It's Been a While....

It's been a really busy few days. On Saturday, we had the camp dance with Summerscape. The theme was Olympics and on Sunday, we held our own DLA/Summerscape Olympics. Senior Leaders each senior experience student had a group of about 11 campers from the two camps. Events included physical, mental and artistic challenges. Monday was the real off-campus night. Some of us went to the 1984 arcade, some went bowling, and the rest went to see Brave or the Avengers. Then, finally, tonight was both the Hunger Banquet and our annual talent show. The Senior Experience class organized the banquet using the Oxfam Hunger Banquet packet. Students and RA's were randomly divided into high, middle and low class based on malnourished populations of the world. It was a good learning experience, and inspired many campers to take action in their own communities.

 

Well, now you're all caught up. We'll see you on Thursday!

-The Blog Committee and our fearless leaders James and Sally!

Fool Me Once, Shame on You. Fool Me Twice...Who Cares, It's Mayhem!

We were in for a big surprise this year at DLA...Instead of one night of Mayhem, we got two!  Last night, we thought it was Pool Night, but it was really the first night of Mayhem.  Night one was mostly the physical challenges, consisting of running while screaming, a pool relay, and Alaskan baseball (you can ask your kid what that is).   Tonight, we were all prepared to go to the annual off-campus night.  However, the RAs fooled us once again!  It was Mayhem: Night Two.  Tonight, we focused mainly on mental challenges such as logic puzzles, extreme sudoku, and navigating a library.  But don't fret!  Your child will still get to see The Avengers Monday night (or whatever their off-campus activity was).

We're getting our dancing shoes on!
-The Blog Committee

Mayhem is Still a Mystery

Due to some "helpful" hints from the DLA staff, tonight being Trivia Night came as a surprise to all of us, even though it was posted on the weekly schedule. Topics covered everything from Stephanie's "Corn" category to random trivia about the RAs. Did you know Amanda's engagement ring is modeled after the golden snitch from Harry Potter? On the way to the Trustee Science Center, many of the campers were speculating about if tonight was our annual secret Midnight activity. Both you and us, the Blog Committee, will find out more about that later on in the session. Turns out they were wrong; it was indeed Trivia. It was as much fun as always, as each house group combined their knowledge to compete for house points.

Here are some pictures we have taken over the last 4 days:

Athena House at the Leadership Ranch

We're looking forward to the rest of camp!
-The Blog Committee

The Mind, the Body, and the Soul of a Leader

Last night we began learning how leaders emerge within a team. We went to the Leadership Ranch, where each house group found new ways to communicate and work together to form stronger bonds with each other. We found that people can step up and become leaders when necessary. At the Leadership Ranch, we completed physical tasks such as obstacle courses and balancing on teeter-totters. The tasks had metaphorical leadership messages that translated into the real world. For example, encouraging people to face their fears with positive reinforcement and learning to communicate and work with people you just met.

Today we continued learning about leadership. Beth organized a leadership activity for all the campers. We explored traits that we find are important for leaders to have. The traits ranged from peace and family to wisdom and humility. Everyone shared their personal goals and heroes.

Whereas yesterday we focused on the team aspect of leadership, tonight was focused on our personal leadership qualities and values.

We'll keep you updated!!
-The Blog Committee

Summerscape is here!

Good afternoon, Summerscape!

We are well underway into our 'Scape adventures here on Day 2 of camp. After moving into the dorms, the RAs took our campers around the Drury campus, where we hula-hoop-raced between buildings, sling-shotted some ping pong balls at trees outside of the classroom buildings, and took group pictures by the library.

One of the challenges at the library was to somehow form the Olympic rings and take a group picture. Elizabeth's house group got creative and used their name tags to form the rings!

Steven's house group was very enthusiastic about taking their group picture!

Yesterday was the first day of classes, but the RAs made sure the kids had plenty to do once classes were out. The girls made bracelets and jewelry for The Kitchen, a local organization that serves the homeless in Springfield, while the boys enjoyed a "thrilling" surprise which we'll blog about later. Then we had our first camp-wide activity - the big hit from last year, Minute to Win It! Contestants had to complete challenges such as keeping three balloons in the air for a minute, as shown in the photo above. We had a great time, and we are all very proud of the campers for cheering on their teammates so well last night (though some of us may no longer have voices because of it!).

Tonight the boys will get to do a service project for The Kitchen while the girls get a peek at the surprise the boys had last night. Then it's off to the pool for our Summerscape Pool Party Night. Camp has just begun - stay tuned for more updates!

The day has finally arrived!

It's the second day of camp, and we are excited to see our old friends and the great RA's once more. Our theme this year is the Olympics. So naturally, all the houses are named after the mythical Greek gods and goddesses.

The houses are as follows:

• Athena (Charis)
• Hera (Amanda)
• Artemis (Stephanie)
• Poseidon (Brandon)
• Apollo (James)
• Zeus (Wayne) 

And we can't forget to mention Chance, our Residential Coordinator. The experience wouldn't be the same without his magical beard.


Today we visited the Leadership Ranch and learned tons about teamwork, perseverance, and communication. Our activities for the next couple days include more leadership activities tomorrow, trivia night on Wednesday, and pool night on Thursday.


Today was the first day of classes; we were all very excited to jump in and get down to business.

We will keep you posted on all DLA news!

~Blog Committee (Sally, Morgan, Whitney, Tyler, Ian, and Lauren)