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What’s Happening at Camp Takajo, August 12, 2014

By August 12, 2014 January 4th, 2019 Tak Talk
Camp Takajo Warrior Whacked-Up Relay Race 2014 image

 

With just a few days left in the camp season, Camp Takajo hosted four of our greatest traditional events, all in one day. In the morning, the entire camp came together for the Olympic song competition. While the Olympics takes place within each division (Warrior, Junior, Senior), we came together as a camp for the song competition. What I love most about this event is that our younger boys, who idolize our senior campers, have the opportunity to march into our Indian Council Fire Ring in uniform and share this experience as one united team. With the Green and Grey teams sitting opposite each other, each team had to sing four camp songs, including our alma mater, followed by one creative song that was written by a member of each team. The creative song is always to a popular and current melody, but the words reflect the spirit and competition that takes place during the Olympics. As younger campers sang in unison with our older boys, you could sense their excitement to link arms with the leaders of camp.
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Later this afternoon, I hosted a lunch at my home for our Okees, campers who finished ninth grade, whose summer camping careers end on Friday. After a great barbecue, a swim in the lake, and the tradition hot tub picture, it is customary for me to sit with our oldest campers to reflect on their summers at Camp Takajo. We talked about their early years, some of their favorite counselors, and yes, even a few who might not have made it through the season. I give each boy the opportunity to ask me any questions that relate to camp that they would like to ask. Some questions are incredibly thoughtful, such as future plans for our facility, and other questions are more comical, like if I were “in a plane with Warren and Bob and only had one extra parachute, who would get it?” I always cherish my time with our Okees because I know this is the last time I will have them all together in camp.
Camp Takajo Warrior Whacked-Up Relay Race 2014 image

After this amazing lunch, we shifted gears for the Olympic “whacked-up” relay. You would have to see this to believe it, but the whacked-up relay is a relay race that runs through the entire camp with every camper participating in a least one event. A runner with a baton runs from event to event. At each event, a camper accomplishes the goal before the runner can continue to the next event. Events include a foul shooting contest, serving consecutive balls on a tennis court, shooting a bulls-eye in archery, an egg toss, and the toilet flush, when one camper has to flush every toilet in the quad. The culmination of the whacked-up relay is the pie-eating contest, where two campers square off and have to eat half a pie until the plate is completely clean. The first team that completes all events including the pie-eating contest, wins the whacked-up relay and the Olympics. As you might imagine, campers run from event to event, cheering on their teammates until we all gather down by the waterfront, where we watch our two pie eaters square off. At the end, there were no losers, because we all charged down to the waterfront for a celebratory dip.

As the sun set on Long Lake after a jammed-packed day, the entire camp went back to the Indian Council Fire Ring for the closing campfire. Campers were selected to read about Camp Takajo’s heritage, and we all took time to reflect on what we have accomplished this summer. The final campfire was not complete until our chief, Neil Minsky, entertained us by performing a flaming hoop dance, which mesmerized the campers, followed by a traditional Native American squat dance. When people tell me that their children stay home because there is so much to do, I just smile and think about what we accomplish in just one day at Camp Takajo.