EVR 2 Week – Weekend fun!

08/17/2015

This weekend the girls at EVR have been enjoying a break from their normal schedule by learning how to ride bareback and dressing up for theme day. Every Saturday we have bareback day where all of the girls ride without saddles which is even more fun than riding with one! Bareback riding is a great way to improve your riding position and balance as you can feel the way your horse moves beneath you with every step. We played lots of games and set lots of challenges in our riding lessons to make it an especially fun experience! As well as riding, everyone came down to the barn to do show grooming and painting on the horses in the barn and they did a really great job of making them look amazing! The girls also painted each others faces in arts and crafts which they really enjoyed. Because Saturday was such a hot day, in the afternoon we made an epic team obstacle course and played water games as well as having a cool down on the slip ‘n slide. For dinner we upheld an EVR tradition of having eat with your face night where we try to eat our spaghetti and meatballs without any silverware! Yurt 1 won the competition for the messiest face and were able to eat their brunch outside on the back deck on Sunday which they loved. For evening programme we had a disco night and everyone dressed up in their finest clothes and did each others hair and make up so that they looked extra fancy! We also did a lip sync competition where each of the yurts prepared a dance routine to a song and performed it in front of an audience. Every single one of them prepared brilliant routines, but the overall winners were yurt 2!

Sundays at EVR have always been theme day, and this weekend was no exception. This session’s theme was ‘Make the world a better place’ and we did a variety of activities in order to do this. In the morning the girls all had chance to think of what they would personally do to make the world a better place and then they wrote this on a piece of paper and decorated it. They all had fantastic ideas of what they would do, they are an inspiring bunch of young ladies! They also made EVR a better place by cleaning it up and then hiding lots of lovely notes representing random acts of kindness all around camp. It was very hard not to smile if you saw one! To escape from the hot weather the girls also got to build cairns by the creek and make rock face paint whilst wading in the refreshing cool water. Later on they expressed their artistic sides by painting rocks and making flower headbands for the evening. In the evening we had a BBQ outside on the lawn before a massive EVR talent show where everyone showed off their amazing talents. It was a great theme day and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Today the girls have been developing their teamwork skills on our low ropes course and by leading each other blindfolded over, under and through different obstacles. This evening for EP we have a staff demo where the girls get to see their counsellors ride which they always love to see. Keep looking at smugmug for photos!

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.