Campers wait on the porch outside the main dining hall while counselors inside sling silverware, pitchers, and baskets of warm bread. Younger boys press their noses to the glass, hoping to be the first to sniff out what the day's meal is (kept secret from even the counselors!) Sometimes it's classic grilled cheese and orange juice, sometimes fish tacos and sweet potato fries.
And sometimes it rains.
Sometimes it rains for a while.
No camp sessions were held in 2020 due to COVID, and all throughout the summer of '21 there is an echo of gratitude. "We're so grateful to be back on the mountain. To be together." For some campers, old or young, being at camp is, at first, more of a consequence of being away from home than it is the other way around. More campers than ever before, starting at age 7, are spending their first summer away from their families after nearly two years of isolation and confusion. Homesickness is a common occurence. Lessons learned here about community are also difficult ones of self-sustainment, independence, and growth. Hart and Luke, pictured above on the land sports field on July 2, 2021, were cabin mates in Cabin 6 during Main Camp.
There is a way out of the woods. At Falling Creek Camp, hundreds of boys from all over the world spend a few glorious weeks reveling in boyhood by way of jam-packed activity schedules, adventure trips through mountains and towering oak forests, and the fierce competition and brotherhood that breeds from this community.