Written by Hayden (Lakehouse B)
Appreciation is often missed in our daily lives. We always are onto the next, never really stopping to appreciate what we’re doing. To me, appreciation can take many, many forms. It can be returning a favor, doing something kind for someone, or simply saying “thank you”.
I came to camp starlight as an upper junior. At the time, I did not know how much I would come to appreciate this place, my second home. However, my appreciation for camp runs deeper than just being here. I find things to appreciate at camp every day, like my amazing division and my opportunity to live in the Lakehouse with them. The beautiful sunsets I watch on Friday Nights with my best friends in the world.
This summer, when I went to outdoor adventure, I had one of those small but special moments that happen when you’re at Camp Starlight. Normally when I have outdoor adventure, I head right for the fire – building, but that day I decided to try the high ropes. I got all geared up and headed for the zipline. It was very hot, and let me say, I am not the best climber. That didn’t matter to me. I climbed all the way to the top, listening to the encouragement of my friends below. When I finally reached the top, I was nervous and couldn’t stop shaking. Suddenly, right before I leaped off of the edge, I looked around, and the world seemed still. I looked over camp and just appreciated the view and how hard I had worked to get there. I almost succumbed to the day-to-day lack of appreciation.
So, that zipline taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that sometimes we all need to take a minute in all of our fast-paced lives to just appreciate. Appreciate this beautiful camp, the wonderful people in it. The views we get to take in, and so much more.
Everyone remembers his or her first summer at camp. They remember the countdown until the big day, the careful packing and the butterflies as they arrive at camp. When you arrive at camp for the first time, you have many questions and uncertainties. You’re curious about the games you’ll play, the food you’ll eat, and how you’ll like sleeping in a cabin. But before the first day of camp is over, most campers are settling in and finding their groove. If you ask most campers about the things they wish they would have known before their first summer at Camp Starlight, this is what they would tell you:
A significant number of our counselors are campers who just can’t get enough of Camp Starlight. Some of our veteran camp counselors and staff members started out as wide-eyed, excited, first-time campers who fell in love with sleepaway camp. The camp experience is ingrained so deep into their life that there’s no place they’d rather spend their summer. Some can barely remember a summer that wasn’t spent at Camp Starlight, and they love it that way.
The staff at Camp Starlight is comprised of a wide range of people that hail from countries scattered all over the globe. Camp Starlight becomes a placed infused with so many cultures and new traditions in the summer when staff come from places such as New Zealand, England, Mexico and South Africa. When all these people come to Camp Starlight it can provide campers and other staff members with valuable insight into different lifestyles and help them learn about cultures that differ from their own. It is so valuable to have these international staff members because it helps Camp Starlight become a summer camp enriched with new ideas and cultures. Internationals can help bring new songs to sing around the campfire and new types of friendships bracelets to make for your friends, mixing up the regular everyday American camp customs. They also inspire people to travel and experience new things, broadening minds on different opportunities to take advantage of across the world. It is so important to have international staff so that the campers can still keep learning even in the summer. Even though summer camp is supposed to be a break from school, campers are learning so many important lessons and things about all these different cultures when they come to Camp Starlight. International staff helps campers remain curious and ask questions about things from all over the world, making Camp Starlight a better place for campers every summer. 
Living away from your parents for any period of time is a big adjustment. At camp, campers must learn to do things for themselves and it is through this that independence is learned over the course of the summer.
Basketball Lower Senior Boys vs Camp Perlman
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Elizabeth E. and I am an upper senior. Thank you for allowing me to come up to talk about the theme of the summer, appreciation, tonight. I would like to start out by saying that 2 of my biggest role models in my life are my older sisters. One is a counselor here this summer. There is 7 year age gap between my oldest sister Sarah and I. So, when I was a lower junior, Sarah was an upper senior. I distinctly remember a time after my lower junior summer when my sister and I were talking about camp and how much we missed it. Sarah turned, looked at me and said, “Elizabeth, you have so many summer left there as a camper. I would do anything to be a junior again and have 8 more summers left at camp. Appreciate it.” Many leagues games, divisional shows, sing-a-longs, and Friday night services later I am now where she once was as an upper senior. I too would do anything to be a lower junior again with so much time as camper left ahead of me. But I would like to think that I took her advice, that I truly appreciated every moment spent here. I now know the importance of stepping back and appreciating every stunning sunset over the lake, every memory made and every one of the 35 girls in my division that I now call family but were once strangers when I was a junior. I don’t know what I would do without them. It’s important to take notice to how much Starlight helps us grow and mature. To appreciate that camp changes us all for the better.
Picture this: a balmy summer evening and the view of the beautifully calm lake stretching out to the endless green woodland. The sun is slowly setting for the day producing an unbelievable sky of soft orange and pink. Everyone is sitting, watching in admiration. But the nature isn’t the only thing everyone is admiring right now because we are seated at the new Starlight Amphitheater!
Break out the anywhere chairs— it’s time for a cookout! Hearing their division called on the loudspeaker summons a crowd of hungry and eager campers to the cookout site. While the Seniors serve the chef’s best knishes, hot dogs, hamburgers, and watermelon, they also serve up some hilarious tactics to get the campers enticed by lettuce, pickles, and onions to top their burgers. From lower juniors to CA’s and staff, there is not a knish left to spare. Campers and staff laugh, eat, play games and throw footballs in front of the scenic Pocono mountains. 