Welcome to Camp, Session A!

They made it! After this highly awaited season, the campers have arrived and have already filled Tawonga with excitement, laughter and love. This afternoon, 364 kids hopped out of cars and shuffled off busses as they were welcomed to Camp by exuberant staff, belting out the classic Tawonga welcome cheer:

“We welcome you to Camp Tawonga, mighty glad you’re here.
Send the air reverberating with a mighty cheer.
We’ll sing you in, we’ll sing you out!
For you we’ll raise a mighty shout!
Hail, hail, the gang’s all here, Camp Tawonga welcomes you!”

Bunk Bonding
All masked up and outdoors, campers eagerly gathered with their counselors and bunkmates for the very first time, immediately bonding over name games and getting to know you activities. In the midst of meeting new friends and joyfully reuniting with old ones, campers and SCITs (Specialists/Counselors In-Training) worked together within their bunks to create two-minute skits to introduce each camper in the bunk to the rest of Camp. 

Campers later went on Havurah hikes to tour Camp and get familiar with their new home away from home for the next three and half weeks. This evening, everyone performed their skits at our opening unit Camp programs under the starry Sierra sky.

COVID Protocols
To maintain the safety of our Camp community, Tawonga is following conservative COVID protocols to ensure the health and wellness of our campers and staff. Campers and SCITS can be unmasked when with just their pod (bunk). Most activities are just by pod the first week so they can be unmasked as often as possible. After our 5 day PCR results, we hope to have bunks pod in bigger groups.

These campers have brought an incredible energy to Tawonga today, and Camp is bursting with love and excitement for the session ahead. Here’s to a magical summer at Tawonga – let’s go!

See below for photos of our first day at Camp, and stay tuned for more throughout the session (including bunk photos posting tomorrow evening)! (And in case you missed it, you can learn about what to expect from our summer blog here).