A Day in the Life of…The Juniors

I’m Jessica, a newbie to Camp Robin Hood. This summer I will be shadowing units, cabins, staff, and various activities, and giving you an inside look at what it’s like to spend summers at CRH. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having!

Age Group: Completed SK and Grade 1
Section Heads: Jason (Junior Boys) and Joanne (Junior Girls)
Cabin: Entire Unit (about 100 boys)
Counsellors: 18 Counsellors

This week I decided to investigate what a Special Day was at Camp Robin Hood. I’d heard lots about them, seen counsellors and section heads planning them and had even reminded parents of upcoming Special Days in the CRH Newsletter. But when it came down to it, they were a complete mystery to me. So I joined Jason Gregor, aka Gregor, aka Grilled Cheese (funny story, this has been Jason’s nickname at CRH for years, and has something to do with the fact that when his parents went out of town, he managed to survive on the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner), and the Junior Boys for their Western-themed day of fun!

The day started with a whole bunch of six and seven-year-old cowboys arriving at the unit. There were cowboy hats, vests, chaps and some hilarious moustaches. These kids were dressed up and ready to visit the Wild Wild West. During arrival I eavesdropped on a group of boys playing a card game called ‘Top Trumps’, which I came to the conclusion is an updated version of ‘Pokemon’ except with super heroes, but I never really got ‘Pokemon’ and probably just made that up. I also looked in on a game of Gaga, which is officially on my camp bucket list. It looks like a blast, I’ve heard it’s a summer camp staple and I still have no idea how to play it. Now I just need to find someone to teach me…

Once the nearly 100 boys had put their bags away and posed for some pictures in their cowboy outfits, they sat in lines with their cabins and calmly waited for a special guest to arrive.

Gregor: Hey Junior Boys
Junior Boys: Hey Yah

(Unlike ‘Waterfall’ at Munchies, the ‘Hey Yah’ response is the loudest response you can imagine, while still having the same effect of getting the unit’s attention. In fact, if you need a hype man at your next event, any of these boys could do the job, but more on that later.)

Just then Mayor Ford arrived (wearing a Ford T-Shirt…the car manufacturer, not the Toronto mayor) with his wife to say hi to the JBs. But before the mayor could tell us why he was there, an evil bandit came and tied him up and kidnapped him. The boys were given a mission for the day: get the mayor back from the evil bandit by paying him with three bags of diamonds, which they would earn at their activities throughout the day.

So the boys were split into groups–one went and played a Lasso Game and the others played Freeze Dance while learning the ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ two-step. Next was Tin Can Shooting where the boys were given a spray bottle and had to shoot it at a pyramid of beach buckets to knock them down.

Then came the Dance-Off where I got a lesson in Camp Spirit. In the last few weeks I’ve been noticing at various Flagpoles that the Junior Boys are by far the most enthusiastic unit at Camp Robin Hood. When they are asked to cheer, they cheer the loudest. When they win Cabins & Grounds (they’re undefeated in the Junior Division, by the way), they celebrate the loudest. And when a Camp Dance song comes on, they dance the hardest. And I’m not just talking about this year’s Camp Dance (which they already knew most of the moves), but they still remember every move of last year’s dance, too. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was so cool that after an entire year of adding and subtracting, spelling tests and history lessons, they still remembered all of the moves to ‘Can’t Hold Us’. I went back to the office and bragged about these talented boys, and a camper-turned-office-staff said she still remembers year’s worth of Camp Dances. And the Camp Spirit Award goes to….the entire Camp Robin Hood gang. Love it!

Oh, and how could I forget, they were all super awesome dancers. And that doesn’t just go for the kids; the counsellors have quite the rhythm, so much so that I promised I would give them a shout out for their sweet moves.

We then played a quick game of Horseshoe Toss before heading off to swim. Some groups were practicing their floating, others learned all about water safety, and another group took a quick canon ball break, where I was able to get some fun action shots of their best freestyle jumps.

When swim was done we headed back to the unit so the boys could change and have a quick snack. I took this opportunity to take a short break from the Wild Wild West and headed over to Robindelle where the Junior Girls were having their Frozen-themed Special Day. Just like the rest of the world, CRH has Frozen-fever and these girls were getting a kick out of their counsellors reenacting a few scenes from the movie, including musical numbers. I’m not sure I’m sick of ‘Let it Go’ and ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’ quite yet, but after a day with the soundtrack playing non-stop, I think the JG counsellors are ready for a break.

I headed back to hang out with the cowboys, just as they were heading to the Gaga court to search for diamonds that were buried in the sand. Every time one of the boys found a diamond, there were exclamations of excitement as they dropped them in the collection bucket. (FYI, there were about 90 diamonds hidden in the sand by the counsellors, and less than half were found. So if your kid comes home with a ‘gift for mom’ you know where it came from!)

We then took a break for lunch, where I was quickly brought back to elementary school as we all compared what was in our lunch bags.

Next came a ‘Cowboy Ride’ Relay Race that ended just in time for the delivery of a ransom note for Mayor Ford. The clue indicated that there were letters hidden around camp that spelled the final clue to get back our beloved mayor. We ran through camp from one clue to the next, finally ending up at Flagpole where we exchanged our bags of diamonds for Mayor Ford, but not before the evil bandit got away.

We celebrated the return of Ford by heading to our second swim, where I got a few more action shots of CRH’s budding Olympic divers. And then headed back to camp for a special treat to end our Special Day: cupcakes! And of course one more crack at the Camp Dance.

Now I thought I was exhausted after hanging out with the Munchies last week, but I really had no idea what exhausted even meant. Thanks Junior Boys for a great day, see you next week InterGirls!