DAY 10: A Wicked Good Time
A sunny (ish) sky finally greeted us this morning! Campers were excited to have a delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatoes, cereal and fruit. Several campers commented on how delicious the savory chicken sausages were, which fueled them for the day ahead.
Today, Liz led warm-ups, waking up both our bodies and our voices for the day ahead. In musicianship, our classes worked hard to build the foundational skills needed for any type of musical problem thrown at them. Particularly, Eric’s musicianship class worked hard on identifying key signatures, sight-reading rhythms and melodic passages, and dictating auditory passages created by Eric himself.
For lunch, we had yummy burrito bowls with chicken, rice, beans, salad, sour cream, and salsa. Then, during announcements, we celebrated Ainsley’s 14th Birthday with our special choir song and a treat for the bday gal! Happy Birthday Ainsley!
After another not-mandatory-sleep rest period, campers showed off their amazing spirit day outfits. Today was Dress Like A Staff Member Day. Camp Joyful Voices dressed like one of their counselors, Grace, and they sealed the deal on their first place win by each doing a different pose from a silly song that Grace taught them on the first day. Cabin Salmon got second place by dressing like their counselor, Makenna, who often wears jeans and striped shirts, and finally, Cabin Eagle got third place for dressing like their beloved conductor, Eric! Campers Leeza and Julia who dressed like Eric (dressed as camper Bebe), earned an honorable mention!
After their rest period, campers flocked in great numbers to the lake, to once again take advantage of the warm weather. Many campers swam, boated, and drew matching henna tattoos with their friends. The arts and crafts project today was nature frames! In this craft, campers made collages of different items they found in the natural world within a decorated frame. This will allow them to commemorate their time spent in the beautiful outdoors of Walker Creek Ranch. Throughout the afternoon, the kids enjoyed the warm sunshine until the evening clouds eventually blanketed the sky, hanging low above the campers, just in time for recital.
At recital, campers Ainsley, Georgia, Violet, and Avi all individually performed songs they have been learning throughout the past week in their voice lessons! Each performance brought uproars of voice-friendly “lip trills” and raucous applause from all their peers and mentors. Congratulations to these 4 wonderful and brave campers who sang amazingly!
For dinner, we enjoyed a yummy meal of pizza, salad, and cookies for dessert. Then the kids headed off to their evening rehearsals. Tonight, leadership and section leaders were announced in Ensemble. CC mentees also learned who their mentors are! The mentors had a fun time giving each other “clues” throughout the day so the mentees would get excited about their new friendships.
Tonight’s evening activity was Staff No Talent Night, an annual camper-favorite show where the counselors and staff dress up in silly outfits and perform skits for them. The opening act was a parody of “Popular” from Wicked called “Choir Rules!” accompanied by a music video of our time at Walker Creek!
The ever-popular “Soundboard” made a comeback this year, featuring new sounds like “meow'“ and “labubu”, and “bruh”.
Tate and Grace performed “We Like Watching Birds” complete with Makenna playing the part of the bird god in a full chicken suit! The highlight of the night was when Grace and Eric performed “Loathing” from Wicked in German! Eric made a wonderful Elphaba by adorning green face paint, a broom, and a witch hat.
The finale was a mad-libs style rendition of “Sing All Ye Joyful”, featuring a “deadly metronome” and “chartreuse turtles” replacing the lyrics to our beloved song, which we will sing at the Golden Gate Festival next summer!
We had a wicked fun day and are excited to have an even better one tomorrow. See you then!
(Photos are taking a while to upload to dropbox, check back in tomorrow for more!)