UCLA Camp
Counselor Retreat Coming off of the high that was Make The Magic, I thought it might be hard to top but once again, the Kesem love outdid itself and went above and beyond at retreat. Everyone jokes about how “awkward” they feel at the first few meetings each spring: newbies are afraid to talk to anyone, returners [...] 
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July 3, 2012 M is for MaturityGame Show Mania day! Every year there is a themed camp-wide competition, each time with a different theme, and this year was “game shows.” This meant kids were divided into random teams, not based on age groups, and pitted against each other in such activities as human Pac-Man, human Battleship, Are You Smarter Than a Counselor?, Fear Factor, human Angry Birds, and Minute to Win it.
Teams were also named based on various games like chess, Sorry, etc., and every team made up their own cheer. Ask your kid what their cheer was!
After a post-lunch dance party each team was awarded their special prize, but one team in particular won the coveted Kesem Gold Cup!
Shortly thereafter the CITs asked everyone to gather below a porch to bring back an old Kesem tradition: Counselors whom they had observed being “less than perfect” that week were called up to the front for a punishment (actions that entailed punishment ranged from wearing make-up at camp (a big no-no) to making their unit late to line-up). Whatever the punishment was, we then held up a pitcher filled to the brim with a putrid concoction of jalapenos, coffee, tea bags, milk, ketchup, bread, hash browns, etc. and told the counselors to turn around and receive their sentence. What the counselors didn’t know was that we just had 25 pitchers of ice water ready to dump on them, which we did. Nobody got away, and one that did got hers twofold.
Following this there was free time until the talent show: About three hours of different acts ranging from magic tricks to songs to dances to live-illustrations to original skits to poetry reading! After every act the Gold Unit teens had a graduation ceremony.
While all this was going on admin set up each person’s bag from the empowerment program, and put an electric candle in it, setting them in two rows so as to make a pathway of luminarias. Once everyone had filed out through the path we had our second to last Closing Circle, then had cabin chats, and (some) went to bed.
Comments |
Thanks again for posting, although u should be enjoying your 4th of July holiday! Love the pics, yay, Rachel’s group won!
Julie (Rachel and Helen's mom) | Jul 3, 2012 | Reply
The luminaries are a great touch! Many of these kids have lost a parent so its a nice way to have their light shine on. For those parents continuing the fight – best wishes to you always.
Maria | Jul 3, 2012 | Reply
As Quinkidinc’s dad I can assure you she will be enjoying her 4th! Some of it with fellow campers. But she felt really bad that the last night there she had no Internet signal. Zero. She took her assignment very seriously and knew many were counting on reading what happened and seeing her photos, so she worked hard to finish it up, and now she can play!
Thanks to you all who made such wonderful comments and let her know how important the blog was to you. I wouldn’t be surprised if every Kesem adopted it. See you all at the next reunion!
Charles | Jul 3, 2012 | Reply
You should feel very proud of your daughter! She touched all of our lives in ways she will never know!
Margaret | Jul 5, 2012 | Reply