Category: Leadership Development

The fifth week of camp is all about healthy competition and celebrating athletic excellence! Our annual “Olympics” provides opportunities for campers to show their show their skills development in individual activities (e.g. gymnastics and horseback riding) and work as a sports team member (e.g. soccer and tug of war). Through this experience, campers learn sportsmanship, team spirit, and the thrill of athletic achievement.

Check out Alice Decker’s, be-loved Alum, memories of Camp Woodland Olympics:

“When I think about the Woodland olympics, I can’t help but chuckle. After 20 years I can still remember the names of my more memorable teams. And their spontaneous cheers. I won’t repeat them, but anyone who served with me on the French Fries knows EXACTLY what I am talking about. I can remember layering on every piece of clothing in my limited drawer space that could count as a team color item, in order to painstakingly line them up in the clothing relay, and cursing the laundry cycle that fell right in the middle of the event. I remember banging the tiller of an old X-boat in frustration – I’d won a bunch of sail races just that last week, so why would the wind desert me today? And I remember the peculiar feeling of a cabin divided – the only time during the summer that my co-lyricist, my partner for undefeated cabin victory in the coveted ability of inane camp rhyme, Ms. Lurain, was suddenly facing off against me. Could she rhyme better (by which I mean, sillier and stupider) than me, mano a mano??? Even writing this post, I am already starting to mutter, “yo yo yo yo, French Fries…” Yup. It’s Olympics time.”

Way to go Sunnyside for your amazing performance! Below is the video (need to go to blog site to see the video) and the words to the song!

Here are the words
Bags packed, heading out
County D I see it now
Meet me at the end of the Woodland road
See my friends I know what’s next
These six weeks will be the best
Be all we can be in activities!
Today I sailed Atty
And watched the arrows fly
I’m gonna get canteen
Making new friends I’m about to break loose
Hey kids, here we go, summertime so let’s go
Put your hands up this is fun in the North woods
Learning lines for drama
Dance away your problems
Serving tennis balls
This is fun in the north woods
Hey, hey, yeah, I gotta get to farm zoo
Hey, hey yeah, you know we love to canoe
Hey there, Woodland girls
Summertime, so let’s go
Put your hands up, this is fun in the north woods
Sunday fun, in the sun
Got a fair at TP
Get your Woodland wear for the TP boys!
Candy is a no-go
Counselors took away our phones
But we love all the Jordan family!
Today I’ll make some crafts
And lock and load my gun
I wanna ride Rashad
Trying new things I’m about to break loose
Hey there, woodland girls
Summertime so let’s go
Put your hands up, this is fun in the north woods
Maddie’s in the water
Mojo’s in her rocker
Blow joanne a kiss, ‘cause we’re loving the jordans
Hey, hey, yeah, our dreams are gonna come true
Hey, hey, yeah, lee and kim we love you
Hey there, kitchen staff
We love you all so much
Fill your plate up, thank you dan for lasagna!
Let’s go! Come on shake those jazz hands
Let’s go! Let me see your sock tan
Let’s go! Come on show your bug bites!
Hold on! There’s a leech on my foot (salt salt salt salt salt salt salt salt!)
Hey Chet, thanks so much
Now our toilets finally flush
Runnin’ to see Amy
‘cause I gotta get a health check
waterfront to riding
swim away to cathy’s
show the camp a flip
‘cause today I have gymnastics
hey, hey, yeah this week we’re getting clean freaks
hey, hey, yeah, today I’m going tubing
hey, camp here we go
susan loves to drive that boat
put your hands up
we’re in love with camp woodland

We spend a lot of our lives at camp. We grow here during a summer, of course; we learn about ourselves, we learn to love each other, we learn how to be our best selves. At times, these platitudes can seem overused and insincere; we hear them so often that they begin to lose their meaning. But every so often – when the sunshine hits the pine trees just right,  when we close the campfire circle holding hands, when we’re laughing so hard with our cabin mates that we can hardly see straight – it hits us anew how big camp is in our lives. How much of who we all are is made up of this forest-scented Northwoods air and sparkling blue lake water. How much of the good in who we are and what we see in the world comes from Woodland.

It is these times that add the real value to receiving a “five year” pendant. Yes, it means five years of activities and birthdays and banquets and gold rushes. It means that we’ve hopped too many tables to count, that we’ve braved hundreds of cold Sand Lake mornings, that we could spigot shower in our sleep. But more than that, it means that we’ve been here long enough to become a part of Woodland, forever. For Woodland to be a part of us. Five years? that’s five cabin groups we’ve loved so hard we can’t imagine leaving them after six weeks. that’s fifteen sessions of hard working and rewarding activities, five years of passed levels and shows and gained skills. Five years of this big messy loving family we all call Camp. Five years of home.

Congratulations to all of our campers that will be receiving a five year pendant at our annual Camp Birthday Bash tonight.  Also, congratulations to Camp Woodland for being part  of  the Jordan Family for the last 44 years!  We love you Camp Woodland and the Jordan Family.

We have a great time in first hour riding, which is the most advanced riding class. Last week Suzanne and I, along with all of the girls in 1st hour, created a new activity we call spirit horses. It all started when we realized how Daphne B’s personality matches perfectly with one of the horses in the Woodland Barn, Rashad. All of us soon started naming off our “spirit horses.” By the end of the day we had all chosen horses that we felt connected to and also who had similar personalities as us. We decided that the next day we would emulate our horses by dressing in the style of each of their personalities. Each of us then took turns having a photo shoot with our horses. All of us had such a blast doing this silly activity and we even have a poster of our photos up in the barn!

Daphne-Rashad-fun, tall, energetic

Grace W.- Yeller-spunky, blonde, energetic, unicorns in a past life

Racquel- Birdie-outgoing, dark hair

Suze- Spud-athletic, funny, intense, entertaining, high energy, spunky

Chelsea T- Henry-polite, proper, brunette, nice, professional, athletic

Elena K.-Image- model, great dark hair, luxurious

Katelyn M. -Jake-similar facial features, go with the flow, same eyes

Sam M-Catdancer-light hair, short, calm, laid back

Sofia D.- Grey-sweet, young, pretty, lucky, funny, flexible

~Grace White

Every week at camp we have a theme that the whole camp focuses on inside the cabin and also in activity areas.  Everyone is adjusting well to camp life and feeling very comfortable with each other in the cabin! Therefore, this is a great week to focus on problem solving.  Counselors encourage campers to recognize and take pride in their special talents, while recognizing and respecting the different talents of other campers.  New team challenges provide opportunities to show personal leadership and make maximum use of different individual talents to fulfill a common goal.

The end of this week cabins will be learning problem-solving skills by trying to have the best song for Song Contest!  Song Contest Night is where cabins write a new song (usually changing the words to a popular song heard on the radio) about camp.  The camp song is all about camp activities, the summer theme, the year, and they always get bonus points for appreciating the nurse, kitchen, and maintenance staff! Cabins usually get very into this and in recent years have a dance to coordinate with the song.  They have to work together to pick the song, create the lyrics, and appreciate their peer’s contributions without putting down some one else’s ideas.  The winning cabin gets to have their song performed at the end of the summer Co-Ed show.   This is a big – big deal!

I can’t wait to see the performances this Saturday Evening! Check out a previous song.