It’s so hard to believe that it’s that time to say goodbye. The last 50 days have been amazing and we cannot thank you enough for sharing your kids with us. We have watched them grow over these last seven weeks. We have watched them accomplish things they thought they couldn’t. We have seen them make lifelong friends and watched how they have made Chen-A-Wanda their summer home. As you sifted through the thousands of pictures and watched endless hours of video from this summer, we hope you got a sense of what amazing things your children did this summer. It has been our priveledge and honor to care for your kids.  Thank you again for trusting us with your kids and believing in the magic of Chen-A-wanda. We read the following letter we wrote to your children tonight just before memory night.

Enjoy them tomorrow and know we will miss them dearly.

Jon & Elissa

Dear Chen-A-Wanda Campers,

Fifty days ago you all arrived here, excited for the journey that you were about to embark on and here we sit, just having spent the most amazing summer together at Chen-A-Wanda.

We have seen you all grow tremendously in these past 7 weeks. It has been a true joy watching you make new friends and as we all can admit that and that alone is the magic of this place. It isn’t the soccer field or the water trampoline or the trapeze that makes us all come back here. It is the friends we have made along the way and knowing that we have created a true summer family. In these walls, we take care of one another, we celebrate together, we inspire one another and we lift each other up. That is what we do here.

We have seen you work through conflicts and become closer to one another with a true understanding of what the word friendship truly means. We cannot truly express the feeling we get as we watch all of you take care of one another. When one of you is sad, you have a group of people who will instantly come to your rescue and wrap their arms around you until you feel safe and better. That doesn’t exist in the real world but it does here at Chen-A-Wanda.

There is no facebook, no twitter, no computers to occupy us here. There is face to face communication. We are forced to talk things through, to work things out, to face our fears. And you have done this for 7 weeks beautifully. You should be so proud of what you have done here and what each one of you has accomplished. You have been a part of something pretty spectacular and this will stay with you forever. The summer is now gone but 18465 lives on in every one of us.

We have a philosophy about living our lives as the river rather than the rock. The ultimate goal is to be able to flow through life’s challenges rather than getting stuck in one place.  The Blackout showed us how we all were the river and dealt with a situation where we had no control and we even had fun with the lights out. Continue to be the river. It will make all the difference in your world. That we promise.

We built the Lodge for you but it was you who gave it its’ heart and soul. You sang on the top of your lungs and you danced as if no one in the world was watching you. Where else can that happen? Oh how we will miss singing and dancing at every meal with all of you.  The food filled our bellies but the energy and love in the Lodge filled our souls.

We are so grateful to each one of you in this room. YOU have made summer 2012 magical and from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!!!

Please click here for tonight’s blog post.

We all enjoyed some extra sleep with a lazy morning wake up followed by a delicious brunch in the Lodge. It was the perfect morning to recharge after five days of Color War.  The afternoon was beautiful so there was no better place to be than the waterfront. We all know there are only a few more days left here so everyone is enjoying every second and not wasting a minute.

It was a perfect day for our Doppleganger contest. So many of our campers look like one another on girls side, we had to come together and have an official contest. They dressed alike, they walked the same and they were just adorable. It was fun to see how much we all look a like. Make sure to look out for the pictures from this camp favorite event.

The night was all about Late Night with Leahy and the buzz was in the air. It is an amazing culmination of great videos and presentations delivered by our Boys Head Counselor extraordinaire, Brian Leahy. It was hilarious and referenced everything funny about camp. This evening’s activity is a camp favorite and even our counselors that were off duty, stayed to watch because it’s just that entertaining. Campers absolutely went crazy for the hilarity of what they witnessed. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day.

Everyone is looking forward to banquet tomorrow. It is the best celebration and we do it in style. We dine on amazing cuisine as we are all dressed up in our best duds. Then it’s back to the bunk to get on comfortable clothes and shoes for one amazing night of dancing and celebrating. Best night of CAW is just around the corner. Can’t wait!

Chenny out.

Everyone matters in the Apache Relay. No matter if you are doing the elephant walk or diving to the bottom of the pool to pick up 8 spoons or are heading into the canteen for the infamous “unknown”, you count. It is a race that includes everyone. It was an outrageously fun morning and everyone loves Apache.  The encouragement we all give each other during this crazy race is stupendous. It just doesn’t get better than this.

Before dinner each team holds psych speeches that will inspire and motivate their teams. Tonight’s speeches stood out as what this war is about. Each Captain and Lieutenant wore the shirt of their opposing team and shared qualities of their opponents that was outstanding and deserved recognition. The theme was, friends first, war second. One Lieutenant said he was in awe of the Lieutenant from the opposing team because she exhibited such a positive spirit, not when they were winning but when they were loosing. When we win it is easy but it’s when we loose, that our true character comes out. This is the meaning of true respect and why Color War is so spectacular and important. We will loose more than we win but it is how we loose that will ultimately define us as winners.

It was skit night tonight and it was hilarious. Each team brought us back to the 80’s and 90’s. They rocked and rolled and referenced everything from a few decades ago. It was insanely fun and outrageously funny. The campers in the skit were brilliant and showed that even though they were not around during that time; they fully understood what the 80’s and 90’s were all about.

As day four came to an end, Gold 90’s jumped ahead by 221 points with a score of:

Red 80’s – 2,479 points

Gold 90’s – 2,690 points

There are over 1,400 points still up for grabs with a full day of final games tomorrow and like we always say, IT ALL COMES DOWN TO SING!!!!

Chenny out.