Wednesday, August 2

There is a lot going on at camp and things you can do to make it better. If this is your first year at Greystone you might want to read up on some details of cabin life. One of those details is rest hour which happens every day after lunch (2:30 - 3:30) when everyone sits on their bunk and rests. This is when we distribute emails and letters, always a highlight of the day. Thank you for emailing and writing your campers… make sure those letters are focused on her life here not your life at home! This afternoon you will get a scanned letter from your camper where she will share her schedule and some “comments” about camp (some only have a stick figure drawing… whatever they want to write is fine with us!). When you write, talk about the food, classes, weather, and EPs of camp. These emails and letters will be treasured by your daughter at rest hour and make her camp experience better. Thank you!

The girls are having a blast. 2023 is proving to be a very special year and this session is the perfect way to finish. It is fun, it is pleasant, it is sweet, and it is smooth as silk. This assessment is coming from the counselors who tell us that things are going surprisingly great in every corner of the camp experience. From reveille to taps, every moment of the day is working the way it “ought”. They are very thankful to be here and their attitude is setting the baseline for the campers.

Our counselors are “experts” at this point of the summer. They know how to manage a cabin, a class, a table, and the hundreds of little curve balls that daily life can present. They are able to assess how the girls are doing and were ready for these first days to be difficult (our other sessions have very few first time campers), but it has been anything but difficult. The girls are polite, engaged, respectful, happy, funny, energetic, and eager to please. They run to class, listen and obey the rules, and bring out the best in each other. Perfect campers make a perfect camp! We are loving this session!

There are many reasons why August Camp is such a popular session. It is two weeks long, we take the same seven classes every day (rather than rotating between MWF and TTS schedules), it comes at the end of the summer vacation, and the weather is typically so nice. It is a heavenly setting that never ceases to amaze. Some history might be helpful.

Western North Carolina is a great place for a summer camp, there are almost 60 of them in Henderson, Buncomb, and Transylvania Counties alone! Dr. Sevier chose this location after experiencing what camp life was like in another state. His cousin had a resort property in Tennessee and he initially thought it would be a good location for his new camp. The property had a lot going for it (beautiful views, great facilities, already built) but was missing two things: water and weather. Greystone Mountain (yes, that is why we are called Greystone) didn’t have a lake and its location in the Great Smokey Mountains was at a much higher elevation. It was cold at night and only had a small concrete pool fed by spring water for swimming… when he saw Lake Summit, he was struck by the perfection. Warm temperatures, gently sloping mountains, large green valleys, a railroad nearby, and a beautiful big lake. Eureka! He purchased a 35 acre corn field located on the headwaters of the lake and moved Greystone to NC that same year (1923). We have been here ever since, always striving to delight and inspire for the Glory of God.

Lip Syncs last night (Tentalows through Bungalow 1) were delightful… Taylor Swift was prominently featured as we enjoyed our first EP on the Pagent Court Stage. The setting is amazing (a large stage in front of the Shepherd Gazebo), green grass, and a glass smooth lake reflecting the pink sky as the sun slowly sets behind the mountains. The girls might not have noticed any of it for they were fully engaged in being silly on a stage with an audience. FUN. They get so excited! It really is a great EP and we look forward to seeing the rest of the girls perform tonight.

Camp is really settled: classes well underway, the girls happy in the Dining Hall (I am getting actual laughs at the joke punchline), having fun in their classes, confident with their schedule, and comfortable with the facility. It didn’t take them long to become Greystone Girls!

Details:

• Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns, Sausage
• Breakfast Club: Friends (kindness)
• Joke: “Thanks Daddy”
• Weather: 78 degrees, partly cloudy.
• Lunch: BLT
• Dinner: Sloppy Joes and Tater Tots
• EP: Bungalow and Cabin Lip Sync
• Moonphase: 99% Waning Gibbous (looks like a full moon, amazing!)