Blog

Yesterday it happened. Many campers experienced the longtime CTT tradition that is only known as “it” for those who have not played before. All I can say is that the game takes place during free time behind closed doors in the gym, is open to anyone interested, involves a lot of clapping, and my kids keep asking when we’ll play “it” again.

Up at mountain boarding, Jake Welfeld, Brendan Cutick, Tyler Mostow, and Justin Welfeld all nearly made it down the challenging hill. Keegan Morrisroe and Shelby Buyalos won knock out games and Noah Braman and Ashley Stern shot bullseyes in zombie survival 102. Archery’s sister class, zombie survival 101 (riflery) saw Parker Mitchell and Simon and Nate Schwartz get head shots on paper cut-out zombies. Ben Olek, Shelby Buyalos, Ashley Stern, Taylor Antonis, Anja Schempf, Josh McConnell and Taryn Dalton all made it up the wall in climbing. Keith noted that Josh and Taryn were the youngest people to not only climb to the top but even attempt that wall all summer. Julie’s challenge course class “made it out of the bad house”. My goal for the end of the summer is to figure out what actually happens in challenge course. Taryn Dalton, Jaclyn Welfeld, Carly Dalton, and Livia Lampal all fished for the first time. I was psyched how they all picked it up really quickly for campers that young.

Jerry Smith received a special announcement for beating golf master Sean in a putting competition. In basketball, Holden Cook and Matthew Van Aken won games of knock out. Albert’s soccer class saw Jake Welfeld and Keegan Morrisroe win World Cup playing as the country Israel.

The evening activity was home alone night. The counselors created a variety of scenarios that kids would do while home alone. The activities included throwing pudding at Ethan, pillow sumo wrestling (something that Alex and I still do while home alone), writing on the walls, balloon toss, a fashion show, “trash the yard”, make-your-own-ice cream, and a dance party. Oliver Schwartz and Meier Parr won the balloon toss and Justin Welfeld dominated any challenger in pillow sumo. Tonight is cheesy skit night. After narrowly losing to Girls Tents in MTV night, Dan and I will be working with my kids all day to take home the victory.

We had our first trip yesterday as Camp Tall Timbers spent an afternoon and evening at Cacapon State Park. The day began as they always do, with campers going to their usual activities in the morning such as riflery, fishing, archery, and Boy’s League. After lunch and rest hour, we all boarded the buses and headed off to Cacapon lake.

At Cacapon, the campers and counselors spent the afternoon swimming in the water, making sand castles, or just chilling out and enjoying the nice day. The campers built a number of sand castles. Cabin A girls built a huge Chinese themed sand palace and Cabin G worked with some of the younger girls to build another large sand castle. Hunter Morrisroe and Jerome Williams both dug large holes big enough to sit in. Tristan Oldham found a baby turtle and most of the Cabin 1 and 2 boys spent a good part of the afternoon trying to convince their counselors to let them keep it as a cabin pet (they were unsuccessful). The boys of Cabins 34 and 56 spent a good portion of the day playing a water game they came up with called “Categories” and trying to tackle Flip Flop. Jake Welfeld received a special shout out from Flip Flop by successfully doing a backflip off of his shoulders. Tony Spangler and Josh McConnell spent much of the day looking for fish in the quieter shallows. Many of the other counselors and I spent a large portion of the day running away from campers who tried to drag us into the water in all our clothes. The kids were having so much fun that we decided to cancel the organized evening activity, a sand castle contest, and just let them play until we left at dusk. After a fun day in the sun, the counselors had little trouble getting most of their kids right to bed so they could get a good night’s rest before another busy day at CTT.

Yesterday campers were active outdoors not only all day, but many all night as well. During the day we had a number of athletic accomplishments. Simon Rosenthal was named the MVP for Collin’s Boy’s League team. Aaron Rosenthal and Noah Gross won the longest drive competition in golf and Sofia Navas Sharry and Stevie Nocket hit golf balls for the first time. Jacob Welfeld, Justin Welfeld, Brendan Cutick, and Tyler Mostow all mountain-boarded for the first time. Jenna Ross hit almost every pitch that came her way in softball. Finally, Lori Belt won the basketball competition.

A number of other campers participated in other outdoor activities. Jerome Williams rode a horse for the first time. Freddi Rappaport and Taryn Dalton kayaked for the first time. Holden Cook and Carly Dalton made it to the top of the climbing wall. Emily Walke caught a nice bass. Simon Schwartz and Aaron Walsh had head shots in riflery (zombie survival 101). Catherine Ni Dhroighneain and Hunter Morrisroe won games of knockout in archery and Anja Schempf sniped a bullseye. During lunch, Flip Flop lead the boys side in the first “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” of the session. For those at home who don’t know, “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” consists of all the campers going to an empty table in the back, banging loudly, and singing a song with nonsensical phrases such as “where he at/ there he go/ peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat.” It is one of the most popular of the many camp mealtime traditions.

The evening activity last night was cabin night where campers are given the option of sleeping under the stars and building a campfire at a designated location. Quite a few cabins chose this option including Cabin B whose campers had never slept out before. The cabins were located anywhere between the lake and the golf course. I was with Cabin 2 which was located at the top of the golf course. We began the night by getting dried grass and logs to build a large fire. We then went for a lengthy hike through the woods on horse trails so it was dark when we lit the fire. After lighting the fire, we let it die down a bit and began to roast marshmallows. The night ended with my co-counselor Dan and I telling the campers funny stories and discussing our experiences with camp as the campers slowly faded off one by one. We woke up with a thin layer of dew on our sleeping bags and lugged our stuff back to the cabins to get ready for breakfast and another busy day at Camp Tall Timbers.

When a camper does something notable at Camp Tall Timbers, they receive an announcement at lunch time. Counselors relish in making these announcements and quite a few make one nearly every meal time. Yesterday was no exception with announcements ranging from the lake at one end of camp to the rock wall at the other.

Yesterday morning we saw our first fish of the session with a nice size bass caught by Ashley Stern. Alec Geis, Sam Hu, Simon Schwartz, Noah Braman, and Jack Morrisroe all won contests in riflery, also known as “Zombie Survival 101”, because in addition to learning how to shoot guns, Ethan teaches campers facts about how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Ethan’s follow-up class, “Zombie Survival 102” (archery) also saw quite a few snipers with Adam Lampal, Harry Kaplan, and Julia Trice all winning games of knock out. Up at the tennis courts, Parker Mitchell, Noah Braman, and Justin Dryer won games of jail. The rock wall continued to be a hot spot for campers testing their courage and braving it to them top. Jaclyn Welfeld attempted the wall for the first time and Sophie Delta climbed to the top in her very first attempt. Nate Schwartz received a special shout out for climbing the wall faster than anyone had seen in a very long time. Not all announcements involve an individual accomplishment. Flip Flop gave all of cabin 1 an announcement for “finding the Holy Grail behind the spiderweb” during their challenge course session with him. I’m not sure what that means but cabin 1 claims they had a blast doing it.

Yesterday’s evening activity was the first skit competition of the session, MTV night. My first year at camp was 2003 and this was one of the strongest and closest MTV nights I have ever seen. Cabin A started things off with their rendition of “Circle of Life”. Everyone was quite impressed that girls that young could choreograph such a complicated dance for the entire song. Other highlights included Cabin B bringing back some of the favorite dance moves of the summer, Cabin F’s reenactment of the Taylor Swift song “You Belong With Me”, and watching Emma return to being a counselor and help the Cabin G girls during “I Want It That Way”. The night resulted in a three way tie between Cabin 2’s version of Lupe Fiasco’s “The Show Goes On” which the judges commented “felt like a real music video”, Girls Tents’ rickrolling the audience during their 80s Mash Ups, and Boys Tents’ hilarious delivery of a number of Boy Band songs. After a series of dance offs, Girls Tents came out the winners of the night. Overall another excellent busy day.

Welcome to the Third Session! My name is Zach and I’m picking up where my brother left off. I am an incoming senior at American University studying political science and a former camper at CTT. Third Session has been an absolute blast so far. We have a number of kids who are new to camp and many are trying activities for the first time.

Up at horses with Tiffany and Dan, Jaclyn Welfeld rode a horse for the first time. Alec Geis, Livia Lampal, Margaret Rappaport, Jasmine Williams, Freddi Rappaport, Taryn Dalton and Caro Lipsitz all shot guns for the first time with riflery experts Ethan and Erin. Keith and Julie’s climbing classes saw Livia Lampal and Freddi Rappaport try the wall and Freddi made it all the way to the top. The lake also gave campers the opportunity to try many new activities with Taylor Antonis and Lori Belt tubing for the first time, Sophie Delta, Hailee Williams, and Gabby Heller canoeing for the first time and Hailee Williams and Jenna Ross kayaking for the first time. Even the older campers were trying new activities. Tent boy Nate Schwartz attempted mountain boarding for the first time, and did quite well according to Rachel. Much to the excitement of Emma, Dippies have become very popular this session, especially with the younger ladies of Cabins A and B.

In addition to attempting new things, a number of CTT campers exceled in their activities yesterday. Sam Greenberg hit a home run in baseball. Matthew Van Aken won the accuracy contest in golf. Caoimhe Ni Dhroighneain and Jasmine Williams won soccer world cup. In hockey, Holden Cook won a game of world cup and Quinn Cook and Justin Welfeld won the 2 on 2 game. The Cook brothers also won a game of jail in tennis as did Jake Welfeld.

At the campfire, each cabin had to come up with a cabin cheer. Cabin 56 wowed the judges with their creative cheer and backflips by Jake Welfeld. The campers also learned numerous camp traditions and songs such as Boom-Chicka-Boom, “The Friends Song”, “Lion Hunt”, “Herman the Worm”, and “Boomba”. The evening ended with the entire camp roasting marshmallows by the campfire and making smores.