A Week of Pre-Camp Training!
Monday, May 30, 2005
What a terrific week in the Heavenly World! Camp looks beautiful thanks to Danny, James, and Soup, and there has been a flurry of activity as we get ready to greet our first group of 2005 campers in less than a week! Right after the alumnae reunion, I looked at Laurie and said "I wish the campers were here already!" That anticipation has only built as staff members start to arrive. Kim and Jeff Aycock have settled in to Willow. Jeff is a certified lifeguard trainer and spent the week training our swim staff. Harriett Morton assisted Carol Land, a Certified Horsemanship Association instructor, in certifying our entire riding staff during a week-long very intense course that emphasizes instruction. We have had transportation training including driving tests. An outside "auditor" came to certify our high ropes course and tower, and then we all completed training on it on Sunday. All of our training will continue "in service" throughout the summer. Long gone are the days of just showing up for camp! This afternoon, our full staff will arrive, and we will spend the week in general staff orientation. We feel blessed to be in a position to hire the "cream of the crop," and these folks will be just as excited to arrive at camp as our campers will be next Sunday.
The week will be filled with informative training on topics related to working with children as well as first aid training, emergency training, as well as other safety topics. We'll also take some time out to play culminating with a raft trip on Friday on the Nantahala. Wow! It's going to be a BIG week! But, the best part will happen next Sunday when YOU get here!
We are on an accelerated schedule getting ready for camp, and things look beautiful in the Heavenly World! We kick off a summer-long celebration of Camp Illahee's 85th season of camping for girls in western Carolina this coming weekend with a gala alumnae reunion weekend...women from every generation of camp will return to Illahee to enjoy good food, fellowship and lots of fun. We will open activities, enjoy hikes, the ropes course and zip line, campfires, and special presentations by historian Gray Greene on the history of Illahee. Former directors Frankie Hall and Elizabeth and Frank Tindall will join current directors Laurie and Gordon Strayhorn in welcoming back all these Illahee girls. There is still room if you would like a last-minute weekend in the Heavenly!
Speaking of ropes courses, James and Gordon have been busy "maxing out" the rental time on a 60 foot "cherry picker" as they install wooden platforms and structural elements for the new ropes course elements that will be ready for the June session! There will be a new "Bottomless Burma Bridge," which will be similar to the existing Bruma Bridge except the foot ropes will be swinging instead of stationary. There will also be a "Camper Crawl," a series of cargo nets that campers can crawl across to reach the other side, 
and finally, the one that looks most challenging to me, a balance beam...a telephone pole that extends from the Beanstalk climbing tower across to the platform on the other side!. "Look mom, no hands!"
Our first camp horse, SOLO, arrived back yesterday. Harriett is attending a clinic in Marshall, NC and did not want to leave a spot empty in the trailer. The rest will arrive next week in time for the Certified Horsemanship Clinic that Illahee will host. Things are getting busy and the only thing missing is YOU! We can't wait for those June sesison girls to arrive. Yippeee! Summer's almost here!
