What's Happening at Camp: Boating, CIT Overnight Olympics!

It’s been a busy week at Sewataro. On Thursday, our Eagle section went canoeing on the Charles River, led by section supervisor, Colleen. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the river, feeling the breeze, gliding over the water, seeing heron, geese, mallards, and turtles. The group paddled down to where the river doglegs to the east and docked at The Cove in Newton for lunch and some impromptu games at the playground before heading back to camp.

Also Thursday, was the CIT Overnight. Led by Tara and Pete, the CIT program offers a nice balance of fun and learning, with the CIT’s getting both instruction and practice in assuming the responsibility of counselors while being mentored. Thursday night’s weather was perfect for fun, including activities of choice like fishing and volleyball. Being one with the outdoors is a big part of our philosophy, and camping out is part of that special experience. Of course, it doesn’t hurt for you to have Pete grill some blueberry pancakes for breakfast in the morning. Next week, we are looking forward to the Eagle section’s overnight.

By far, however, the focus of the week has been inter-tribe play, following that revered camp tradition of color wars. The Sewataro style of competition, however, has a heavy emphasis on teamwork and good sportsmanship, with tribes not only shaking hands at the end of the game, but even cheering their opponents.

A great example was Friday’s contest between the Seminole and the Nipmuc at Capture the Flag. Jay first laid down the rules about tagging, safe house, and jail before the competition began. Seminoles made a quick attack en masse initially, but they overlooked a lone Nipmuc who sneaked behind their lines and captured the flag. Score: Nipmuc Yellow 1, Semiole Orange 0. Not to be discouraged, the Seminoles continued their attacking strategy, and twice in a row they got through the Nipmuc defense and captured the flag. Score Seminole Orange 2, Nipmuc Yellow 1. The Nipmuc regrouped, however, and went on offense, scoring two quick flags and taking a 3-2 lead into the final minute of play. Then, with nimble quickness, Cole of the Seminole slipped through the Nipmuc lines and captured the final flag, ending the game in a 3-3 tie. The teams congratulated one another afterwards and shook hands.

Starting at mid-week, each day, after morning announcements, began with a counselor competition. Wednesday was the Over-under Bucket relay, with the Blue team winning. Thursday was the basketball game, with the Yellow team dominating, led by Vic’s inside play and Jim’s outside shooting—and all the teams cheered on wildly by the campers. On Friday, we saw the three-way Tug-of-war, a fan favorite that is as much about strategy as strength. Initially the Orange line had momentum because of their coordinated timing, and they almost reached the orange ball on the cone, but in the blink of an eye, a strong surge came from the Blue team, led by their anchor, Seth, and they prevailed. For the campers, you would have thought it was the Super Bowl, the cheering was so loud.

Camper games multiplied and intensified in the Friday Afternoon Special Event time, including a relay to see which tribe’s balls got down the slope of Sewataro the fastest, a Long Jump competition on the sandy beach, a Sink-your-counselor-in-the-canoe race, a fencing duel with noodles, a gigantic game of dodgeball, a free kick soccer contest, and some fun relay races.

Going into the final competition on Friday, the score rested at: Yellow 2345, Orange 2250, and Blue 2170. Orange made final push at the Grassy Bowl with a counselor relay win, a dynamite banner, and an electric performance by Matt. In the end, however, Yellow’s lead proved insurmountable and they were crowned champions of this year’s Olympics. We concluded with each section doing a cheer for the others.

To those of you who leaving us today, we bid a fond adieu with great hopes of seeing you again next year. Thanks for being part of the Sewataro experience. We enjoyed your contributions to it.