Mrs. Smith’s Camp Blog #1

Camp is moving along nicely and, other than registering in the dark, Sunday was a pretty typical evening.

We are enjoying all of our new additions who normally are not with us during the school year.   Morgan  is a flute player from Nucla and she is doing great (better than her Mom who is really missing her). The Crane twins are getting a feel for the campus and making some friends.  Jacob, is working really hard and wants to play all summer so we can get him ready for Advanced Band with his buddy JP in Summer Winds.  Nathan, saxophone, is diving right in and is a great addition to the section.  Gretchen is playing trumpet now, though when we started her a few years ago she was playing percussion.  She understands all the percussion jokes Mr. Martin makes, so she can laugh because she knows he is NOT talking about her.  It’s a good thing that Madelyn is playing clarinet with us all summer, because it may take me all summer to get her name spelled correctly on everything.  I think I have successfully used every spelling know for Madelyn so maybe I should switch to calling her Maddie (or George, for that matter).  Michael, trombone, is having a good time, working hard, and hanging in there with all the activities.  Ethan, trumpet, is busy exploring our area (he discovered that the dorm rooms in Ingersoll are the same as they are in Edwards.  Only a boy would want to know that.  Who knows, maybe he will be an architect or an engineer in his next life?)  Garin, trombone, gets to sit next to the charming Emma in the trombone section, and that’s worth the price of camp.  He would probably have a heart attack if he knew I wrote this.

Jessie, flute, is back again for her third summer and I just watched her cartwheel across the lawn from the recreation center to Edwards, quite a feat!   Jessie brought Valanie with her and Valanie is a saxophone player who has a great smile.  Andrew and Bethany came from Mississippi this year to be in camp; last year they came in from New Mexico.  We wish they were still here in Colorado to participate all year long, but at least we get to see them at camp every year.   Madeline is from Colorado Springs playing alto saxophone.  She attends Falcon Middle School and on short notice says Avatar is her favorite movie (but maybe that’s just because we’re playing the soundtrack music).  Logan is on tenor saxophone and has been with us for a bunch of summer camps starting in Summer Intermediates.   He has gone from helping “redecorate” a dorm door his first year to becoming a very serious student!  Austin is back playing euphonium and says he’s here because he loves our “wonderful camp” but I think he’s really here for the girls.  Last but not least Calvin Davis, percussion, returned to camp for the umpteenth time also.  We’re glad to have him back!

It is a pleasure to have all of you here and we extend an invitation to you to participate all year.  Thanks for joining us!

Our “Minute to Win It” competition happened last night and I don’t know who won, but band kids are competitive and I think that is what makes the world go around.  The winners will be announced at the concert on Thursday night.  Each partner in the winning pair will receive a $25.00 IPhone gift card and free admission to our summer fundraiser, Minute to Win It, on Saturday, July 9.  The price of admission to participate in the fundraiser is $40.00 a team.  Anyone can participate so if you are looking for a good time, a little competition, and a great prize (yet to be named), come join us in July.

I wrote this blog post last night around 9:45pm when students were just about to finish their last rehearsal of the evening.  They may have stayed up talking in their dorm rooms all of Sunday night, but I doubt it happened again last night.  Walking to breakfast, walking to sectionals, walking to band rehearsal, walking to lunch, walking to the recreation center, walking back to sectionals and rehearsal, walking to change to sectionals or band rehearsal, walking to dinner, walking to Minute to Win It, walking to the recreation center, walking back to the dorm, walking to rehearsal and WHEW now we are done for the night!  I guess I can’t necessarily speak for how they felt, but I can at least speak for myself:  I was done.