Opening Ceremony
Last night, the first part of Olympics happened. On Saturday night, Camp IHC held the opening ceremony for the Olympics of 2019. Both white and blue teams geared up and used all their best dress up accessories to look spectacular for the night. Girls were dressed up in tutus, fake tattoos, face paint and headbands. Boys wore matching colored t-shirts and shorts with some even wearing a cool wig. We even had Elvis Presley join us for the opening ceremony!
To start the opening ceremony, both teams are required to stand on opposite sides of the bunk lines and walk silently to their teams side on flagpole. Teams are rewarded extra points for accessories, behavior and spirit which means campers try their hardest to dress up, be as quiet as they can when walking up to flagpole and representing their team with their team symbols.
Once all the campers sat down at the area, it was time for the Olympic oath. Campers and counselors stood with hands on hearts pleading themselves to the event. It was finally time for the torchbearers to come up to the front of flagpole.
A few of the Senior and Varsity campers walked up to the flagpole to start the lighting of the torches. Two campers met together at the front of the flagpole to light the baskets for the six campers to light the torches. One by one, Joey program lit the six torches. The fire looked beautiful in front of the flags creating a real patriotic feeling across flagpole. Each camper slowly walked around the grounds, holding the torch. This was showed live on our Instagram by the way! Go and check it out!
Olympics 2019 had officially started.
Day One
“It’s the first day of Olympics! See you in ten minutes for line up. GO BLUE AND WHITE TEAM!” The CITS woke up the campers through the speaker to get them pumped and ready for the first day of Olympics. Campers whipped out all of the accessories from headbands, suspenders, tutus, wigs, whistles, gloves, face paint, knee high socks and so much more. Everybody looked the part (even the boys!).
Once everybody was up, fresh and ready to go, campers and counselors headed up to breakfast for their first silent meal of the summer. Could they do it? They stood behind their chairs and sang their first song of the day. Everybody was amazing for the whole meal and did their team proud.
For the first morning flagpole, Counselors and CITS were asked to perform pump up speeches to get everybody pumped up for their first set of games. White Team had Brie and Kadrian Spirit Counselor Advisors who thanked Green Team for the amazing food, pointed out how great the Red Team looked that day and how everyone needs to put in as much effort as they can.
A CIT from the Blue Team stood up and did an hilarious performance to the flag pole. He thanked the Green Team too for their delicious food and for Media for taking perfect pictures for his instagram. Priorities, right? Campers were definitely pumped after this skit.
To wrap up flagpole, the national anthem was sung beautifully by a group of Lower Lake girls who sang every note perfectly (pretty impressive!). The American and Olympic flag was held up high, ready to begin the games.
LETS DO THIS CAMPERS!
From Swim to basketball, campers were hard at work competing to get points to bring their team to the top. Sioux’s smashed their way through a game of Gaga while Lower Lake boys were running for their life in the Track competition. As the boys lined up to start racing, they all looked out of a movie as they stood there, feet first and arms forward, ready to sprint down the track. As the boys got to the finish line, a counselor waved the flag to signal the end of the race. The boys turned back to see what position they had come in. “POINTS GO TO BLUE!”
After a busy, fun-filled day of activities, it was time for dinner. Campers were discussing how many points they thought each match had gained and who they thought were leading for that day. It was all very serious business.
To grab some last minute points for the day, it was time for evening activity. For the boys, they watched their counselors gain more points for their teams in soccer, flag football and basketball. The kids sat back and relaxed while they watched their counselors work hard for their points. Meanwhile, the girls were in the sports complex, pulling and tugging in the Olympic tug of war!
Each division took turns in pulling the rope and gaining more points. Every team used all their strength to pull the rope onto their side. The concentration and power could be seen across all the girls faces from the Sioux’s to the CITS themselves. From the sidelines, each team cheered on their members to get the raring to go. “W-W-H-H-H-I-I-T-T-T-E-E What’s that spell? WHITE INDIA TO VICTORY!” This echoed through the sports complex and could be heard by every single camper and counselor.
Lauren stood at the midway point between both teams. As soon as the rope tie started to edge towards the winning team, she blew her whistle to announce the winner. The winners screamed and ran into a huddle to sing their teams chants.
What a fun, busy, amazing first day of Olympics. See you tomorrow!
