COLOR WAR COLOR WAR COLOR WAR!!! That’s right, summer 2019 Color War is in full swing here at Island Lake. The teams are Wonderland vs. Oz! Wonderland is the grey team and Oz is the blue team. I’m excited to see how each of these teams uses their themes to their greatest advantage in all aspects of Color War. (Disclaimer: Being that I’ll be typing the words, “color” and “war” a million times over the course of the next 3 days, sometimes the “c” and “w” may be capitalized, sometimes they may not be, and sometimes I’ll refer to it as “cw” or “CW.”)
So, which team do you think your children are on? Let’s hope to find out via photos over the next 3 days. We give every camper and counselor a blue or grey Color War t-shirt, depending on the team they are on. Some little boys will choose to wear this t-shirt for all 3 days straight (ew, gross!), but hopefully they will not. J A lot of kids have cw paraphernalia that their parents sent to them and they have fun painting their bodies and dressing up to their team’s theme.
I’ll blog daily with tons of Color War updates and I’ll post some photos from special events. Ally, our camp photographer, will take tons of photos to post on Waldo. David Lobel is here so he’ll also take photos to post on Waldo and on his smugmug page. I’ll provide the link later on in this blog. Our video department will also be all over camp recording Color War from start to finish for our final weekly video and for the video yearbook. I hope you will love all that you will see on my blog and on our social media as much as our campers will love experiencing it all.
Yesterday, as we broke color war during snack break, our campers all instinctively ran to the gym where we kick off the 3 days of events with officer introductions. Everyone here at ILC automatically runs to the gym, as they know that’s where we begin the events with the intros. Our campers and staff went crazy as they read the team lists and all screamed and hugged one another in excitement for what’s ahead. Ashley Oliver, aka “Oliver,” who is our program director, runs Color War from start to finish. She announced all of the officers and the camp went wild in support of their generals, majors, captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. Once the intros were complete, the teams split up and went into their meetings. That’s all we did for Color War yesterday. Dinner and rest hour took place as usual followed by Peter and the Star Catcher.
Speaking of Peter and the Star Catcher, our older campers put on a wonderful performance last night. Their hard work and dedication to this show was apparent based on how well they performed on stage last night. You can view tons of photos from the show on Waldo later on. We also videotaped the show for you to order post-camp.
Before I forgot, David Lobel is here taking fantastic photos out and about in camp. In addition to our photographer Ally’s amazing photos, David has some fantastic pics from the performance last night, too. I’m sure he’s going to take pics alongside with Ally during Color War. Some of David’s photos are on Waldo and here is a link to view all of his summer pics on smughug.
So you know how we’ve had the most amazing, incredible, fantabulous weather of all time this past summer? And as many of you may be aware, you know how it almost always rains on our first day of Color War when we have the rope burn? Well, of course once again this summer, low and behold, it rained on and off today because it’s rope burn day. That’s the only reason why I can think of that it should rain today after a long streak of beautiful weather. Regardless, our CW activities were able to continue on and nothing had to be replaced with a special rainy day activity.
One last thing before I get to all things Color War,…our final riddle of the summer! Yesterday’s riddle was: What can be liquid or solid, sometimes it bubbles, and it can be found in every home? Answer: Soap! Congrats to Jordan G, Morgann G, Lisa S, and Ben W for getting this riddle correct. Thank you to the many parents who participated and contacted me with your responses all summer long. I hope these riddles were as entertaining for you as they were for me!
And now, on to Color War! Each summer we hide the hatchet and each team heads out in search of this hatchet based on clues provided in the morning during breakfast announcements in the dining room. Today’s clue was “Shermer.” The clues are always very difficult to decipher and to be honest, the kids just go and seek out the hatchet in the same locations every summer in hopes of getting lucky. They all look in the pioneering area, the ball fields, the rock shop, etc. We’ll see how long it takes for a team to find the hatchet this summer. The sooner they find it the more points it is worth, losing value with each additional day it takes for them to find it. Our campers are only allowed to search for the hatchet during team meetings and they must do so with a counselor.
This morning each team had a meeting prior to a brand new event that we added to ILC Color War this summer called, “A Hero’s Scavenger Hunt.” Here’s how it worked. The Queen of Hearts and the Wicked Witch of the West teamed up to terrorize Island Lake. Our campers had to seek out allies hidden across camp and complete their challenges to gain key items necessary in their quest. The teams were encouraged to split into several groups for searching, along with at least one counselor. The winner of this scavenger hunt was Oz, the blue team.
After lunch we had rest hour (as opposed to after dinner, which is when we usually have rest hour) and then Five Period Basketball in the gym. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like with each period being played by each of our different age groups, including counselors. The overall winner of our Five Period Basketball tournament was Oz by only 4 points or 2 baskets. It was an exciting game to watch.
After basketball we had snack break at the bunks followed by a team meeting. After the meeting we held our annual trivia game, Unique. It takes place in the theater and it is played group by group. A select number of campers go up to the stage and stand before podiums with lights. When a camper knows the answer to a trivia question, whether it is related to the CW teams or camp, they flip a light switch and then answer the question. They earn points for their team by answering questions correctly. I’m posting this blog before Unique starts so I’ll tell you the winner tomorrow.
After Unique we will have our new annual tradition that is personally one of my favorites- a Silent Dinner!!! Believe it or not our campers absolutely LOVE the silent dinner, as well! They petitioned for us to bring it into Color War a few summers ago. After a couple hundred kids signed this petition we just couldn’t say no to it. A dining room filled with children and hardly the sound of a pin dropping throughout an entire meal is amazing! I have to admit, it’s so much fun messing with the kids and trying to make them speak. It’s amazing how resilient they can be when they’re taking one for the team. Take note parents. You may want to apply this event to your own homes after the summer!
Post dinner is one more team meeting followed by the Rope Burn. Each team walks down to the rope burn by the waterski lake together with a grand entrance worth points. The counselors fetch wood and build their fires while the kids cheer them on. The first team to burn the rope with their fire wins. This is truly an amazing Island Lake tradition. Tomorrow I’ll tell you who won rope burn.
And that’s about it for our 1stfull day of Color War here at ILC! Below are some photos of our campers at the basketball game and some staff all dressed up as characters from the books. Until more Color War scoop tomorrow when I tell you which team is in the lead, ILCUTHERE!
