The East Tennessee Episcopalian

Copyright © 2005 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee

February / March 2005

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There's still time to register for summer camp sessions ...

Calling all adults: Remember how you loved summer camp?

By Michael Keene
Chair, Grace Point Program Committee

Why should the kids have all the fun? Ever since Grace Point has been our diocesan camp and retreat center, and especially at our summer Diocesan Days, grown-ups have said, “It’s so nice here; we wish we didn’t have to go home tonight.”

You know how that goes: The day moves on toward dusk, the air gets soft and has some color in it reflected from the sunset clouds, things quiet down a little bit, and … and … and you have to get in the car and drive home, where the phone rings and the TV blares.

Ever want to spend a couple of nights at Grace Point? Here’s your chance. This year you can come on Friday, July 29, and stay till after services Sunday morning, July 31. We’ll have the pool, the boats, the trails, Nature Lore, the craft shop, the Point, Compline and campfires both nights, as well as Holy Communion Sunday morning. Meals will be prepared by Grandé Cheffé Franké (aka “good ole Frank”), so for three days and two nights you’re a kid again.

Bring your tent and your spouse and sleep co-ed, or try the single life for a couple of nights in the dorm. But leave the kids at home – this camp is for grownups only. Just imagine sitting out on the Point as that late summer sunset paints the sky, watching the ospreys settle in for the night, listening to the earth slow down, feeling the Spirit ease your soul.

How much do you know about summer camp at Grace Point?

By Michael Keene
Chair, Grace Point Program Committee

If someone in your household attended Grace Point last summer, see how many right answers this quiz produces. If no one from your household attended Grace Point last summer, we offer a special invitation to you and yours: It’s going to be a great summer at Grace Point! (Quiz answers below.)

1-3. List the three rules for jokes at Grace Point.

4. What famous rock ’n’ roll star was a childhood “friend” of Nurse Vivian’s?

5. Who is “Bugsy”?

6. Who is “H2O”?

  

7. Where did the bugle come from?

8. Who lives in the Shoosters’ house?

9. What kinds of birds build those big nests in the tops of trees and on TVA’s navigation markers in the river?

  

10. How many acres is Grace Point?

11. (Bonus) Who is this guy “Hans” the kids sing about?

At summer camp was my first time to ...

One of the great things about going to summer camp is that people can try out new things – new skills, new friends, even new personalities – very easily.

Camp is a safe place to fail and an easy place to succeed.

Grace Point Summer Camp 2004 staff put poster boards on the wall in the Commons Building and invited campers and staff who tried something new to record it.

Here in alphabetical order, the 2004 Grace Point Summer Camp list of “this summer was my first time to …”

  • Almost submerge the pontoon boat
  • Be a Camp Director
  • Be a counselor
  • Be a cow
  • Be turned down when I asked someone to dance
  • Break my glasses and fix them with duct tape
  • Catch eight bluegills in a day
  • Catch a blue-tailed skink
  • Catch a fish
  • Catch a frisbee
  • Correctly address my first letter
  • Dance with a stuffed animal
  • Do a “doughnut” in a boat
  • Eat 4 bagels in a row
  • Eat liver and onions
  • Eat my first s’more
  • Eat shrubbery
  • Fish with a bamboo pole
  • Freeze lightning bugs
  • Get a nickname
  • Get pie in the face
  • Get poison ivy
  • Get pudding in my hair
  • Go canoeing
  • Go jug fishing
  • Go kayaking
  • Go kayaking in the rain
  • Go on pontoon boats at night
  • Go out in a canoe at night
  • Go seining
  • Go to Camp for 6 days
  • Go tubing
  • Have a guy sit by me
  • Have Compline by candlelight
  • Have three talks with the counselors
  • Hear my parents’ voice come out of my mouth
  • Hear Bo sing “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” 200 times
  • Hear someone neigh like a horse
  • Hear the Gospel according to Star Wars
  • Jump in the pool with my clothes on
  • Learn to swim
  • Light a campfire in the rain
  • Make a memory board
  • Make wonderful new friends
  • Microwave a banana
  • Not be at an
    all-girls camp
  • Paddle a canoe with my hands
  • Paddle to shore in a swamped canoe
  • Play “Taps” on a bugle and not mess up
  • Ride the soapy slide
  • Scare Perry with a frog
  • See a wild rattlesnake
  • Shave Justin’s head
  • Sleep upstairs
  • Swim across the pool
  • Swim at night
  • Take someone snipe hunting
  • Win the bat game
Quiz answers:
   1-3) Jokes must be short, must be clean and must be funny.
   4) That would be Bob Dylan.
   5)“Bugsy” is actually “Hal.” Don’t know Hal? Try Harriet Caldwell.
   6) H2O is Programs Director Mike Keene, a leftover nickname from his Camp Nebagamon days.
   7) It was $29.95 on eBay.
   8) The Shoosters.
   9) Osprey, of course.
   10) 270, give or take an acre or so.
   11) That would be Han Ska Leve, the first words of a song often sung at camp.
Scoring:
   11 right: Camp Vicar Bo Lewis has a job for you!
   9-10 right: We’ll keep you on a waiting list.
   7-8: Look for camper and staff applications for 2005 at etdiocese.net.
   Fewer than 7 right: You really need to come spend some time at Grace Point.

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