Sport: Girls Lacrosse
Age: 6th Grade
Date: 7/8/16
Wayne County Update
Lacrosse vs. Island Lake
Rachel H. opened up the scoring 20 seconds into the game to put Starlight out in front. She finished the game with 2 goals. Additionally, Juliette S., Julia H., Gabby G., and Dani A. all finished with 2 goals each. First time goalkeeper Samantha F. had 6 saves and played quite impressively. Starlight controlled the beginning of the game, getting off to a 6-0 lead. Final Score 14-7.
Sport: Boys Lacrosse
Age: 7th Grade
Date: 7/9/16
Wayne County Update
Lacrosse vs. Wayne
The 7th grade boys lacrosse team played in a very memorable game at home on Sunday. Camp Wayne came out fast and jumped out to a 8-3 lead in the first half. Starlight kept their heads up high and rose to the occasion and brought it back to lead the game 9-8 with 4 minutes to go in the game. With under a minute to go, Camp Wayne tied up the score and sent the game into overtime. In under 30 seconds, Max G. score the game winning goal! Final Score 10-9.
Sport: Boys Basketball
Age: 9th Grade
Date 7/5/16
Wayne County Update
Basketball vs. Lohikan
The 9th grade Starlight boys basketball team was victorious in its first round game of the Wayne County basketball season. Ben G. was a standout for the 9th grade squad in their victory on Tuesday morning. He completed numerous layups and was a dominant force on defense. Additionally, Abe W. added a staunch defensive presence, coming up with 5 on ball steals. Drew B. was lights out from beyond the arc hitting 4 3-pointers. Lastly, Jaden G. pulled in 10+ rebounds on the defensive glass. Final Score 64-24.
“Tennis has always been my biggest love in life, and nothing excites me more than surrounding myself by skilled campers and seeing them develop.”
– Joe, Tennis Specialist
Turning the corner to see the Camp Starlight sign was the best feeling I had since finishing school. While on the camp road I had butterflies in my stomach and I knew I was back at my second home. When I stepped off the bus I was greeted by my best friends who I hadn’t seen in months. My bunk is awesome and I love my counselors, I know it is going to be the best summer ever!
Signed, Upper Inter
I can’t believe that this is my last summer being a camper at Camp Starlight. Last night was the first campfire and it was a great way to kick off the summer. The traditions we have at Camp Starlight are truly special and I am so happy that I was able to take part in them. As each camper sang their divisional cheers, it brought back all my memories throughout my past 7 summers. I can’t wait to make memories this summer that will last a lifetime!
Signed, Upper Senior
Today I got my camp sisters! Both of my camp sisters are older than me. One is a lower deb and the other is an upper senior. All of the girl’s side walked down to the camp fire holding hands. We sang our cheer and had s’mores! They were so good! I can’t wait to spend more time with my camp sisters!
Signed, Upper Junior
In a world of selfies, Instagram likes and Facebook’s new “love” feature, people are putting more emphasis on taking a picture of an experience than really enjoying and living in the experience itself. We participate in an event (concert, party, sporting event, social gathering) but spend most of the time trying to get the most artistic angle, the coolest filter and the best overall image quality to generate enough likes (and now loves) to make us feel valued, heard and appreciated online. As we view life through the camera function on our phones, we are missing the big picture, by trying to get a good one.
Since campers don’t have access to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any of those picture collage apps while at camp, the pictures that are taken of them are real, honest snapshots of what they’re doing at camp. They can’t sit and stare at a screen and crop and rotate and edit a picture before they post it. They can’t over analyze how they look or worry about if the camera got them at their best angle. The picture will show them sweaty, messy, busy, and real. It will show the macaroni and cheese stain on their shirt, the crazy faces they make as they fly down the zip line, and the real, genuine look of accomplishment when they face a fear for the first time.
Posing for pictures at camp is beneficial for the campers’ self image. It helps them see what parents and counselors and family member see when they look at the pictures; real kids having real fun. It helps campers become more confident about who they are without the need to fix, edit, change, crop or filter anything out. Kids get so wrapped up in social media and how they are portrayed to the world, always comparing themselves to others and forgetting to appreciate who they really are. Self confidence issues happen when teens begin to think that the perfect images displayed on their friends’ Facebook profiles are real life, and they begin to compare their life with others. They forget that for the one perfect picture that was posted, there were probably 50 others that were taken that didn’t make the cut. Letting campers see what they really look like when they are really having fun will help them realize that a picture of a t-shirt stained, muddy shoe kid having the time of their lives is so much more valuable than a perfectly timed selfie in the bathroom.
Campers will also realize that they just don’t have the time to be playing photo editor while they’re at camp. From the time they wake up until lights out at bedtime, they’re constantly going and doing and playing and exploring. The pictures captured of them doing these things don’t need a filter or any edits at all. There’s no time for that at camp.
Promoting high self esteem for campers is something counselors take very seriously, but a lot of it happens naturally. Kids learn that it is okay to just be a kid, and that every moment doesn’t have to have the wittiest, funniest hashtag. When family and friends back home see pictures of kids at camp, they get a real snap shot into a summer full of real friends, real adventures, real laughs and real, life changing experiences. #nofilter.
Written by JJ Weiner
“How did that shirt get so dirty?” It’s the question that has been baffling Starlight parents for generations. Allow me to pull the curtain back and give you a glimpse of what happens to your son and that shirt during a typical day at camp.
That shirt is going to make three trips to the dining hall today. The junior boys are enthusiastic about their meals, but not all of them have mastered their utensils yet. If it’s pancakes for breakfast, you can be sure that not all of the syrup will stay in a neat dipping pile on their plate. Even though there is a napkin dispenser on each table, sometimes the shirt is just closer. Who really has time for napkins when you’re surrounded by your friends engrossed in a discussion about how great Polar Bear was this morning? And that’s just breakfast. At lunch there will be tomato soup and the dessert at dinner tonight is going to be watermelon. You do the math.
Junior boys lose things. It’s not due to any character flaws or personal shortcomings and it’s not because they’re overwhelmed by all their stuff. They’re eight years old. It happens. That shirt probably was crawling on the floor under a bed during cleanup to find a pair of earbuds.
The next stop for that shirt is the baseball diamond. It’s ground ball drills at Option today. The coach gave you one to dive for and you were happy to oblige. The great thing about Junior Boys is they don’t differentiate between a drill at Option and the seventh game of the World Series. Both get maximum effort.
If you have a few minutes after you come out of the water for swim instruction, there might be time for a sand castle. Junior boys are makers. That shirt will be with you when create a home for salamander that you discovered by the edge of the water.
During rest hour you might decide to join a few boys in the circle. That shirt will lie back in the grass and you’ll use those earbuds you found during cleanup and take a few quiet minutes to stare at the clouds.
It’s candle-making day at Arts and Crafts. You want yours to be a rainbow. A little dye might splash onto that shirt, but it will be worth it when you see the finished product. The counselors were helpful, but you still feel a great sense of independence and accomplishment.
That shirt will be drawn to Gaga during free play. The adrenaline rush is addictive. You’ll dive again. Your knuckles will get a little bit bloody, but there’s no way you’re getting out. You’ll wipe them on your shirt and keep playing. It’s that maximum effort thing again.
At night, that shirt will be part of a skit advertising a time machine. Your friends and counselors will erupt in laughter. A little bit of the face paint you used to turn yourself into an alien will migrate onto that shirt. It’s a small price to pay for the applause of an adoring audience.
This explains what happened to that shirt, but it doesn’t explain why your son loves that shirt. That shirt gives a sense of belonging and community. When you wear your Starlight shirt, you feel proud. Maybe you wore it to your first Wayne County game or maybe you wore it when you got a high five from a senior boy just for being you. That shirt represents an ideal society of freedom, friendship and fun. As a junior boy, once you get that feeling, you want to hang onto it. That shirt is now your favorite and even though it was supposed to go into the laundry, you’re probably going to wear it again tomorrow.
