Take a look at our July 19th Recap for a glimpse into the start of our fabulous Term 4!
At camp, we are proud of our nutritious and diverse meals that fuel your campers! Take a look at what your campers had on Sunday!
We round out the day with dinner!
At dinner, our campers enjoy our fresh salad bar, sandwich station, and buttered noodles! Dinner is the only meal that was served on Sunday, where our campers also had:
Select cabins of young ladies and gents are treated to a tasty and informative class of Etiquette!
The activity begins with the campers learning how to set a formal place setting; tea spoon, cup and saucer, salad fork, dinner fork, napkin & water glass… and then the fun begins.
A savory platter of cucumber, dill, and Boursin tea sandwiches is served as the campers master the art of good manners. A step-by-step introduction to the basics, from the moment the lush tea service begins, to when the last crumb is daintily scraped off their china plate.
Bergamot infused Earl Gray English back tea is served out of an antique tea pot with ample cream and sugar. The tea is paired with our chef’s (Rebecca Rathers, the Pastry Queen) warm blueberry scones, clotted cream, and Dubai chocolate brownies.
In addition to chatting about service and sociability, we discuss many of the fine points too, the correct way to hold a fork, how to eat an artichoke properly, and best of all, how to be a gracious dining companion!
Every morning after breakfast, our campers start their day off with Team Competition, AKA “Team Comp”. This friendly competition includes games like kickball, mini soccer, O-Ball, Nuke Em, and Steal the Bacon. The winners of each game earn their respective teams (Rough Riders and Silver Spurs vs. Texas Rangers and Lone Stars) points toward a head start for our highly anticipated Amazing Race at the end of the term. Stay tuned for our blog post tomorrow for the first score update of Term 4!
At Camp Balcones Springs, we pass along many traditions, stories, and legends to our campers and counselors each year. However, perhaps no CBS lore is bigger than our camp teams and our Team Initiation ceremony. All campers and staff who enter the Camp Balcones Springs gates are initiated into one of four teams – for boy campers, either the Texas Rangers or Rough Riders, and for girl campers, either the Lonestars or Silver Spurs. The Texas Rangers wear red, shout the famous “Five Bullets Baby!” cheer, and are brothers with the Lonestars, who wear green and have a litany of cheers, including the famous “Lone Star Love!” yell. The Rough Riders wear blue and throw up the notorious “Tatonka” hand gesture that resembles the horns of a bull. The Silver Spurs are the Rough Riders’ sister team, sport purple and, like the Lonestars, possess an impressive library of cheers, including the always intimidating “ching ching ching” – whispered softly to mimic the sound of spurs clashing against boots on horseback.
During Team Initiation, which takes place the first night of each session of camp, campers gather together in the Grid Iron (our big covered pavilion) to hear the legend of how the camp teams began. In the distance, campers watch as the team legends – four figures dressed in western garb – travel across the field silently on horseback. Team sponsors – counselors who act as team mascots for each term – line up in front of the campers as the story is told. Each new camper is given a paper bag with their name on it. Inside these bags, a branded wooden block reveals the camper’s new team. Once the narrator finishes, old campers are instructed to go join their sponsors on the field. Now, only new campers remain in the GridIron. New campers are then told to open their bags and go join their new teams!
What happens next is a bit of a secret – sponsors and counselors lead old and new campers alike to their respective team hideouts – top secret locations across camp where new campers are initiated into their teams by learning new cheers, secret handshakes, and each team’s code of ethics and values.
Campers compete alongside their teams for the rest of the term in daily Team Comp tournaments and games, all leading up to the infamous Amazing Race relay event at the end of the term. One set of teams (either the Texas Rangers & Lonestars or Rough Riders & Silver Spurs) is declared the overall winner for each term based on how many points and wins they earn throughout the session. It’s not just a yearly challenge, though – campers will belong to the same camp team for every year they return to CBS going forward.