2025
Dancing in the Rain
People sometimes ask..
"What do you do at camp when it rains?"
This summer, that questions is more relevant than in other years! We have had rain at camp at some point in the day or night for 11 of the 15 days since the 1 st Sr. Term started!
At Vespers on the first evening of each term, Allen reminds the campers and staff of something he learned from his grandmother, Mrs. Mac. It’s about taking advantage of the opportunities we have when we have them. There’s never going to be a perfect time for anything. Opportunities are like sunrises. If we wait too long, we miss them. So, if soon is good, now is better!
The way Mrs. Mac expressed it was, “Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass. Life is about learning to dance in the rain!” Although this is metaphorical for a lot of what we do at camp, it’s also literal.
We subscribe to a professional weather service with real-time radar, storm and lightning tracking. We monitor the weather regularly. Most of the time, we can see we are only going to get rain, sometimes we’ll get a thunderstorm. We pull people in under shelter when needed, and sometimes we bring everyone back to the cabins. Occasionally we might schedule a “Radio Show” or show a movie in the Rec Hall or Little Theater. But that’s rare.
Lots of times, when it’s just a rain shower, we keep things moving and we “dance in the rain”!
We ride horses, play tetherball, go to Canteen – and sometimes we just splash in the puddles or slide in the mud!
Last night we had 6 o’clock news on the Rec Hall steps as usual, but a rain shower was popping up. So, we had Vespers into the Rec Hall instead of the Amphitheater. We saw the rain wasn’t going to last long, so after Vespers we let the Swim Meet competitors go on up to the pool so they could be ready, and the rest of the camp waited in their cabins for a few minutes.
The Swim Crew took the swimmers and divers into the gazebo and while the rain was coming down outside, we took a little video. Nobody planned it. The staff just got the kids together, went in the gazebo and had a blast. It’s what we do. The rain stopped, the rest of the camp arrived, and the Swim Meet got underway! We had divers, sprinters, belly floppers, gold, silver and bronze medalists, cabin relays, a really lit light show, and thundering hype music! We laughed and danced and sang and swam and cheered!
Then we all went back to the cabins and slept late on Sunday morning to get ready for Volleyball Sunday!
We are fortunate to have a number of things we can do here when it rains. We have never run out of options or ideas! Just like last night, we have Plan Bs and Plan Cs – and even some Plan Ds!
But as Bob Gene used to say, “Sometimes the best Plan B is Plan A in the rain!”.
