Sadly, today is our last full day of camp. Summer 2018 here at Island Lake has been absolutely fantastic! We could not have asked for a better summer filled with happy campers and amazing counselors. Your children will for sure come home with long lasting memories of their experiences at ILC this summer.
Tomorrow the buses should all arrive at their designated bus stops between 11:30am-12:00pm, give or take a half hour. Please be there on time to pick up your children. If you are not sure which bus stop we have in our records, please call us here at camp before 4:30pm when the office will be closing for tonight’s banquet festivities.
Today we let the camp sleep in and we had a late wake up with breakfast at 9:15am. The kids then went back to their bunks to start cleaning up. Lunch followed and then we had our 6th annual COLOR RUN! Most of our campers and staff participated in this fun event throughout camp today. As they reached certain locations they got sprayed with powdered paint of different colors. Everyone eventually gathered by the lake at the finish line, proud of their accomplishments. Our campers had been looking forward to this special event for weeks and they had a fantastic time running around camp getting sprayed with different colors, congregating at the end. At the end of this blog are photos I took at the color run.
Directly after the Color Run we had our final Rock Concert of the summer at the theater. Our rock and roll campers jammed out to their favorite tunes while the rest of the camp watched and sang along. Following rock concert, all of the kids went back to their bunks to pack, sadly. They collected all of their belongings at the different departments at camp- arts & crafts, skatepark, sports, music, etc.
Tonight we have our annual ILC banquet in the dining room. Instead of eating cafeteria style, the kids will all sit with their friends at the table of their choice and the kitchen staff will serve food to their tables. We’ll play music and there will be some dancing, lots of picture taking, and some awards will be presented after dinner.
After the banquet, we will all head down to the theater to watch the summer 2018 Island Lake video yearbook. The yearbook is a compilation of the entire summer here at camp. Post-summer we will share the yearbook with all of our ILC families. Our video department and advanced video campers worked extremely hard to make this summer’s yearbook amazing! It’s a wonderful memento for our Island Lakers to view all year long until they can return to their home away from home here in Starrucca once again next summer.
Upon completion of the video yearbook, we will all move lakeside to the waterfront where each bunk will release a candle onto the lake and make a bunk wish together. Following this we will burn the “2018” sign on the water and we’ll sing our camp alma maters. We will end the waterfront portion of the night with a big firework display. This is all a very somber and bittersweet moment of the night. Tears fill many campers’ eyes (ok fine, possibly mine as well) as we make bunk wishes, sing our camp songs, and watch the 2018 summer sign burn. This sign represents the ILC summer in its entirety as we all say farewell.
Although it will be a bit later than usual, we’ll allow all of our campers to make one last trip to the canteen to eat their hearts out one final time. Based on how late the evening runs, we will decide when everyone’s curfew will be.
And that’s about it for the Island Lake Summer 2018 blogs. It’s been a pleasure writing for all of you every day. I hope you enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I enjoyed writing them for you. Continue to check in throughout the year since I’ll continue to blog every other week or so.
I hope your children all come home to you as “happy campers” tomorrow. Hey, it’ll be a bonus if they’re healthy, sort of clean, and even have all of their personal belongings! Our office here at camp will remain open for a few more weeks so if you need to contact us, just give us a call at the camp number: 570-798-2550 or email us at info@islandlake.com.
It’s been the most amazing, fantastic, wonderful summer, and until next year when we can all be together once again in the 18462, ILCUTHERE!!!
