Tales From Camp: Very Special Guests

Hi everyone,

We had a blast last week at Camp Menzies. Last session was Two of Us, where parents came with their campers to enjoy the camp experience together. For a lot of the girls, it was their first time at camp. They got to experience some great activities, such as Australian football, soccer, making dream catchers, bracelet making, wood burning, painting, and more! Sounds like fun, right?




More fantastic groups last week included Wonders of Water, Leaders in Action, Horse Lovers, S’mores and More, Talent Scout, Secret Garden, Special Agent, Camp Olympics, and Pixie Painters.







We also still had our Under Construction Girl Scouts. Did you see them on the news? Good Day Sacramento did a segment on our Under Construction program last Thursday, and CBS 13 aired a special segment about the importance of STEM and camp last night. Watch it here. We offer many STEM programs here at camp--the girls love it! And it was very exciting to have the news station at camp filming about this important topic.


Wednesday night we had our All Camp event. It was super fun! The Camper Council voted on a counselor fashion show. Counselors dressed up in silly outfits and walked our dining hall runway. Afterwards there were stations where the girls could get their hair braided, nails painted and where they could make jewelry. Of course we also had a dance floor! Thursday night we had our closing campfire. The weeks go by so fast up here at camp, but you know what they say... time flies when you're having fun.

A special thank you to the parents who joined us last week for Two of Us, as well as Good Day's Cambi Brown and Scott--we loved having you at camp!

Today we welcomed a new group of campers. Welcome to camp, Girl Scouts!

Until next time,
Rapunzel

Tales From Camp: Camper Creativity

Hi everyone,

Today we welcome Two of Us, CITs and Under Construction. These three sessions are really special. Two of Us is a session where we have parents come with their campers… super fun! CITs are our counselors-in-training, and Under Construction helps out with actual construction going on this session in Cedar Woods, an upper unit of camp.

Last week we had sessions 7 and 8, an awesome session packed with various activities--including a lot of creativity. One of the groups, Mad About Murals, made the new Camp Menzies welcome mural. It turned out great!

For the All Camp event we had a camp prom. I took a lot of photos that are all on the eCamp website (parents, you should have access to it). There was some photobombing happening, did anyone see it? Way to go, Natalie! #teamphotobomb

We also created a timeline at the All Camp event. We had paper across several tables with different time blocks on each paper. According to the timeline the campers drew, Camp Menzies was created in the dinosaur age… love it! The timeline had some other great moments, too. Our campers are so creative!

Until next time,
Rapunzel

Tales From Camp: Creative and Adventurous

Hello, hello!

Thank you session 5 for a fun week at camp. Session 6 gets to stay with us a little longer and today we welcome session 7.

So many exciting things have been going on! We have Take Aim, Summer Stock, Eco-Fashionistas, World Travelers, Leaders in Action, Mystery Makers, Horse Lovers, Camp ‘n’ Canoe, Survivor, Mad About Murals and Geoventures.

 “This week in Eco-Fashionistas we had a great time thrift shopping. We all found awesome clothes that we are going to upcycle. I can’t wait for the fashion show! Also, the theme meal was ‘backwards’, and the all-camp event was marshmallow paintball. It was a great week!”
-Amber, age 11 (12th time at camp!)

The fashion show ended up being great. Good job upcycling the clothes, girls!

Camp ‘n’ Canoe left on their canoeing trip. Survivor will leave today; they have completed first aid training. Geoventures also got to do some adventurous trips—Natural Bridges and rock climbing at Bear Valley. 

Take Aim girls got to test their skills at Archery, but also spent time making bows and creating targets. Summer Stock saw a play and got to perform at campfire—it was so fun. World Travelers and Leaders in Action played international games and made passports.  Our Mystery Makers got to work on several mysteries which included using invisible ink, fingerprints and wood burning.

Session 7, welcome! Looking forward to a great session with you all.

Until next time,

Rapunzel

Tales From Camp: Camp Prom, Master Chefs, and More

Hello all!

Another great session at Camp Menzies. On Monday we welcomed our session 4 girls. This session we had Forest Friends, Sierra Safari, Camp Quest, Sky’s the Limit, and Horse Lovers. Of course we still had our Movie Makers, Master Chefs, Dare To Do It, and Arts Alive girls here at camp as well. 

The Movie Makers worked on rehearsing and filming their scenes. Then Bones helped them with editing the movie. They showed the movie to the session 3 girls during a screening, and it turned out great! It was creative and really funny.

On Tuesday we had our All Camp event. This time Camper Council decided on a Camp Prom. The Dining Hall was decorated and staff was nominated for Staff Prom Queen and King, the CITs were nominated for Camp Princess. Everyone got really creative and dressed up in crazy outfits. It was a great dance party with face painting, friendship bracelets, cookies and fruit punch.

Sky’s the Limit and Camp Quest both went on a trip to White Pines where they got to hang out for the afternoon and swim. It’s been really warm up here so the girls really loved it.

Our Master Chefs have been busy cooking and baking with the kitchen staff, they’ve helped make dessert and snacks. They also did other activities with a little food twist. For example: They learned about the different phases of the moon using cookies. Fun and tasty!

For our session 4 girls it was a short session, but they really enjoyed it. Their days were filled with doing archery, swimming, canoeing, nature activities, and arts ‘n’ crafts. A lot of the groups also did badge and journey work. The Forest Friends even got two badges: Dancer badge and the Game Maker badge. Great job, girls!

Camp has been a great experience for the girls. Sarah “Bucky” from Movie Makers explained the magic of camp: “It is just a great place and there is so much to do, so many fun activities. Some girls get homesick sometimes but because of all the great activities they forget about it right away and at the end they don’t want to go home. It’s camp magic.”

Last night was our closing campfire. Today all the girls, both session 3 and 4, are going home. It has been amazing having you all at camp and we hope to see you again next year.

Have a great 4^th of July weekend, everyone!

Until next time,
Rapunzel