On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, students from Richmond High School arrived at The Summit eager to begin their adventure. After checking into their accommodation, they met with the coaches and teachers at the Lodge. The team leader introduced The Summit coaches, and Matt 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 first set of activity rotations, they played a game of 50 Up and were shown the Stage, including all the important locations around the park. Next up were numbered spots and initiatives where they learned about the goal-setting strategy Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch. Their first lot of activities included Bag Blitz with Sam, Inflatables with Milena, High Wire with Matt, Cave with Taylor and Bush Challenge with El. To wrap up the day, Sam explained The Summit’s way of giving written affirmations and compliments; they are called GMICs (Great Moments In Camp); the students were then informed of times for dinner before receiving some final information from teachers and enjoying some free time.
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, who you can be, and how that can influence others. Afterwards, a game of Jockeys was played to be in a state ready to face the three activities before lunch. After which there were Tribe Challenges and the Monster Course. The clap ball tribe challenge saw the Gooners come out on top, which was followed by a group game of Huckle Buckle. For the Monster Course, coaches led them through 10 obstacles, Holy Buckets, Charades, Tarp Catch, Sleds, Wringer, Unders, A-frame, Ball Puzzle, and Brucey, finishing off with the Ball Pit 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. There was so much enthusiasm around the second lap, the winning team was the team having the most improved time from their first lap. Finally, they rinsed off, had a shower, and had some dinner, before ending the day.
On day three, the last day, with a lot of tired faces in the room, Sam asked the students of Richmond High about gratitude, reading out the rest of the GMICs, cementing that it was their last day at The Summit, and asking the students what, and whom they were grateful for. But soon there were only 2 more rotations to go. First a game of Pirates with the new coach Spinks, and then 2 activities of a new set which included Abseil with Spinks, Orienteering with Milena, Skybridge with Taylor, Scavenger Hunt with El, and Jump Free with Sam. Once completed, the students reported to the stage to have lunch as The Summit staff revealed some results and said their goodbyes. The students then made their way to the buses 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). And 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:
Results Values Winners per team:
- Alpha Georges >> Billy and Denali
- Unthinkables >> Grace
- Special Forces >> Ethan
- Terrific 10 >> Ray
- The Gooners >> Ayanleh
Well done guys, absolutely smashed camp!
For the other results, Bush Challenge resulted in:
- 20:32 Special Forces
- 26:50 Terrific 10
- 32:38 The Gooners
- 37:24 Alpha Georges
- 45:50 Unthinkables
And Monster Course improvement times are:
- 15:34 Unthinkables
- 15:32 Terrific 10 and The Gooners
- 14:36 Special Forces
- 9:54 Alpha Georges
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!
