On a warm Wednesday afternoon, students from Belgrave Heights Christian School arrived at The Summit eager to begin their adventure. After checking into their accommodations, they met with the coaches and teachers at the Lodge. The barely audible team leader introduced The Summit coaches, and Timmay introduced the group to the Five Keys of camp.
These keys are:
- Have Fun
- Play All In
- Make Lots of Mistakes
- Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
- Don’t Go Home Wondering “What If”
Before starting their six activity rotations, there was a game of 50 Up played two initiatives to get into, after having been shown the stage and other important areas of the park. After these challenges which focused on how to pass through with the team, Ant and Milena demonstrated how to put on a harness and helmet; Timmay then introduced them to a goal-setting strategy called Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch to help break activities down into more manageable steps, before moving back into their numbered spots to begin their one rotation for the day. This would have been either Snowy River Challenge, Giant Swing, Summit Window, High Wire, Cave or Laser Skirmish. To wrap up the day, Sam explained The Summit way of giving written affirmations and compliments, called GMICs (Great Moments In Camp), along with times for dinner before receiving some final information from teachers and enjoying some free time.
The day wasn’t yet over, though, as the teachers had organised for The Summit to present to the epic year 10s an intense session on belief and mindset after dinner, where there was a guest visit by Logan, all boards of belief broken into pieces. Then it was finally time for sleep, which not all students used.
On day two, the group had breakfast and returned to the Lodge for a session on intentions with Sam. They discussed the importance of setting an intention, having a plan for the day, and how that is impacted by the kind of person you are, who you decide to be. Afterwards, a game of Jokeys was played to be in a state ready to face the three activities before lunch. After which there was a quick Tribe Challenge and the massive Monster Course. The clap ball Tribe Challenge tournament was awkward but hype, the amount of cheering got everyone as prepared for the mud run as they could. For the Monster Course, coaches led them through 18 obstacles, Holy Buckets, Charades, Tarp Catch, Sleds, Ball Puzzle, Overs, Tyre Squeeze, Unders, A-Frame, Big Cargo, Monkeys, Snowy Cargo, Brucey, Ball Pit, Over and Unders, Barbed and Dangerous, Mud Mounds and finishing off with the mud angles in the Mud Mounds before crossing that finish line. But they weren’t finished. It wasn’t just one, but two laps, a two-lap obstacle course, to emphasize resilience and the importance of self-improvement. The winner had the most improved time from their first lap. Finally, after rinsing off, it was shower time and dinner time before finishing up the day with some Teacher-run games of Minute to Win it and Trivia.
Last day, and there were a lot of tired faces in the room, Timmay ran the group through a recap of the previous intention sessions and talked with the students of Belgrave Heights about gratitude, reading out a bunch of GMICs and asking the students what and whom they were grateful for. But soon, there were only 2 more rotations left. Once they were completed, the students reported to the stage to have lunch as The Summit staff said their goodbyes. All students then made their way to the busses and were on their way back to school.
In the last rotation of camp, the tribes got to reflect on their camp experience with each other, and were given a debriefing strategy called Rock, Stick and Leaf (something that rocked about camp, something that will stick with you and something that you would leave behind). They also voted for a member of their team they believed followed the Five Keys the most during their whole camp experience, and the winners of those votes are as follows:
- Red Rippers Liv
- Chemist Warehouse Travis
- Villagers Milly
- Team Ollies Sammy
- The Turks Lilly
- Baxter Mentality Zara
For the other results, Snowy River Challenge ended up with:
- 8:33 Chemist Warehouse
- 10:03 Villagers
- 12:20 Baxter Mentality
- 12:40 Red Rippers
- 28:00 The Turks
- 41:00 Team Ollies
And Monster Course improvement times from top to bottom are:
- 15:53 Team Ollies
- 13:32 The Turks
- 13:50 Red Rippers
- 8:41 Villagers
- 7:53 Baxter Mentality
- 7:02 Chemist Warehouse
On behalf of The Summit and coaches, thank you all for playing all in and joining us in having all the fun, we wish you all the best for the rest of the year!
