The Smith Family Year 7 to 11 Camp Blog

On Wednesday, 13 November 2014, the Smith family returned to the Summit immediately. They are introduced to their bungalow accommodation, and shortly after that, their coaches, Spinks and Calarnee, welcome them to the space, the Blue Room, where the Five Keys of the camp were introduced;

1. Have Fun

2. Play all In

3. Make Lots of Mistakes

4. Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

5. Don’t Go Home Wondering ‘What if’

We introduced the goal-setting strategy of Target (something they know they can do), Stretch (what they think they can do), and Super Stretch (something they think is impossible but can do).

We played Look Up, Look Down, and Allison won. Moving down to the snowy tent in the hub, we played Where is George? The team came up with the name Beaconators, which stuck throughout the rest of the three days.

Making our way over to the Giant Swing, we had Bella and Tamika go first to Green. We want to acknowledge Darkoda and Gemma for stretching themselves out of their comfort zone. Moving over to Timmy's tower, all the girls tried our new activity, Jump Free. In it, they had to step off a tower into a 2-metre bungee before being lowered to the mat below; we want to acknowledge Whitney, Lily, and Erica.

Day 2 rolled around, and it was Darkoda’s birthday. We then had Calarnee welcome us with the morning intentions, sharing her story of a leap of faith, triumph, and struggle, explaining the value of setting intentions, and focusing on the words we say to ourselves and out loud. We then moved over to play a game called Jockeys, where the best poses were to make her and Gemma, but the fastest people were Shaylani and Whitney. Alex and Tamika were the highlights as we made our way to The Cave. They pushed themselves out of their comfort zones and into their journey through the Cave.

Making away of it to the tower, the Leap of Faith activity was next. Grabbing the bar and going upside down, Abby smashed it. Allison and Lilly for facing their fears and stepping off, and Bella for jumping out and grabbing their bar

once that was done, we made our way over to the Snowy River Challenge, where we had five activities to complete all the time I could stop. Darkoda and Alex were out to highlight for the pool, Darkoda getting in the water to help everyone else across, and Alex for going across regardless of whether she was wearing a moon boot. Tamika was a highlight for the wall, lifting everyone over, then going over last herself, trusting her team. Indi had a go at the swing, and Gemma was pushing herself and granted the wombat hole, given that she was not a fan.

After lunch, we got everyone ready for the mud run they were about to face. Still, first, we did the Flying Fox, where Alex got to have a go and pushed us out of our comfort zone—well done. Then, it was time for the Monster Course to try something new and a different course. We made our way through obstacles, obstacles around and underneath nets. We ended our war by ending our course with the water slide and achieving a super stretch of 18 minutes for the second lap; the first lap time was 28.37 minutes. To end the Monster Course, we opened up the waterslide as a surprise and rinsed it off.

It was now day three, and Spinks led the girls through a morning intention session as Calarnee was reading out the GMICs. The video chosen is Good News, broadcast by Soul Pancake. We shared our good news and personal lives with everybody to share a bit of positive energy, making a right down to the snowy rec room; we put again Cold the Cone reaction game where Whitney went up the fastest with the medal wherever to Rock Wall, where Whitney had six goes. Shaylani got up to the top of the wall in 30 seconds. Ringing the bell, Calarnee, the coach, made her stretch up to the overhang for the first time. Once completed, everyone finished Laser Skirmish, where they enjoyed themselves outdoors in the sun. It is safe to say everyone had some fun there.

To wrap everything up, we went through end a camp debrief called Rock (something that rocked your world about camp), Stick (a memory that will stay with you), Leaf (an attitude you want to leave behind), and everyone got to share one. We then nominated some heroes and hearts of the team, and everyone agreed the hero was Whitney. The heart was Gemma; well, done, ladies, on completing another year at The Summit and sticking with the Smith Family. I wish you all the best for the rest of the year, and I am sure we will see some of you ladies next year. All the best.