EVR 2 Week – Welcome to session 4!

08/13/2015

Session 4 is here! On Sunday we welcomed all of our new campers to the East Valley for our final session of the summer. We are excited to see lots of returning faces who are back from previous sessions and from last year as well as many new faces. As always, we opened the session with a campfire where we had s’mores, people showed us their talents and the yurts prepared skits for us to see. There are some really talented singers here this session! One of our camp traditions is also that we set ourselves goals that we want to achieve by the end of the session, which is a great way of reflecting back on things that have been learnt or achieved over the two weeks. After our campfire the girls did Devotion in their yurts which is something that they do every night together as a way of getting to know each other.

Yesterday was Evaluation day which is where the girls come down to the barn for the first time and learn how we do things here at Frost Valley. They learnt how to groom their horses, put their tack on and how to lead them and tie them up correctly. This is important to learn because they will be doing all of these things for their assigned horses for the next two weeks! The girls also got to ride for the first time which gives us a chance to see their riding style so that we can pair them with the best possible horse for the session. They were all very happy to be riding, especially those who had never ridden before! Our evening program last night was a spa night where the girls enjoyed braiding each others hair and painting their nails as well as making natural facials which they tried out on each other.

This morning at breakfast the girls found out who their assigned horses and instructors for the session are! They were all super excited to meet their new horses and ride them for their first regular lesson. It was a rainy morning, so we spent the morning making alien masks to go with our “Out of This World” theme, doing yoga, building forts out of blankets and pillows, and practicing show grooming the horses. After lunch, everybody got to ride in their lesson groups for the first time! We finished the day off with everyone at camp playing capture the flag for our evening program. We are excited to continue practicing riding and see what evening programs are still to come!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Lomauro

Nick Lomauro is a lifetime lover of camp (overnight and day), outdoor recreation, and value-based programs. Nick grew up in the YMCA and discovered his passion for working in youth development as a summer camp counselor. Full of curiosity, Nick graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in General Humanities. Immediately following graduation Nick set off to Spain to hike the 500 mile ancient pilgrimage trail, El Camino de Santiago. Nick then returned to his childhood YMCA in NJ, of over 20 thousand members, as the Director of Youth Development. In this role he designed, developed, and implemented day camp and teen programs. In 2015, Nick returned to Frost Valley and he is now the Director of Camp Wawayanda. This is Nick's 16th summer at Frost Valley.