Hi Island Lake families! I’m going to totally Groundhogs Day you by saying that it has been yet ANOTHER beautiful day here in Starrucca, PA. I don’t know what happened to all of that rain we had in June but it seems to have disappeared for our campers in the month of July. I wouldn’t mind a little nighttime rain to water our grass, yet not affect our campers’ activities. This morning was chilly at around 60 degrees but again, it warmed up pretty quickly and we reached the upper 70’s by the afternoon hours.
Today was a very busy day for sports and out of camp trips. We took our mountain bike enthusiasts on their first ever overnight trip to a campsite on the Delaware River. They have mountain biking trails and hiking trails for the kids to explore. While there, our campers will also go swimming in the Delaware River. It should be an amazing experience for our 8 boys and 2 counselors.
In sports, we had quite a few tournaments today. Our 11th grade and younger girls went out of camp this morning for an all day basketball tournament. We made it to the semi-finals and our girls fought hard. Our 9th grade and younger boys played a basketball game here at home this morning. They won 44-22. How awesome is that?!?! Our 7th grade girls played in a Wayne County tennis tournament and won 3-2. Yay! Our 5th grade and younger boys participated in a tennis match out of camp this afternoon. Lastly, our 8th & 9th grade boys played in a soccer game out of camp this afternoon. They left too late for me to get their results for this blog. We also started our tennis ILC Open here at camp once again. It’s an in-camp tournament for all age groups, both boys and girls, and the winners will receive trophies. I’ll list the winners for you in the blog once these challenges are complete.
Yesterday’s riddle was open to many possible answers, but I did receive a few “correct” answers according to Oliver’s list of riddles. As a reminder, the riddle was: What has branches but no fruit, trunk, or leaves. The answer we were looking for was “a bank”. Congrats to Jen W., Ben W., Adira B., Ross K., and Alexandrea W. for getting this correct. Joe S. also had a couple of responses that I can see being correct. He said the military or government. I also thought the answer was government. Here’s today’s riddle, which our camp doctor already got correct this morning at breakfast: I have no arms or legs, but keep me warm and I’ll soon walk away. No googling or asking Siri or Alexa people! (Hehe!)
Our campers had so much fun at last night’s Bingo Bonanza for evening activity. Many campers participated playing the bingo game, singing to karaoke, doing hula hoop challenges, and they received lots of Island Lake memorabilia for prizes such as the “I heart Island Lake” wristbands, ILC stickers, ILC slinkies, and more. I also have to apologize for a typo in my previous blogs. I recently found out that I’ve been spelling “hula hoop” incorrectly. Who knew I would keep writing about that activity here at summer camp!
Tonight’s evening activity is Taste, Touch, and Smell for the entire camp. The lower camp will play this interactive game in the gym and the older camp will play it in the theater. Don’t worry, we give all of the live insects and disgusting concoctions to our counselors to eat, not our campers! (Just kiddin’ of course!)
Today’s special feature is COOKING! In the 1stmajor today they made pasta from scratch. In 2ndmajor they made grilled cheese sandwiches. For our 3rdmajor our sous chef, Jonathan, made a special appearance to teach our campers how to make sweet & sour sauce for chicken. In the 1st minor they made roasted broccoli (we gotta add a healthy mix into the repertoire). 2ndminor they made gnocchi while working on Bistro TV, which is a cooking show they’re making to post on our website when it’s complete. In the 3rdminor they cooked a variety of food for our kitchen staff to eat. Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!
