Here Comes Our 65th Summer!

What a fantastic day! This morning felt like a wonderful homecoming for me! After the “fast food” drop-off and pickup of last year, I really enjoyed getting to spend some time with parents and families today. I missed getting to spend time with you all! I enjoy the whole “nervous-excited” morning followed by meetings of old as well as introductions of new camp friends.

June Camp opening day is a little different than the rest of the summer because we are opening for the summer as well.  I am always so excited to finally get to this day! It takes months of planning and labor to get to the first day of the camp season each year.  I always find that this day gives me a sense of relief and purpose! The staff are trained and ready to go. The facility looks great! And, the boys are so excited to be here too.  It was such a wonderful day to kick off our 65th summer! 

After lunch, we moved right into some fun activities including field games, basic lake tests, swim tests, and even some age group meetings.  After dinner, each of the boys picked their activities for the session. 

We will get an email out to you about your sons’ schedules around lunchtime. You can also find his up-to-date schedule on my.higrocks.com along with trips he has taken during the session.  We ask the boys to choose five different activities. They can change just about any time they like, and they always get into the activities they want. Again, look for an email and update around lunchtime tomorrow.

After some great evening activity field games, we all headed back to the cabins for some showers and a wrap-up to the day.  Each cabin had a small cabin meeting to go over some ground rules and highlights to finish up the day just as the lights out bell was ringing.

Below tonight’s blog is the link to the High Rocks Gallery. You will notice that our website and picture gallery is very user-friendly on almost any device, including mobile and tablet devices.  This gallery is password protected. If you are new to the gallery, you should have received an automated email today with details for your login.  If you are returning, use the email address that received the opening day email.  Your password is the same as last year. If you cannot remember, just use the “forgot password” link to retrieve a new one.

It may make sense to save the link and log in to your browser for quick access. I will try my best to get the blog up by 9:30 pm each night, but sometimes camp does get in the way, or our rural internet has been quite slow (or even slower). Don’t fret!  We will get you the pictures as soon as we can! We are likely to push up some pictures throughout the day, but they will continue to go up until the blog is live.  Once the blog is up, it typically means that pictures are up for the day.

Don’t forget to follow us on social media.  We will make it worth your while by putting up a couple of extra pictures and a special video from time to time during the day. Facebook:  Camp High Rocks, and on Instagram. Feel free to throw up some of these great pictures to share on your feed.  We like making High Rocks look good!

I often think about those before me in this wonderful place. Jane and Sumner Williams (Woody’s grandparents) certainly had a vision. While it took a lot to create this location out of raw land, the impressive part is the legacy of the community that they created. Hank and Townsend carried on that same tradition of community and it still exists today.

It is an honor and a privilege to host your son here at High Rocks.  We will do our part to give him the best possible experience summer camp has to offer. If you ever need anything, please reach out.  It is going to be an amazing three weeks!

-Don Gentle

Today’s Pictures 

Let me know if you are having any gallery trouble tonight. I will be watching until about 10 pm or so. Just hit me up [email protected].