Trail’s End Camp hosted the largest BBQ in Beach Lake, for the Fourth of July Monday night, continuing the tradition of hot dogs and hamburgers on America’s birthday. The July 4th spirit was in the air last night, while the Buddies and Rangers put on a show for the Trail’s End Camp family. The cook out slope was colored in shades of red, white and blue as everyone was painted from head to toe in our nation’s patriotic colors.
The youngest, but loudest campers participated in our annual Fourth of July show proudly representing our country’s Independence Day. The night began with campers performing traditional songs while the entire camp was singing and dancing along. The cook out slope was filled with smiles and laughs, showing all of the new friendships that were formed over the past week.
After a fun concert, beautiful fireworks exploded over the sky to end the night. The Fourth of July show is an important tradition at TEC that has been in place year after year. This special event also enables the youngest campers to show how important they are to our TEC family. Many campers were able to step out of their comfort zone to either crack a joke, or have a solo in a song on stage. The July 4th show is one of our favorite events in camp that gets the second week off to a great start.
As I am writing this, so many crazy camp memories are on my mind. One of my favorites is when we would spend Free Play practicing for the Talent Show – we would pick out matching outfits to wear and our counselors even dressed up with us. Practicing for Sing is another one of my favorite memories, especially when I was a Trinity and we won Sing for the first time! Square Dancing with Lou and Sue Flego has always been one of the best nights of camp – dressing up in all different costumes with my square was fun and exciting. I remember going on my first roller coaster in Hershey Park when I was in the Middies, and hiking and going on the Delaware River when I was a Deb.
While many of my friends ended their TEC days after our LT summer, I never wanted to leave Beach Lake and was determined to give back to future campers all those great things that Trail’s End had taught me. In 2009, I was hired as a counselor for the Upper Buddies. It is hard to believe that the campers from my very first summer will now be Second Years in Varsity! After 3 summers working with the Upper and Lower Buddies, I took on the role of Tour Director. Showing people from the outside world the amazing place that so many of us call home for two months of the year is something that I take great pride in and I love to do. After a summer as Tour Director, I was offered the opportunity to be a Group Leader for the Upper Buddies. As an young educator, I have learned so much from this position and I absolutely love being the person that helps get our new campers started on their TEC journey. It is so gratifying supporting them as they become part of our camp family. I will forever remember the feeling I had when Marc awarded me a Community Service Award during Friday night services. As I received the award and then looked up, all of my campers from the past couple of summers came running down the hill to congratulate me. Everyone at Trail’s End is truly my family.
As I enter my 8th summer as a staff member, this summer once again brings about a new and exciting change for me as I will be Assistant Girls’ Head Counselor as well as Group Leader for the Buddies. I am overly excited to be working even more closely with Steph Fineman, the Girls’ Head Counselor, and Lindsay Bernstein, as my assistant Group Leader. I can’t wait to be in this new role, and to continue working with the campers on girls’ campus. My love for TEC grows each year, and I look forward to spending the summer of 2015 with all of you!
Every fall, we count down the days till our camp family is able to get together for our annual TEC Bowling Reunions, and this year was no different.
The weekend started off on Saturday as we spent the afternoon with our current 6th – 11th graders at Bowlmor. It was a great reunion for our older campers as they hung out with their friends, had pizza & sliders and premiered our 2014 video yearbook. We loved being able to get back to that camp feeling that we have been missing all fall. It was also so much fun to watch everyone reconnect and to see how excited they were to see some of their favorite staff members. TEC Group Leaders and Head Counselors flew in from all over the US to spend the weekend with their summer family.
On Sunday, it was our 1st – 5th grade campers’ turn to reunite and make some new friends during their bowling get-togethers at Syosset Lanes. The turnout was awesome and we were so happy to see how welcoming our returning campers were to the many 1st time Trail’s Enders. After some bowling and icebreakers, the reunions ended with Marc handing out raffle prizes to the lucky winners which included a golf cart ride for your bunk, the counselors having to do clean up, bunk milkshake parties and pizza parties for the entire group, to name a few.
TENNIS COURT RENOVATIONS – Our tennis court facility will be getting a full facelift. We will have 7 brand new tennis courts and 3 Quickstart training courts for our youngest campers. We are excited to see the courts in action come June!
campers bringing less “stuff” to camp and will create more room in the bunks!
