Three Cheers for Term 4

Opening Day for Term 4 saw 88 new-to-camp families enter our gates! On Sunday night, we began camp with our classic summer tradition – team initiation – where old campers put on their red, blue, green, or purple to welcome new faces at Camp Balcones Springs onto one of four camp teams, the Texas Rangers, Rough Riders, Lone Stars, or Silver Spurs. Boys and girls will compete in various games and events over the course of the term with their respective teams.

This term we saw lots of children of past campers and counselors be initiated onto the same teams as their parents. For example, our camp doctor, Joel Sarmiento, met his wife, Karla Anderson, at Camp Balcones Springs. Their two children are now attending camp for their first year and were initiated into the Rangers and Lone Stars, just like their dad, who in addition to being the camp doctor was also a legendary Texas Ranger sponsor in the early 2000s! Passing down the camp team traditions from generations, siblings, or cousins is always one of the most fun ways to carry your CBS spirit home.

Monday was a huge day at camp as we were finally able to reopen Lake Ted! We had been awaiting the all-clear from water safety professionals since the devastating floods struck Central Texas at the beginning of this month, and we are grateful to now have the go-ahead to proceed with our spring-fed lake activities. A very full, beautiful, and safe Lake Ted welcomed Term 4 campers with swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding, and of course, all of our famous water toys and slides!

This week, boys and girls of all ages dove right into their activity schedules. At Camp Balcones Springs, every other day of the week is designated as either a Girls Major Day, where girl campers participate in the activities they have chosen to focus on during their time at camp, or a Boys Major Day, where boy campers do the same. Whenever it’s an “off day” from their majors, campers partake in a “minor day” where they participate in a pre-scheduled offering of activities alongside their cabin mates and peers. Some of the week’s minor activities have included pickleball, cooking, fishing, archery, tennis, arts and crafts, jewelry-making, axe-throwing, and swimming in the lake and pool!

Our youngest campers – who don’t select their own major activities – traveled around camp trying their hand at different things, including cooking, tiny boat racing, survival skills, pickleball, tubing on the lake, and swimming!

We are so excited for the rest of Term 4!