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Left My Heart in Beach Lake

It’s only been 6 weeks since the buses pulled away, but it feels like forever since the sun set on Summer 2017. It was an amazing 7 weeks of friendship, spirit and fun, making it even harder to say goodbye to our summer home. But if you close your eyes and listen closely, you can still hear the sounds of summer that instantly transport you back to Trail’s End. You can hear the crackle of the campfire at the Axelrod site, the opening notes of “Waving Through A Window” and the splash of lake water as you jump off the Aqua Park. If you concentrate hard enough, you can even smell the cookout cookies, feel the wind in your hair as you speed down the zipline, and see the smiling faces of your bunkmates and counselors.

As your school year kicks off, and the sounds of reveille are replaced by the buzz of your alarm clock, we hope the memories of this incredible two months don’t fade. And when you miss Trail’s End, put on this playlist, turn up the volume and dance like no one’s watching you in the dining room.

As we patiently wait for Summer 2018, we hope you keep the TEC spirit alive throughout the year: Write a snail mail letter to your bunkmate. Schedule a family line up after dinner. Wear a tutu to school. Plan a lip sync battle for your friends. Insist on s’mores for dessert (even if you make them in the microwave).

Only 36 Saturdays until Opening Camp Fire!

Sue and Lou Flego!

The Wild West came alive at Trail’s End Camp last night as Lou and Sue Screen Shot 2016-08-04 at 1.54.22 AM Flego came to town. Every summer TEC hosts Lou Flego square dancing which campers and staff alike look forward to year after year.

Each age group on girls campus gets partnered with the same age group on boys campus, thus creating a “square.” The group leaders carefully work together to form these squares, pairing up campers to form new friendships and to ensure a night of fun, dancing and camaraderie.

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Each square creates a special clothing theme, such as plaid shirts, pajamas, dance attire or girls dressing up as guys and vice versa. The Varsity campers go all out making Lou Flego an excuse for a second Halloween. This summer, some of our varsity squares included a sibling square, which forced siblings to hold hands and dance!

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For two days, campers are taught a sequence of different dance moves, which will hopefully lead them to be the winning square of the evening. Last night, the Pearl Pavilion turned into a western square dancing hall filled with catchy tunes, great vibes and colorful dance moves. A fun time was had by all as this yearly tradition is one of the highlights of the summer. See y’all in the next post!!

Sports-A-Thon 2016

As Marc Honigfeld once stated, “ What’s better than kids helping kids?” For the 11^th year in a row, Trail’s End campers took their athletic skills to the fields and the courts to make a difference and to give back to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, as well as Sunrise Day Camp at their annual overnight Sports-A-Thon. During visiting day, the LT’s had a booth where many TEC families made donations to sponsor the members of the Sports –A- Thon.

Each leadership trainee is a captain to a different colored team comprised of campers in 8^th grade and above. The campers’ energy and excitement was reflected in their decked out outfits that were colorful and vibrant from head to toe. The teams are on the go, playing different sports against other teams, including soccer, mini tennis tournaments, euro, egg toss and much, much more. Each team has a schedule, and different events happen every half hour to keep the night going and the energy alive and vibrant.

The spirit of every camper was truly shown through out his or her involvement in every hour of the sports-a-thon. Each camper played an important role in this special event and they were able to show how vital their participation was in supporting cancer research as well as Sunrise Day Camp.

Our campers live ten months for two and being part of the Sports-a-thon enables them to give back to their communities and children with cancer by enabling these children to also participate in the wonderful experience of summer camp.

After hours of competition and seeing a smile on all the participants’ faces, it was amazing to experience the sense of accomplishment and teamwork felt throughout the camp. This event has already raised over 100,000 dollars to date, and we will continue to participate in this rewarding event in the coming years, with the hope to find a cure to childhood cancer.

Cooking with Paula!

Gordon Ramsey needs to step aside as our own campers are learning the fine art of cooking. Campers are now able to become chefs at Trail’s End Camp, from Cooking with Paula. Paula, a chef during the year at a sorority house, works in cooking at the creativity center, to teach our campers how to cook, in a fun way!

Campers have many options to make something special, whether it is as simple as chocolate chip cookies, or as complex as a triple layer cake. Campers are taught how to prepare their food, cook their food and of course clean up the kitchen.

Our older campers get the privilege of doing something special. 14 times over the summer, our varsity campers get to cook their own dinner. Chef Paula will be teaching the campers about many different options they can prepare at meal time. This week, our First Year Varsity boys cooked omelettes for dinner, which looked delicious! We are certain that campers will be excited to share their culinary skills with their families when they return home.

College Day 2016

College Day or what some call a “mini” Olympics, broke out Tuesday around 4:00 pm. The teams for the 2-day competition were the South Dakota State Jack Rabbits, University of North Texas Green Horns, and lastly, the San Diego State Aztects. These last two days gave our Second Year Varsity campers a chance to come together as a group, and lead camp through a sports-filled friendly competition.

The Second Year girls, matching with their French braided hair, as well as matching shirts, and the boys matching in their button downs, showed the rest of TEC how they’ve been ready for this moment the day they walked through the gates. A boy and girl, who have been overall great leaders and campers, are chosen and rewarded to be in charge of one of the three teams. However, each Second Year camper gets a role, whether being a rope burn captain, an athletic captain or a cheer captain.

College Day started off with the traditional running of the bases, which was filled with spirit and sportsmanship. The next day was followed by a morning and afternoon filled with competitive sports such as soccer, softball, flag football, relay races and more. Of course the Varsity European hand ball game was the all time favorite. New talents were found, and new relationships between different ages were built as each Second Year put their best foot forward to make sure all of the campers and staff’s College Day experience was the best one yet.

College Day ended with the famous rope burn. Four Second Year campers, who have been looking forward to this since their first College Day, work together to build that fire higher, higher hoping to burn the 8 ft. tall rope.

The lucky winners were the Yellow Jack Rabbits who swept Rope Burn and Overall Cheer, making them the Overall College Day winners.