This morning, when our campers walked into the dining room, they were met by a CS staff, who, rather than clowning around (ouch!) were pulsating with energy. They also noticed that they weren’t in much of a dining room at all. Over night, our staff members worked to convert the dining room into an over the top circus tent. It was complete with a moving animal carousel, elephants and monkeys, and many camp caricatures. There were also concession stands scattered around, and campers were able to walk over and order cotton candy, snow cones, and hot dogs. By lunch, we had our usual upROAR complete with dancing, stamping, singing. Today, we had the lions to compete with but of course we were louder.
After lunch, we headed out to the ball field for our annual Epic Dr. Lenny Water Fight. Dr. Lenny is known to be an expert in the oncology field, but today he showed off his adept water-gun handling skills. Our campers had a blast as they had a chance to cool off and soak the medical staff in the process(only some-the rest were on call).
From there, our campers headed back to their bunks and prepared for the circus parade. Each division had to work together to create a show complete with costumes, songs, and floats. The results were Barnum-and-Bailey worthy. Our oldest division decided to all dress like elephants, cover their float in grey, and march to the song: “Do your ears hang low?” Our other divisions each did something creative including a mime theme and an animal theme. The parade finished by the social hall and then each division had to put on a circus performance for the rest of the camp. Each division had their own twist, and all the shows were very entertaining.
After the parade, we had one last afternoon activity. Mitchell and his friends headed to the woodshop to build something. Mitchell created a a wooden name plate for his front door. His friends made a launch pad for a rocket their going to launch at the end of the session. It was captivating to watch them carefully draw out their plans on paper, then saw the wood, sand it down, and put it together.
After supper, we had a chance to witness a real circus performance. The Jabali African Acrobats dazzled us with balancing feats, impressive juggling, original jump-rope techniques, and human formations. And although they looked more professional in their outfits, our camper Corey did us proud under the limbo pole, minus the leopard prints. And speaking of limbo, we would like to make it very clear that limbo is the ONLY time we lower the bar here in Camp Simcha. Everything else is E-P-I-C.