Today is the 3rd and final day of Color War. It’s been a fierce but friendly 3 days of competition between the West Coast and the East Coast. Yesterday’s rain let up after dinner so we were fortunate to be able to play the TEAM SPORTS for evening activity. The winner of the sports was the Grey East Coast. Yesterday’s decorum points went slightly more to the Grey team, as well.
With yesterday’s activities tallied, along with the decorum, at breakfast this morning the East Coast was still in the lead by 184 points. It’s still anybody’s game. The HATCHET was still out there as of breakfast, as well. A 3rd and final clue was given out and the kids’ minds were racing with ideas as to where it could be. The funny thing was, the hatchet was pretty much right in front of their eyes yesterday while up on the soccer field for Track & Field! The Grey East Coast team finally found the hatchet this morning during their team meetings. They earned an additional 100 points for finding it today, on the 3rd day of Color War.
This morning the team meetings were followed by our last day of SPORTS. Here’s a list of the sports that our kids played in with their different groups: dodgeball, tchoukball, gaga, soccer, basketball, softball, touch football, and water basketball. The overall winner of the sports this morning was the grey team. As of lunch the East Coast grey team was ahead.
After lunch we had team meetings and then our big APACHE RELAY. The Apache spans over the course of a few hours and it involves a few hundred campers on each team for a total of 194 tasks each. The kids run from one location to another throughout camp and tag a child in a specific department to do an event before tagging another camper to then run to a different department to perform another event.
The Apache is a big camp tradition and it involves all of our departments here at camp,…and then some! We include a whole lot of fun tasks such as eating saltine crackers and then whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy before tagging another camper to run to the next department listed on the schedule. Other fun activities in the Apache are kayaking around the floating raft in the lake, filling a cup of water using a teaspoon, saddling a horse, beading a bracelet, typing “Island Lake Rules” in different languages in the video room, self-hit a homerun on the baseball field, run to pioneering with a jalapeno pepper in their mouth (Oy vey!), drop in on the half-pipe in the skatepark, deflate a tire in mountain biking, sing the camp alma mater over the PA system in the office, and much much much much more. Our counselors also have some difficult tasks such as doing 100 push-ups or hitting a baseball over the fence on the ball field. The Apache Relay finally ends with all campers and counselors in the gym sitting on the bleachers watching a camper from each team successfully shoot a half court basketball shot.
It’s all about fun during the Apache Relay here at ILC, and it shows. In the end, the blue team beat the grey team by about 9 minutes and change. Although grey lost, Hayden F. made the final half court shot in just 1 try! That’s the 2nd summer in a row that a camper made the infamous final apache event, the half court shot, in just 1 try! Go Island Lakers! Today’s special feature is the APACHE RELAY! To see more photos from today, just check out our daily summer photos via CampMinder.
Color War closes tonight with our annual Sing. Each team is judged for their creative entrance into the theater. They then take turns performing a March/Fight song, a Comedy song, a Skit, an Alma Mater song, and then they present their team’s Plaque. The entire night is bittersweet and somber as Color War comes to an end. Everyone hugs, some cry, and while the final scores are tallied we play the camp alma mater so everyone join together and sing.
And finally, once the scores are all tallied up, Trip, who is in charge of Color War, stands on the theater stage and announces the winner of the Sing and of Color War overall. The winning team will jump up and scream and go crazy with excitement. The other team will be sad for a moment but they’ll quickly get over it by the time they head to canteen (Lol!). Since this blog is being posted prior to Sing, tomorrow I will post the winner for all of you. Until then, ILC U THERE!
