A Day in the Life
Here we turn the focus to our day to day at camp and try to give our readers an idea of what we have going on each week throughout the summer.
July 10th-14th
Woodstock Day School & Unison Arts Center
Week 1
There was an abundance of excitement in the air at both camps as we started our first week of camp this summer. We ran around and laughed in wacky games, played capture the flag with swords (with 83 kids!), and learned about the worlds we would venture into later in the week. It is always a joy to see familiar, yet much older, looking faces on the first day; as well as the new faces of soon to be friends. At lunch I saw more than a few Magic the Gathering games take place.
At Woodstock Day School our campers won many battles, including the legendary Grass Wars (a battle that has been raging for eons; but at long last Jud succumbed to battle fatigue) and an epic round of Staff vs. Campers. A long-time staple of the WDS last day of camp, Staff vs. Campers is a battle where, as the name says, the staff are pitted against the campers. It has historically been an incredibly difficult fight to win. Yes, there are 55 kids fighting about 10 staff members, but years of experience (and ALL of the monster weapons available) usually wins out over sheer numbers. It is becoming clear that after time our campers are getting very good (dangerously good) at sword fighting and destroyed the staff the week in at least one round. 
The Adventure Game at WDS was written by former WDS camper Eric Lasko, and paid tribute to the golden age of comic books. Our heroes had to stop the world from being destroyed! (Literally.) Which they did indeed do, however after that business was taken care of, they were tasked with deciding what to do with the villains who made the mess in the first place. Following deliberation, and after making the noble choice to give them a second chance, our heros noticed that the villains had (in classic comic book fashion) slipped away to plot and scheme another day!
Meanwhile, over at The Unison Arts Center, the Adventure Game was a little different. Written by a new friend to the Wayfinder Experience, Emma Puranen’s Wandering Stars was a tale celestial tribes that followed the various planets. It was a beautiful tale about putting aside small, but long held grudges and differences to do what was right. Through a series of quests, encounters and the deciphering ancient texts our heroes uncovered a 50 year old deception that began a war that tore the very universe apart. They managed to band together and work with their former enemies to defeat the powerful and false priest of the Sun, bringing peace to the universe. Plus they got to meet this sweet Moon dragon, (Moon dragons are notoriously voracious, cranky and love all things shiny). 
A great week was had by all, and for many another week of adventure was to come.
Written by Trine Boode-Petersen
Photos by various staff from both camps
July 4th-8th
Staff Week
This summer the blog is featuring a new series called A Day In The Life, with stories and pictures of all the fun things going on at camp. There may even be character drawings and stories from our participants! We’ve got camp running until the end of August, so there’s a lot to look forward to as we go through the summer.
This last week we ran our annual Staff Week, a time for us to reconnect as a staff pool, fostering the communal spirit that is so key to what we do at camp day to day. We do this through a good deal of the same exercises that we run at camp. For Staff Week this year our focus was on the intentional creation of communal space, the staff and their own enjoyment of our programming (trying to reignite the feeling that we all clung to as campers), and as always ensuring that our staff is fully trained and 
ready to go into the summer’s programming. We ran an advanced version of the programming that we run at our regular camps, featuring everything from trust to capture the flag. Camp wouldn’t be camp without an Adventure Game. This year we played a Game written by the illustrious Chase Spearance. The Game centered around a fairy tale world with staff taking on the roles of woodland creatures trying to reconcile their relationship with a fairy queen after they had accidentally killed a member of the royal family. As with any camp, Staff Week both filled us with joy and left us ready for the next experience, excited for the coming opportunities to share our programming with the community at large.
Coming up next week we’ve got camps at the Woodstock Day School and the Unison Arts Center. Check back here for updates on the games we play and the incredible things our participants are getting up to in them.