Banquet Night

Things are feeling really good at camp right now. As this session’s campers spend their last few days for this summer, they are eagerly making the most of it. There are craft projects to finish of course (Weaving! Pottery!), but there’s also a strange urgency to ride the waterslide or play in the creek one last time, to sing that favorite song (louder than usual), or just to spend time with those special camp friends. Tomorrow is a big day of performances for the equestriennes, dancers, and actors in camp, for it’s when we get to see the horse show, dance show, and camp musical. That means today is day for rehearsals, for horses being dressed and warmed up, for dance moves being refined, and for lines and stage directions being memorized.

Tomorrow is also the day that we travel back over to Camp Carolina to challenge them to an archery, riflery and tennis tournament. Here too, the girls are anticipating the challenge by practicing their shooting, and their tennis strokes. Even though the tournaments are playful affairs, the girls do enjoy returning to camp to proclaim “We beat Camp Carolina!”

The big event of the day, however, was tonight’s Banquet. Kept a secret since the first day of camp, the CA campers (9th graders) presented their theme for the night: Time Travelers: Rewind Back in Time. This was a highly decorated occasion with every wall in the dining hall covered by a hand-painted, floor-to-ceiling, poster representing different epochs like “Pre-historic Cave Men,” “Ancient Civilizations,” “Medieval Times,” the “50s,” the “80s” and “The Future.” The CA campers choreographed a dance routine, complete with different costumes and music, for each time period. Holding it all together was a time machine that transported characters from one time period to another. And the costumes! Counselors were dressed as Nefertiti, Queen Elizabeth, Marilyn Monroe, Mother Nature, a 50s greaser, and an 80s aerobics instructor. Caesar salad, hot wings, macaroni and cheese and soda floats made up the main menu (as well as plenty candy decorating the tables). Between dance numbers on the program, campers and staff members, all dressed in their RBC t-shirts, spontaneously got up to dance and sing. An extravagant party like this is hot, loud, sugar-fueled fun, and while it may take a few days to clean up all the glitter, we all loved it.