Hi Clubhouse (soon to be Annex) Families,
As I sit down to write this Blog, you’d think my eyes are teary from all of the emotions, but in reality it’s because I got so much water in my eyes from the girls pushing me in the lake repeatedly at rec swim today. Regardless, I bring bittersweet updates from camp as we head into our final week of Summer 24.
Sunday was quite possibly one of the busiest days we have had to date here at camp. We started things off with a wonderful Grandparents Visiting Day! I loved meeting all of the grandmas, grandpas, nanas, papas, mimas, poppys, and bubbys! It was a day full of love and your girls had a great time sharing their favorite place with some of their favorite family members. For the girls who didn’t have biological grandparents visit Romaca, they were graced by the presence of “pretend grandparents” (Romrecers who dressed up as grandparents) and were provided with a hilarious mock-grandparents visiting day to keep them company :)
In true Romacan fashion, the end of Grandparents Visiting day officially marked the beginning of Olympics season! The whole camp was on its toes for the remainder of the day, jumping at every announcement and paying very close attention to anything on camp that happened to be colored red, blue, green or white. Speaking of green and white, that afternoon we held everyone’s favorite all camp event, Romaca Relay! The whole camp was split into two teams, green and white, and ran around camp in a series of silly relay races, ultimately finishing in a rope-burn contest completed by Romrec. As Clubhousers, they were in charge of leading all of lower camp in cheers while Romrec built a fire to burn the rope. This was truly such a special moment since the same little girls who once looked up to the Clubhouse girls with such admiration were now the ones leading the cheers for their entire team.
Let’s cut right to the chase shall we? For evening activity that night (Yes, I am still talking about Sunday) we held a dance showcase where campers had the chance to show off their moves from the summer. ALL of Clubhouse signed up together, and performed their dance to Voulez-Vous from Mamma Mia (No, they were NOT told to do that, and yes, it was all of them!) Their dancing was amazing, but I was more impressed by their courage to perform in front of the whole camp. If CH7’s performance wasn’t jaw-dropping enough, the final performance of the night by the PAWS staff quickly turned into one of the best Olympic Breakouts I have ever witnessed. Off to the Gymnastics Pavillion we went to find out the captains, lieutenants, countries, and teams for Olympics 2-0-2-4!
The 2024 Olympics were absolutely fantastic. Our four clubhouse lieutenants demonstrated such incredible leadership over the course of the three days, and went above and beyond with their spirit and enthusiasm for their team. Not only did they bear the weight of 8,000 necklaces, but also the responsibility of leading their entire team to victory. I was also so impressed with the overwhelming support shown by all of the Clubhousers for their lieutenants. Being a Senior B during Olympics is arguably one of the most fun parts of the summer, but with great power comes great responsibility. All of the girls got their heads in the game faster than you can say “Olympics,” and wrote four of the best “Pep” songs that I have heard throughout my 13 years at Romaca. As I watched them teach the songs to the younger campers, lead cheers on the way to activities, and collaborate with the rest of the Senior Bs on their team to create songs, skits and chants, I couldn’t help but notice just how much they have grown throughout the summer.
It is hard to believe that this is my final Blog post, but it is even harder to comprehend how these Clubhousers are the same girls that walked into the bunk for the first time six weeks ago. As sad as I will be to see them go next Friday, I am so happy knowing they are heading into 8th grade with newfound confidence, irreplaceable memories, and new friendships that will last them a lifetime. As we head into our final week, hands will be held a little tighter, hugs will last a little longer, and our tears won’t have anything to do with lake water in our eyes; but all these emotions are reminders of how lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
Thank you for trusting me with your daughters this summer. I hope that their Clubhouse experience was everything they hoped it would be.
<3
Zoe