The Buses Are On Their Way! (ETA is 1:50 p.m.)

Hi everyone! One last post to let you know that the buses have departed from Camp Cody with your amazing campers on them. We expect them to arrive at the Braintree High School parking lot around 1:50 p.m. Thank you for sharing your teens with us this week! Camp is such a great place because of each one of them.

How Is It Friday?!?!

Fridays at camp are both incredibly wonderful and so hard. It’s wonderful to celebrate the amazing week we’ve shared together, and it’s so hard to say goodbye.

We began the day with a delicious breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, bagels, bacon (we can never have enough bacon!), and fruit. Today’s morning group program focused on strength bombardments. Strength bombardments give group members a chance to share with each other positive affirmations and words of encouragements. It’s amazing to see how our campers build each other up and celebrate the amazing gifts they see in their peers. After morning group, we had an all-camp picnic. We enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, pasta salad, chips, and watermelon. A feast! Then at 1:30, we started the hug line. This is an amazing tradition that brings all of our campers and staff to the field (around 500 people total this year!), and everyone hugs everyone else. Can you imagine getting 500 hugs, all in one day? It’s so awesome! It also takes about 2.5 hours! We put some good music on over the loudspeakers, lather on the sunscreen, grab water bottles to stay hydrated (it can get hot out there!), and hug the afternoon away.

This evening, dinner was a camp favorite — chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese. Talk about “camp’s greatest hits”! After dinner, we prepared for a wonderful camp tradition — consecration. We divide the campers up for two consecration services — one for our junior high campers and staff and the other for senior high. After junior high consecration ended, we added something new to the evening. All the junior high campers got pizza to share in their cabins. We wanted to encourage one last night of cabin bonding, giving our campers and staff a great way to end the week with food and fellowship. The perfect combo!

Our senior high campers and staff gather in the Rec Hall for their consecration service, which is led by the senior class. The seniors did an amazing job putting the service together. 

(The communion table in the Rec Hall for senior high consecration)

After the worship service, we moved out to the council ring for our closing campfire. Five members of the Class of 2019 were chosen by their peers to share a message at the campfire. They all did an amazing job! After the senior speakers finished, we gathered around the campfire and sang the Lord’s Prayer together one last time. And with that, another week at camp has almost come to a close.

(The closing campfire where the seniors gave their speeches)

Tomorrow morning will be busy, busy, busy as campers pack, clean up their cabins, eat breakfast, and prepare to return home. In less than 12 hours, we’ll be on the road back to Braintree High School!

We're In the Homestretch

It’s hard to believe that it’s already Thursday! So often, the first few days of camp week go by slowly and it feels like camp will last forever (in a good way!). Then we hit Thursday and start to wonder how the week is going by so fast! How is it already Thursday?!?!

(The view of Lake Ossipee during Morning Watch today)

Our day started with another delicious breakfast (the Camp Cody kitchen staff takes such good care of us!): French toast sticks, breakfast sausage, and fruit. After morning watch and morning meeting, we made our way to morning group. The “Once Upon a Camp” theme we explored today was romance. Or as the campers call it, today was “hot and steamy Thursday.” We talked about romantic relationships, friendships, relationships with our families, and relationships with ourselves. It was a great opportunity for our teens to talk about healthy and unhealthy relationship dynamics and to share with each other how to navigate forming relationships in the age of social media.

We headed to lunch to discover a camp-wide favorite on the menu: pizza paninis! They’re a mashup of garlic bread, grilled cheese, and pizza. Totally delicious! We also had French fries, Caesar salad, and Hoodsies. Spree time was short today in order to give enough time for our afternoon program. Today was the annual and always highly-anticipated event: cabin wars! The weather was sunny and warm (but not too hot) — it was a perfect day for this camp-wide competition. After fierce rounds of battle, the final relay was between Cherokee (8^th grade boys) and Pawnee (senior boys). It was a close one! The 8^th grade boys ran faster for the sponge bucket relay, but they didn’t have the experience of the senior boys, who knew how to use the sponges to maximize the amount of water they transported from bucket to bucket. So in the end, the cabin wars trophy went to (drumroll please…) Pawnee. Go senior boys! And both teams showed great sportsmanship with a spontaneous handshake line after the final whistle.

(A view of the field during cabin wars)

Everyone needed some time to clean-up from cabin wars before going to dinner (BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn). Dinner flowed right into chapel (led by the 7^th and 8^th grade classes), and then we headed out onto the field for our evening activity — the variety show. The variety show contains a wide variety (haha!) of acts: singing, playing instruments, dancing, skits. The campers did an amazing job tonight, and it was beautiful to see how people supported and encouraged each camper who was brave enough to step on stage in front of 500 people to perform.

After the variety show came to an end, we moved over to the council ring for vespers and the Lord’s Prayer. Then we sent the junior high cabins and staff back to their cabins for bed while the senior high cabins and staff made their way to the dining hall for — PIZZA! This is a Thursday evening tradition that gives the senior high campers more of an opportunity to spend time together at the end of the week. And who doesn’t love pizza?!?! After pizza night ended, the campers headed to their cabins to get a good night’s sleep.

The Rain Can't Keep Us Down!

Today’s theme: RAIN! And a lot of it… We made it through breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels, and fresh fruit), Morning Watch, and the morning meeting before the rain drops started to fall. But the rain didn’t dampen our spirits — or our Morning Group conversations. Today’s theme for Morning Group was superheroes. We talked about our personal superhero abilities — the gifts and skills that make us who we are. And we talked about how it’s important to find time to take care of ourselves even as we’re attending to all the other responsibilities in our lives.

Lunch today was the perfect rainy day menu: tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and curly fries. Almost immediately after second lunch left the dining hall, the skies opened up and the downpours began. The rain just kept falling and falling and falling… We still encouraged the campers to do a wide variety of activities during spree time, including an epic slip-‘n-slide that was set up in the field. At one point, it looked like almost the entire camp was lined up and ready to take a turn sliding down the tarp. It was awesome! We had planned for the afternoon activity today to be “Chill Day.” Chill Day is an extension of spree time with some additional activities thrown in for good measure. It worked perfectly to hold Chill Day outside, even in the rain. The campers handled the weather today remarkably well, and they were gracious in accepting the schedule changes that we needed to make throughout the day.

Speaking of schedule changes… We moved chapel a little earlier than usual because we were afraid another band of storms would pass through after dinner. The amazing Class of 2021 led worship today. We had an awesome dinner of beef lo mein, steamed broccoli, and ice cream sandwiches. After dinner, everyone went back to their cabins to prepare for the dance. You heard that correctly (or read it, really). Tonight was the dance! We swapped the evening programs for today and tomorrow (due to the weather), so the dress-up dance was tonight and the variety show will be tomorrow night. All the campers danced the night away at “Cinderella’s Ball.” Then after the dance, the teens were off to vespers. And that brought our evening to a close. Let's hope that when the sun rises tomorrow, the rain doesn't come with it...

(Campers and staff dancing to "Lord of the Dance" during chapel)

Taco Tuesday!

Hey there! Greetings from Camp Cody, where we’re finishing up an awesome Tuesday! I know you’re curious what we ate for breakfast, right? We started the day with French toast, sausage patties, and fruit. We made our way through Morning Watch and then on to the morning all-camp meeting. For the all-camp meeting, we gather all the campers and staff on the basketball court right near the dining hall so that we can start the day with some announcements, some “heads or tails” raffles (campers can purchase $5 wristbands to participate in these raffles for great prizes!), some laughter, and the important reminder to “make it a great day.”

(Campers and staff gathered on the basketball court for the morning meeting)

Our Morning Groups lived up to their names today—we got back on schedule and had our Morning Groups meetings in the morning. The focus today was on two very different genres: horror and comedy. That might seem like an odd pairing, but as the teens in my Morning Group pointed out, both horror movies and comedies have something in common — they elicit strong emotional reactions from people. Also we so often look back at the things that we were afraid of when we were young, and our childish fears can make us laugh. We talked about how we can overcome our fears and how laughter can help us through even the most challenging of times.

We did something different with lunch today — instead of dividing up into two meals, we had the whole camp eat together “picnic style.” We always do this on Fridays, but we decided to add another all-camp lunch to the schedule this year to see how it would go. We invited Morning Groups to eat together to continue the conversations they had during their meetings and to keep strengthening their bonds with one another. On the menu for lunch: Italian subs, watermelon, and chips. And the weather was beautiful — it was a perfect day to eat outside!

Today’s spree time was shorter than usual in order to give some extra time to our afternoon program: “Camp Cody One Acts.” Yes, after a ten-year hiatus, we brought back the camp skits! The campers were back in their color teams for this activity. Each team was given a summary of a well-known fairy tale or children’s movie along with a list of characters, props, and lines they had to incorporate into their skits. Teams had the whole afternoon to pull their skits together. After dinner (Taco Tuesday!—hard and soft tacos with all the fixin’s) we had chapel (led by the awesome Class of 2021), and then went right into the evening program: “Cody One Acts Show.” Each color team presented their skit, and the evening was filled with tons of laughing and lots of cheering. In the end, the forest green team took the award for “Best Picture.” It was a great evening! We then wrapped up the day with vespers and sent the campers back to their cabins for a good night’s sleep.

(The seniors gathered in the middle of the council ring during chapel for the traditional singing of "Let the Circle Be Unbroken")

Hitting Our Stride

It’s Monday, and we’re really hitting our stride at camp. The day started with a yummy breakfast of waffles, bacon (always a fave!), and fruit. With our bellies full, we headed into Morning Watch and then the morning meeting. After that, our schedule flip-flopped because on Mondays, morning group meets at night. That means that we started the day with the “evening program,” which was “Quest for the Mad Lib.” Campers were grouped by cabins and played games to win mad-lib words, which they then used to create a camp related Mad Libs story. The campers had a great time with this one!

Lunch was Philly cheese steaks (always a hit), hummus wraps (a new addition to the camp menu and very tasty), tater tots (who doesn’t love those?), and grapes. The campers then headed into spree time. Yesterday, I mentioned that spree time includes the opportunity to visit the camp store. Now I have to admit that I’m pretty biased because part of my job at camp is to help run the camp store. Dave Krall is our ever enthusiastic store manager, and I get to be the assistant manager of “Garments, Gatos, and Gear.” The store has really expanded over the past few years, and we have a wide variety of apparel available (the garments and gear) along with snacks and drinks (the “gatos” part of the name). If you have a camper here this week, it’s not too late to place an online order for them. You can visit this link (Camp Store), and we’ll fill the order and get it to your camper! Okay, the shameless plug is over...

(Look at some of the awesome items we sell in the camp store!)

The afternoon program introduced the campers to their color teams. Color teams allow us to mix up all the grades and all the cabins and all the staff into new groups so that the campers can meet more people. The afternoon game was called “Ye Olde King Cody’s Faire.” Here’s set-up… The game started when the King and Queen of Camp Body were kidnapped by a dragon, and the campers were divided into knights and wizards with the common goal of rescuing them. The knights played more active games while wizards focused on puzzles and riddles. After a brief rain delay, the orange team emerged victorious! Huzzah!

(Color teams gathered in the council ring for "Ye Olde King Cody's Faire")

Dinner was the ever popular orange chicken, sautéed vegetables, rice, and blondie bars. So good! The class of 2020 led our chapel service and did an amazing job. Then we moved into morning group at night. This has become a treasured camp tradition. There’s something about meeting outside at night, in the dark, that really encourages teens to open up and share. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation as we look up at the night sky and take in all the stars. The discussion tonight focused on values — where our values come from and what it means to live by our values. Right after morning group at night, we headed to the council ring for vespers. We have an awesome tradition of ending vespers by standing in a circle around the campfire (or rather, a few concentric circles — there are a lot of us!), holding hands, and singing the Lord’s Prayer. Campers then headed back to their cabins for the night. And with that, our Monday program came to an end…

Sunday Funday

Good evening! Today was our first full day of camp — and it was awesome! We started bright and early with breakfast. We eat our meals in two shifts because the dining hall isn’t big enough to accommodate all of our campers and staff. Each cabin is assigned to either first meal or second meal. For breakfast, first meal is at 7:30 (yes, we get the campers up early!) and second meal is at 8:15. Our first camp breakfast of the week featured pancakes, breakfast sausage, and fruit. Cereal, yogurt, and granola are also available at breakfast every day. There’s something for everyone. We begin every meal with grace, and then tables try to “earn” the right to go through the buffet line by singing at the top of their lungs to get the attention of the table callers. We should have earplugs available — it is SO LOUD in the dining hall! But this tradition also makes meals so much fun.

After breakfast, we have a camp-wide activity called Morning Watch. Everyone finds a place to sit where they can be quiet for ten minutes. We give out Morning Watch sheets with scripture readings, inspiring quotes, and prayer prompts. After the noise level in the dining hall during meals, it’s amazing to see how quiet camp can get for a full ten minutes. Many campers love Morning Watch because it gives them a chance to collect their thoughts and get ready for the day ahead.

After Morning Watch, we have an all-camp meeting (for announcements and an overview of the day), then campers head back to their cabins for clean-up before heading to their morning groups. Using our theme of “Once Upon A Camp,” today’s Morning Group discussions focused on children’s books and invited everyone to reflect on how our childhoods shaped us into the people we are today.

After lunch (chicken patties — always a camp favorite — watermelon, and chips), everyone had their first chance at spree time. During spree time, campers have to be outside their cabins. There are a variety of activities available: active options like volleyball or basketball, creative options like tie-dying or bracelet making, and relaxing options like nail painting or playing board games. Campers can also visit the Camp Store (which we’ve affectionately named “Garments, Gatos, and Gear” — pronounced as a true Bostonian would say it, of course). Campers can choose to do whatever they want during spree time, as long as they don’t return to their cabins.

Today’s afternoon activity was “Be Our Quest,” which brought morning groups back together to play games to earn Disney song clues and photos of Disney characters, which they then had to pair up. The team with the most matched pairs won! The weather was great for the game (sunny but not too hot), and everyone had a great time.

(Our staff dressed up as the Disney characters featured in "Be Our Quest")

After dinner (tortellini with sausage, spinach, and tomato sauce along with green beans, rolls, and vanilla cake), the Class of 2019 led tonight’s chapel service. They did an amazing job! Now all the campers are at the first dance of the week: “Once Upon a Previous Owner” (think thrift shop outfits…). 

(Old camp t-shirts hung up in the Rec Hall for the dance)

Vespers will come right after the dance, and then everyone will head back to their cabins for a good night’s sleep. Sunday Funday will soon come to a close… But we have another awesome day in store for tomorrow!

Aaaaaand, We're Back!

Hi everyone! We’re back! It’s Rev. Jennie reporting in from Camp Cody. I’m the Senior Pastor of Old South Union Church, and I have the pleasure of serving alongside my colleague Rev. Larry Gipson as one of the camp chaplains. I’m also the resident camp blogger, so I’ll be keeping you up-to-date throughout the week with all the adventures we’re having up here in Freedom, NH. So please check back in each day to see what we’re up to!

First off, let me give you the news you’ve all been waiting for—everyone arrived safely at Camp Cody. (Sorry that news is coming so late in the day. Hopefully you trusted that everyone made it here safely, even though we didn’t tell you sooner!) The buses made it up to camp a little before 2:00 p.m. Everyone spilled out of the buses and made their way to the council ring for a word of welcome from our fearless Camp Director, Tom Remsen. Then they found out (drum roll please...) their cabin assignments! Everyone headed to their cabins and had some time to unpack before gathering back at the council ring for introductions and announcements. Here’s a picture of our whole camp crew in the council ring:

The rest of the afternoon went quickly… Morning groups met for the first time and began delving into the camp theme for the week: Once Upon a Camp. Then we headed off to dinner. It’s always fun to see what the Camp Cody staff choose for our first meal of the week. This year was grilled chicken with either BBQ sauce or honey mustard, rice, asparagus, and brownies (Cody desserts are so good!). The salad bar was also open, as it is every night at dinner. After dinner we had our first chapel service, which was led by members of the staff. The evening activity was the opening campfire, which featured songs and skits put together by the staff. We had to shorten up the campfire because the rain clouds started rolling in, and we wanted to be sure to get evening vespers in before the rain started. And we juuuuust made it! Everyone went back to their cabins for an early evening. We can’t guarantee that an early evening = more sleep. We’ll see who’s ready to rise and shine bright and early tomorrow morning…

Have a great evening, everyone!