Camp Tannadoonah Journal

Last week of camp is here. I can’t believe how fast this summer has flown by!

Friday night we had our Harry Potter Costume Party. A committee of counselors decorated the dining hall, and turned it into the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Some of the campers had some really awesome costumes. We even had a sorting hat! The tables were arranged into four long rows, and Miss Sue made banners for each of the houses. Miss Christine (aka the Golden Snitch) sorted the campers into their houses as they entered the dining hall. We even had a head table of Professors - Miss Sue, Mr. Chas, Nurse Mechelle, Miss Dana, and me (even though I was dressed as a Dementor!). We had candle-lit tables, and twinkling stars above us on the ceiling. After dinner we had a real surprise when Mr. Tony came out of the kitchen dressed as the witch who pushes the snack cart through the Hogwarts Express! Wow, what a costume, Mr. Tony! He had a tray of special treats for each table - licorice whips, every-flavor bean, and even chocolate frogs that he made for us!Be sure to check out the new photos from the Harry Potter dinner!

Sunday we began Wild West Week with a good ol’ fashioned Hoe Down in front of the dining hall. Many of the campers and counselors got “duded up” in their western clothes, and we all danced the Virginia Reel on the lawn, to the tune of “Turkey in the Straw.” Afterwards we had some tasty popsicles to cool off, and then headed to our cabins for the night. Looks like the weather this week will be much cooler, and hopefully we’ll have an awesome last week!

For decades - long before the Internet or laptops or the word “e-commerce” ever met Camp Tannadoonah - we’ve had a Camp Store.

Now the Camp Store is online. Visit our Camp Store at http://store.tannadoonah.org.

We don’t have everything there, but we have quite a bit. And we’re adding more. Look for the clearance section to be added in the next week. $5 T-shirts, $2 water bottles…

This week is the first time EVER that there have been more boys than girls at Camp Tannadoonah!  There were so many boys that we had to move them into Morris Lodge for the week!  So we have 15 boys living in Robins & Woodpeckers, and 22 boys in Morris Lodge.  Morris Lodge is usually reserved for our oldest girls in camp, and it’s really quite posh compared to some of the other cabins.  So it’s a very special treat for the boys to get to live there, even if it is just for one week!  Cabin photos sure will be interesting this week!

The girls who would have lived in Morris were moved to Wallace for the week, and have renamed themselves “Morris Invasion.”  Morris Lodge is apparently colonizing other parts of camp!

Week six is off to a very HOT start!  So for the last two evenings we have created new games and held evening activity at the waterfront.  Today at sing, several counselors (including me!) dumped buckets full of freezing water on the other counselors leading sing!  But they got revenge during lunch, when they dumped pitchers of water fresh out of the refrigerator on us.

This week is also Tannadoonah Fairy (TF) week, so there have been some crazy things going on around camp!  Tannadoonah Fairies are sort of like Secret Santas, except that you get to play pranks, too.  On Saturday afternoon we all drew names, and everyone wrote down things they like and dislike. Only the counselors participate in Tannadoonah Fairies, but they can enlist the help of campers to leave special treats for other counselors, or to help with the pranks.  Miss Calleen’s TF is making her carry around a bag of sugar all week, and call it her “baby.”  Miss Lori’s TF made her do the Macarena at lunch, Miss Sue had to lead the Hokey Pokey, and Miss Peggy had to run around the dining hall and act like a chicken!  Mr. Jake came back to rest hour to find that his room had been turned into a giant spider web, and Miss Lori got “arrested” last night at One Way Street, courtesy of her TF.

Anyway, we’re having fun up here for Harry Potter week, and everyone is doing their best to beat the heat!