Good evening Timberlake parents, it is a beautiful sunny Sunday in Marion! Per usual, camp was full of adventure, new experiences, and friendly competition. We started our Sunday off as we always do, with cinnamon rolls, sausage, and chocolate milk for breakfast! After breakfast, the kids raced over to the chapel where we all sang, and a counselor from each cabin prayed for any prayer requests their campers had. Once every cabin had been prayed over, our morning cabin cleanup took place. Stomper’s Knob took home the win today, being the cleanest cabin! Once the cabins had been cleaned, the kids ran back to the chapel to watch the athletes competing in the highly esteemed Timber Tri begin their race. This included a swimming, mountain biking, and running portion. Grant S. took first on the podium, with Radford W. coming in second, and Thomas W. taking home the bronze medal!

While the Timber Tri was taking place, tons of other activities opened up for the kids to spend time outside in. These included a tradition unlike any others, Sunday at Masters disc golf, pickleball, fishing and frog catching, fort building, basketball, and various field sports. Sunday at the Masters was a close competition, but ultimately Bay J. and Matthew A. were unbeaten. Pickleball was incredibly competitive today as well, however, Kaito T. along with Tristan W. were victorious versus the competing campers and counselors. We can’t forget to mention the winners of the spectacular fort building competition, Malachi W, Tyler R, and David T. 

Once we had concluded our exhilarating morning of healthy competitions, all the  campers went on to lunch, all those except the campers who have siblings attending Merri-Mac. We were fortunate enough to host our sister camp today for sibling day with lunch, free swim, and trading post together. Both camps thoroughly enjoyed spending time together, catching up, and experiencing our fantastic lake features: the blob, high dive tower, and deep water rock climbing solo wall. Smiling faces, joyful laughter, and pure joy are the only fitting words for the faces of all campers involved. While all the siblings were having a blast on the lake, the rest of our campers enjoyed lunch until it was announced that the Golden Eagles won our new senior camp evening activity, battleship, along with junior and intermediate camp battleball. While half of the camp was overjoyed to hear this, a small piece of each Black Bear’s heart broke in the face of utter defeat.

After lunch, campers enjoyed a peaceful and quiet rest hour. Free time opened up at 2:20 today, where junior and intermediate camp rushed to the trading post, while senior camp slowly rolled out of bed and made their way down to enjoy their daily drink and snacks. Free time brought on more enjoyable activities such as free swim, more pickleball, basketball, and field sports. Although all these intriguing activities were open, two brothers chose to exercise their brains in the ultimate test. Teddy O. and Davis O. competed in a sophisticated, mind boggling, and incredibly competitive match of chess. Teddy O. used his few extra years of experience to win this breathtakingly close match. Once free time had concluded, all of the camp went up to the Mark to enjoy burgers, hotdogs, watermelon, and the oldest Timberlake tradition, campfire cookies. Dinner was full of more laughter and enjoyment of spending time with the whole camp family. Well, not quite. Something was missing, and it was our young men who set sail on Lake James today for an overnight canoeing trip! These impressive young men took on the challenge of paddling across Lake James to their camping sight, cooking dinner, and spending the night in the wilderness! These young men include: Jack S, Theo T, Radford W, Zach M, Kaito T, David C, Reid S, and Reynolds A.

To finish off this beautiful and unique day, Timberlake enjoyed more worship, along with camper and counselor-led skits at our very own Vespers. Declan Q. started off our skits while narrating a beautifully acted out skit performed by every one of his Greybeard cabin mates. Once Vespers came to a close, junior camp went back to the cabins to get ready for bed, intermediate camp went to a free swim, and senior camp competed in tribal basketball and soccer. Little Piney, Big Piney, and Stomper’s Knob took to the pitch to compete in an incredible soccer match. Meanwhile, Little Slaty, Big Slaty, and Greybeard took to the court to compete in possibly the most competitive tribal basketball game camp has seen in years. Camp is now winding down after an action packed day as we close out our 9th day of camp.

It has been a pleasure and an honor!

Signing off,

Hunter Snively

Black Bear

Greybeard Counselor

Kayaking Fanatic