburn Lodge. Campers, Counselor, and Staff sit together as one big camp family. After ample time for eating, the singing begins. Cabin unity is built as individuals or a whole cabin group is called upon through a traditional song, "Have You Ever Seen..." sing a song, perform a silly task, or show off a talent. If you get caught with your elbows on the table you may have to kiss Cleo the Moose!
Each meal ends with a special VBYC Talent show, seasoned and new campers sign up for and show off their talents during this special time. Singing at meals is often reported to be camper's favorite part of camp. Since everyone is singing it makes it easy for shy singers to get practice.
At the end of the meal, a few excited campers are chosen
as volunteers to help the kitchen staff with the dishes. This
is a very sought-after position because the person who volunteers
the most that week goes home with the prestigious Broken
Plate Award. |
Camp & Cabin Clean Up
8:45 |
Every morning, cabin groups are in charge of cleaning a different part of camp and their cabins with help from their counselor and/or VBYC staff. These areas are Craft Hut, Nature Hut, Camp Store, Flag Area and Beach, Lodge, Kitchen, Campfire Bowl, Bath House and Grounds. |
Inspection
9:15 |
"Inspectors" (VBYC staff) dress up in costumes crazy inspectors and check cabin-by-cabin for tidiness while being serenaded or entertained by each cabin group along their route.- awarding honor tokens along the way. Citizenship, leadership, pride and community are developed throught camp clean-up.
|
Cabin Activity 1
9:45
(M,W,Th,F) |
Classes are the heart of our program. Campers and counselors from two cabins are combined to attend two classes each day (second class isin the afternoon). These classes are taught by VBYC summer staff. All campers rotate through all classes by week's end. |
Morning Choice
11:15 |
Free time! Each staff member offers an activity. Staff love
it because they can do any activity they can imagine and campers
love the variety and being able to move from activity to activity. Some favorites : Swimming, basketball,
card games, board games, floor hockey, making a puppet show,
soccer, braiding hair, scavenger hunts, letter writing, frisbee
golf, sand castles, mud wars, chalk drawing, kick ball etc. Classes may be offered at this time. |
K.P.
12:00 |
The next group of campers take their turn
setting their table. |
Lunch
12:15 |
More singing and eating and singing and eating. |
After Meal Activity & Store
1:05 |
While KP's and the kitchen staff clean up lunch the store
is open and the staff offer activities. (Don't worry KP's, you'll
get there before the store closes). The store sells juice, pop,
candy, snacks, T-shirts, sweatshirts, bug spray, film, batteries, stamps, envelopes, stationary etc. |
Cabin Quality Time
1:30
|
Campers have a chance to relax in their bunk, read, write a letter, or take a nap etc. |
Afternoon Choice & Store
2:30 |
More free time— plus the store is open! |
Cabin Activity 2
3:45
(M,W,Th,F) |
Another class! |
K.P.
5:00 |
The next group of campers take their turn setting their table. |
Dinner
5:15 |
More good food and the last chance of the day to "call-up"
your rival cabin. |
After Meal Activity & Store
6:30 |
Campers report this to be a favorite part of the day. |
Planning
7:00 |
Cabin groups plan the evening ceremonies and traditions: Flag raising or lower ceremony, thought ceremony, skits & songs for campfire. Staff and counselors are there for guidance, but the campers usually have plenty of great ideas! We also use this time to gather camper feedback. |
Flag Lowering
7:40 |
The cabin group in charge will lower the flag for the whole
camp. |
Thought
7:45 |
The entire camp gathers to sit quitely in nature while fellow campers review their day's journey, reflect with a poem or a skit, or offer a thought provoking story. When it is over campers are free to stay and think about the presentation as long as they like or until the next activity |
Evening Rec.
8:00 |
The staff has cooked up some big-time all-camp activity to
put an exclamation mark on the day. Some
favorites: capture the flag, folk dancing, talent show, mud
wars, scavenger hunt, haunted camp, casino night, carnival,
human stratego, crazy relay races, water wars etc. |
Campfire
9:00 |
The day winds down with everyone joining hands and snaking their way to campfire bowl, a large circle surrounded by ample logs. Here the entire camp gathers to enjoy a camper prepared and performed skits, stories and songs (see planning). Traditions are an important part of campfire for over 60 years we have ended this ceremony with campers standing in a friendship circle to sing Kum-By-Ya, Angels Watching Over Me and TAPS. |
Personal Clean Up
9:30 |
Campers take showers, brush teeth, get ready
for bed and say good night to friends. |
TAPS
10:00 |
Staff ends the day for campers by walking cabin row and singing TAPS.
The cabin counselor may tell a story or the group might chat
for a bit, but very quickly everyone is asleep so they can be
ready to do it all again tomorrow! |
