Things To Know
A few important things to know about Closing Day tomorrow:
It has rained off and on for almost a week. This means that you will want to wear shoes suitable for the mud puddles that will fill our parking area. The ground has gotten saturated and is very soft… the car tires will likely turn the whole soccer field into a muddy mess and we don’t want your shoes to be ruined. The forecast at this point indicates we might have scattered showers all day long… so you will want to bring a rain jacket too.
The gates open at 7:30, but we suggest you arrive no earlier than 8:00 (to give us time to get the luggage sorted and ready at the track). When you arrive you may either load up the car immediately or do so after picking up your camper. If it is not raining when you arrive, doing so quickly might be wise! If it is raining when you arrive, go to the cabin first (the rains usually pass fairly quickly).
Let us know if you are going to arrive later than 9:30 AM. The tradition at Greystone is to arrive early on Opening and Closing Days… the girls get nervous if they don’t know where you are after all their friends have gone!
A couple thoughts on our Closing messages to the campers. Three talks that I give in the last 24 hours of camp that are intentional in their message… the heart of camp.
- Closing Vespers… The “Me-Me” bird story first told by my grandmother sixty years ago. Bottom line: unselfishness, the secret of Greystone!
- Breakfast Club… The Frog and the Scorpion Fable first re-told by my father fourty years ago. Bottom line: choose good no matter what the circumstance.
- Morning Assembly… Luke 17, The Ten Lepers. Bottom line: Be a person that says thank you in all circumstances.
These closing messages put the “spin” that we want the girls to remember from their time at camp. As I said in an earlier post, camp is much more than “fun”… life lessons learned here (in both fun and difficult circumstances) pay dividends for a lifetime.
Thank you very much for sharing your girls. It has been a pleasure to serve you and we hope that Greystone will work into your plans for next summer. We offer an easy way for your girls (your camper and her sisters if they wish to attend) to enroll without risk of the wait list. We call it the Early Bird Enrollment period.
For the next two weeks you will be able to enroll in any 2017 sessions for which your girls are eligible. We will be sending emails to all current camper families to inform you of the details tomorrow, but be aware that the process is time sensitive. Miss the deadline and you will be put on the Wait List… so put it on your calendar!
It is hard to believe that our 97th summer is drawing to an end. I have been writing daily blogs for almost three months… it has become a much loved part of my daily routine. I will miss the connection, but also look forward to the change of seasons. My thoughts are drawn to our 98th summer with dozens of details filling my heart with the confident expectation of providing an even better camp next year. This is the best job in the world; the best work I can imagine. This place is heavenly, made so because of your precious girls and the counselors that serve them. Thank you for making it possible!
