In a normal summer, we would have greeted roughly twenty-five younger brothers and prospective campers this morning for our annual Rookie Day. We love hosting a camp for those little ones who are thinking of joining us the following summer. We always ask our Okees, who are graduating from camp this summer, to spend the day with our incoming class to introduce them to the culture of Camp Takajo. Admittedly, this is one of those moments that I cherish, although we’re not able to offer it to our prospective families or to our oldest campers this summer.
In a perverse way, there is something incredibly special about what is taking place this summer in camp. Your boys are happy, not just happy because they’re thankful that they get to be in camp without masks, but they’re happy because they’re invigorated by the deep friendships they are forming and the excitement of our daily program. We are seeing a record number of campers participating in Jordan Baltimore’s specialty baseball clinics. Jordan has entered camp at the perfect time of our season. On the heels of Mike Turtle’s soccer clinics, our baseball players are loving their time getting this high-level training.
In light of the decision not to have inter-camp competition against neighboring camps, we have created in-house challenges that have set the scene for some of our most iconic sports finishes during the summer. In the last day, Junior Camp has been “on fire.” Our Junior Greens, who have finished fifth grade, played our Junior Greys (finished sixth grade) in an all-star basketball challenge that was a nail-biter. Staying neck and neck with their older counterparts, the Junior Greens displayed tenacity, grit, and skill, and found themselves down by a point with only seconds to spare. To add to the drama, one of the Junior Green stars closed out the game with a last-second, heroic buzzer-beater, scoring over his older brother. The entire age group erupted and followed the Junior Greens down to the lake for a celebratory dip in Long Lake.
This afternoon, the Junior Greys got even with the Greens, as they met them on the baseball diamond and came from behind with a last inning rally to eke out a victory, 8-5. We are hosting these in-camp challenges by age group to create the excitement and stimulation our boys crave. The difference in their skill and stamina from the time they arrived four weeks ago is very noticeable. Our boys have gotten into great shape and their skills and confidence are growing with every passing day. We are competing in the final rounds of our Takajo Tennis Tournament, and campers of all ages and abilities have had the opportunity to participate. The final matches have been witnessed by packed bleachers of campers and counselors, who have enjoyed watching our best tennis players compete for victory.
This afternoon, we took a break from competition and enjoyed the all-camp Takajo Carnival. Temperatures were in the high seventies with a beautiful breeze coming across our fields. Our campers enjoyed all kinds of games and rides, but the longest lines were for cotton candy and snow cones.
As we prepare for what would have been our visiting day weekend, your boys are happy, settled, and hitting their strides. The long-range forecast is for bright sunshine, seasonable temperatures, and very happy campers.
