It’s August 1st and everyone is still a little tired from the fake out the night before. Nothing like waking up to the Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”, a car horn and an extremely spirited and excited group of LT’s running through your bunk followed by an amazing fire work show. You file into the dinning hall for the usual lunch only to discover with time that Color War is in the air. The excitement has built up for the past few days, a strange car has been placed on camp and you have become familiar and trained for when you hear a siren to get as quiet as possible because an important announcement is soon to follow. It’s the end of the meal and I start to make my announcements only to be cut off by the Time Travel Regulators who argue about getting the car off camp. Everyone rushes outside listens to the announcements and discovers there is a Cave Woman and a Futuristic Man stuck in our time zone wanting to get back where they belong. However, they needed their teams to help fight in a three day battle to see who gets to go back to their time zone. It was too late to save the car, the Time Travel Regulators had already started the process, and in came the Megasaurus….
The tank drives onto camp and everyone is a little unsure, confused and excited wondering what this massive tank could be. And what is it going to do to the car?!? Everybody was going crazy and making noise, but as the tank approached everybody stopped moving, stopped talking. The tank suddenly stopped, pulled up next to the car and began to transform. As it starts to breathe fire and become the dinosaur everyone starts to again go crazy in disbelief about what is could happen next. The fire breathing dinosaur starts to eat the car! Fifteen minutes later, the car is in shreds and the dinosaur burps, a satisfied meal… The banners go up, packets are thrown and Color War 2010 has started!
Color War 2010 was filled with some of the best competition that we have ever seen. I loved that at every meal when we would announce the scores it was a different team winning; if blue was winning at breakfast then white was winning at lunch. It showed how dedicated all the campers and staff were to trying their hardest and making a difference in every sport, game or activity they played. This year our leaders did an amazing job addressing their teams and pumping them up for each upcoming round of activities. Some personal highlights of this years color war for me were during the bucket brigade how the white team had their older campers and LTs work so closely with our junior campers to make sure they only used one hand and didn’t spill their water, which in turn helped lead their team to victory. The blue team rope burn was definitely the best constructed fire that I have ever seen, breaking through both ropes in record breaking time! The team leader eat offs are always very exciting and this year I think we all need to acknowledge how dedicated our spirit leaders were in eating the interesting food concoctions. I think everyone was blown away this year at the effort their leaders put forth over the three days.
This year going into sing the blue team had a slight edge on the white team, but there were still enough points left in sing that it could be anyone’s game. We were all blown away by the sets and the costumes. Both teams stood there in costume, singing with all their heart, standing arm in arm with best friends, new and old, that had just spent the best three or six weeks of your life with it. It is in those moments that you are standing there that it is no longer about the competition and winning and loosing. Rather you find yourself reflecting on all of the memories and friends you made this summer. Times with your bunkmates, cheering in the dinning hall, coming together as a bunk to win evening activity, making a new friend in a major or a minor, or learning something new or bettering yourself in an activity or sport. In the split second that scores are read and a winner is announced it only takes seconds for us to become one family again, for everyone to find their friends from either team and to join together as Camp Lindenmere.
So now that it’s September and everyone is getting used to being back at school and your home routines, make sure you take time to wear your color war shirt, tie-dye clothes, heat pressed shirts, camp jewelry, traded silly bandz, etc. As you wear these different camp items I hope they help you remember all of your memories from this summer not only from color war, but of all the great memories and friendships you made at camp this year. I know these memories will last long enough until you are reunited with your camp friends and family. Remember “ For in our hearts summer keeps flowing, we are beating as one Lindenmere…at a place that feels like home, and I have feeling that I belonged.”
With Love,
