We were blessed with a beautiful sunny Friday morning here in Marion. With only one day left for adventures, we were surprised at breakfast with a reveal that today was Tribal-palooza! This brings us far from a normal day at camp by instead putting evening activities at the forefront. Instead of just one evening activity at night, we played two different ones in the morning and early afternoon. This allowed for much fierce competition between the tribes.

This morning we played Age of Empires. This evening activity requires the boys to control different “kingdoms”. To do this, they must ensure no one from the other tribe is within the kingdom. Each boy has a shirt tucked into their shorts, much like a flag in flag football.

The second evening activity was Pirateball. Yaaarrrrgggg!!! This one is a favorite of mine. The goal of the game is to get more individual points than the other tribe and to do this, we have pirateballs that rotate through different games in which the boys are pitted against. The first is a casual water polo game, and the second is kayak polo. Lastly, many others were placed in rafting groups hoping to collect the balls when thrown into open lake water for points (the rafting part has always seemed the most fun because younger kids can participate in an important way).

At dinner, we patiently waited until they announced the winner of Commando, last night’s evening activity. To my dismay, Henry informed us that the Golden Eagles had narrowly made out with the win. I listened somberly as the Golden Eagles sang their tribal songs, plotting strategies for future games. As I recovered slowly, Henry informed us that the Black Bears had won Age of Empires that morning. With jubilation, we screamed our own Tribal songs to close out dinner.

We also had Little Chief again tonight, with many commendations and bars given out for campers determined to improve. This week, many of our boys pushed themselves in ways that surprised a camp veteran like me. Some standouts of tonight were Pace Waldron, who obtained the revered rank of Ranger, Barrett Clarke, who received his Pathfinder (last step before Little Chief), and Allen Wroten, who did the difficult task of completing all bars for Guitar within the two weeks he was here (I don’t even know how this is possible).

Commendations given out were as follows: Huckleberry, camper commendation: Hayes Warlick, counselor commendation: Holden Gockerman, Finch’s Landing, camper commendation: Alex Panayiotou, counselor commendation: Max Smith, Further Up, camper commendations: Mose Campbell and James Morgens, counselor commendations: Kai James and Mose Campbell, Further In, camper commendations: Robert Inman and Charlie Turner, counselor commendations: Sam Stewart and Grant Sacco, Hawksbill, camper commendations: Ben Jackson and Charles Lyman, counselor commendations: Ben Jackson, Charles Lyman, and Elliot Gockerman, Turtleback, camper commendations: Porter Schneider and Wills Abernathy, counselor commendations: Edward Baily and Thomas Buchly, Little Piney, camper commendations: Luke Tuck, Henry Van Jura, and Robie Ghode, counselor commendations: Edward Tierney, Parker Jones, and John Phillip, Big Piney, camper commendations: Matthew George, David Koagel, and Zach Wroten, counselor commednations: Carter Kojetin, Wyatt Fisher, and Andrew Inman, Stomper’s Knob, camper commendations: Stephens Jones, Kenny Cypher, and Henry Long, counselor commendations: Carter Tatro, Tucker Couch, and David Frazer, Little Slaty, camper commendations: Mason Scharf, Banks Pennington, and Edward Sax, counselor commendations: Mason Scharf, Will Carr, and Ryker Rojas, Big Slaty, camper commendations: Sam Chamberlain and Barrett Clarke, counselor commendations: Wyatt Gockerman and Hutton Stringfellow, Greybeard, camper commendation: Richard Burrow, counselor commendation: Allen Wroten.

Until next time,

Cooper Denning

Proud Black Bear

Senior Cabin Area Director