Fourth of July at Camp Skyline!

The Fourth of July at Skyline is such a special holiday for the girls and staff alike. Today was such a fun holiday chock-full of Independence Day festivities and all new memories!

The day started with the treat of getting to sleep in a little before our special flag raising ceremony. The girls got to sleep in until 8:00 AM with flag raising and breakfast directly afterward. Everyone at camp showed up for flag raising decked in out in our patriotic gear to salute the flag! One of our amazing counselors, Ava, sang the national anthem. She is an extremely talented singer who attends Belmont during the year. She graced us with her gift of song and it kicked off the day with chills on arms and tears in eyes!

After, all of camp popped over to the dining hall for breakfast. Breakfast included oatmeal, sausage, buscuits, honeydew, cereal, milk, yogurt, and orange juice. We also always have coffee for the counselors - since 8:00 AM may not be their typical consideration of ‘sleeping in’ at home!

From breakfast, the girls went to their cabins for cabin clean up time. We still have inspection on the Fourth of July! So the girls had the chance to tidy up and change or swap any outfit pieces as they liked before they headed to club meeting!

After cabin clean up time, the girls headed to their respective club meetings. At club meetings, the girls signed up for their swim meet relay choices for tonight! These are little relays in the pool spilt up by club and age group. So, during club meeting, each age group in each club meets to sign up for the options based on their confidence and abilities. Some girls bravely claim their butterfly stroke while some choose to cheer aloud for their club. More to come on swim meet if you read on of course!

Once club meetings wrapped at 10 AM, the girls headed to the front of the gym (by beli deli and along the path) to get their spot for the parade. The girls walking in the parade with their club or cabin sign headed to get lined up at the barn.

Why the barn? Our horses are ridden by our summer barn staff to start the parade with an american flag up front and fun costumes and big smiles shortly behind. After the line of horses, we had each cabin sign. After cabins, we had club leaders for each of the three clubs. Following, of course, were army vehicles and ATVs with the nurses, admin staff, office staff, and admina and office family members! All who live here in Mentone year-round and choose to spend their Fourth of July at camp - who wouldn’t?!

Post-parade we all entered the gym to hear about the patriotic county fair stations and where each of them are located around camp. There were so many american themed options for the girls to enjoy. Some of them being:

1. Gaga ball with a founding father
2. Hair tinsle & temporary tattoos
3. Balloon darts
4. Giant Jenga
5. Cornhole with american bean bags of course
6. Amere-oke in the gym (Kareoke of American songs)
7. Ask Bailey (a counselor answers trivia or want-to-know questions about America or History)
8. Popsicles for grabs!
9. Red, White, and Blue ring toss
10. Letter writing to staff family members currently deployed
11. America Trivia competition
12. Rice krispy treat decorating

Patriotic county fair was so much fun all around camp. Girls are getting to make memories with so many friends, feel included, have so much on their agenda, and get the chance to honor our country on its’ Birthday. Spending the Fourth at Skyline is one of the best days EVER!

After our patriotic county fair, the girls had baked potato and BBQ lunch with banana pudding! Then, we had to include a rest hour after all the jam-packed fun already today. Rest hour is such a nice time for the girls to recharge their batteries and write those letters home to you before more Fourth of July fun in the afternoon.

After Rest Hour, we have our camp-wide olympics! These are also a club competition and include relays all over camp based on club and age group. The olympics kick off at the circus field with a three-legged race (2 girls per club), sack race (2 girls per club), and a 50 yard dash (1 girl from each club).

After these events kick it off - the girls travel around to stations with their age group and score is kept by the counselor alongside each group per club. So, each station the clubs can come in first, second or third place. To win overall, they must win the most stations. Second and third place follow based on how many wins, etc.

Some of the other races include:

1. Basketball Shot
2. Gaga Ball Tournament
3. Minute to Win it
4. Junk in the trunk
5. Cabins in order
6. Hula Hoop
7. Scooter race
8. Riflery shot
9. Tower race
10. Archery Shot
11. Baton hand off
12. Canoe Race
13. Water Balloon Toss
14. Extreme rock-paper-scissors

Each group competes in a handful of these competitions against others in their age group by club. It is so fun, loud, and competitive around camp. See the girls decked out in their red white and blue is so much fun and the costumes and outfits are super creative to see. We had a counselor show up as Lady Liberty, a Founding Father outfit, a ton of tutus, and more.

The results of olympics were:

1. Troopers
2. Rangers
3. Mounties

After olympics, we all headed back to our cabins and changed for special flag lowering and picnic dinner. Special flag lowering was lead by Larry Johnson, camp owner, for the girls to learn what each fold of the American flag represents. Larry taught a lot about the presence and symbolism of our nation’s founding rooted in being one nation under God.

For dinner, the girls enjoyed a Fourth of July picnic with hot dogs, watermelon, chips, and slaw. A perfect meal for the holiday here at camp!

After dinner, we all headed to the pool for swim meet - another club competition to round out the day! The girls competed by age group in a multitude of swimming races. The youngest girls started with a seahorse noodle race and each group participated in a medley race and free style as well. The next groups raced paddling in floaties and the oldest girls swam and worked hard to unfreeze a tshirt, eventually to wear on their swim back to their club for the win. They had 30 seconds at the other end of the pool (from the starting line) to slam it, wet it, and try to defrost the shirt to be able to put on the arms, and head hole. Each turn was 30 seconds and it was very challenging and fun to watch. Our admin and head counselors also competed against a group of counselors with the frozen shirt relay. The admin and head counselor team took the victory!

The swim meet results were:

1. Troopers
2. Mounties
3. Rangers

After swim meet, we headed to quickly change for our respective campfires. Then, all of camp got to experience an amazing firework show on the circus field! The girls were oohing and ahing, later turning into yelling their club name for fireworks their club color! It was so cute and fun here at camp and the day ended with such a special display of light, hope, and allegiance to our country.

We hope you all had a safe and happy Fourth of July at home and we are so thankful to have your girls here to spend it with us. They truly make camp so special and today was one for the books for all of us at Skyline!