The programmers left the third Color War in 2009 with a determination to not only continue to build on the successful brand, but really to make another quantum leap forward as was done with the first Color War in 2007. Easier said than done.A team of eight CSL veterans came together in early July and started strategizing. Lots of questions were asked. Lots of ideas posed. The answers did not all come at once and the program came together slowly. But starting on Saturday night, August 7th through Tuesday night, August 9th, Camp Seneca Lake changed forever.
The most prevailing question in wake of the 2009 Color War was, ‘how can helicopters ever be topped?’ This was not an easy question to answer or an easy legacy to trump. But amazingly, when the campers went to bed Saturday night, nobody was saying anything about helicopters.
After a normal Saturday night of village programs and Havdallah, the campers went back to their villages. All the villages except for Tusc and Oneida. Along with the six captains from each team (Generals, Colonels, Majors), Tusc and Oneida spent Saturday evening helping the Program Planners prep for the break. Starting in August 2006, Tusc became an integral centerpiece to the Color War Break and their role has increased each year.
At 9:15, with all the campers and staff in villages, sirens started going off at the Waterfront and the Dining Hall bell started ringing continuously. Oneidans and Program Planners went to each of the villages and told the campers and staff they had to leave immediately and head to the Fire Circle. They walked the roads of camp in the darkness, met around the Dining Hall, and came down Infirmary Hill together. The darkness quickly gave way to light as they descended upon the Fire Circle. Fires and candles lit everywhere with a cloud of smoke above, the campers and staff anxiously entered the Fire Circle and sat down. And then suddenly, out of the darkness in the woods, there was more light. But not just any light; red and blue light in the form of glowsticks started emerging from the wood. Jaws dropped all over the place as the 52 fluorescently illuminated Senior Campers descended upon the Fire Circle. The reds and blues came together and walked to demarcate a pathway from the entrance of the Fire Circle up to the beach – one side a glowing red, the other a glowing blue.
And then suddenly more fire. A jet ski flying through the water with a huge torch and the florescent glow sticks of each color all over his body . The bearer of the torch disembarked the Jet Ski and entered the glowing pathway. He walked through, entered the Fire Circle and lit a blazing fire in the middle, the traditional start of Color War from the Director, John Golden.
But it was not done. Two boats now blazed through the water with more torches and more glow sticks – one boat red, the other blue. More bodies were entering the red and blue pathway, the six captains from each team. The twelve captains entered the shellshocked Fire Circle and together led the camp in the traditional opening of all Mass Programs and Color Wars – the cheer, “1,2,3,4…WE WANT A COLOR WAR.” And then fluorescently lit fire signs on the beach lit up the words “Red” and “Blue” to again signify that Color War was indeed here.
Tradition was then broken. Instead of 360 camper and staff names read off a list, the campers just rounded up and returned to villages without knowing their teams. But the next morning, every single person knew their team. In the middle of the night, when all the campers were sleeping, red and blue bracelets with the 2010 logo engraved in them (like the Livestrong bracelet) were placed on the wrists of all campers. The first thing each saw when they woke up was either the color red or blue. There was no more wondering.
The next two days were among the most intense, extraordinary, memorable, yet fun days in the camp’s history. The first morning was spent not in the M-Field like the previous three years, but rather between the Long Docks on Tusc Beach. Thousands of tennis balls were placed in the middle of a playing arena and the members of each team (by village) took turns trying to get those balls into the other team’s goals (garbage cans angled onto the docks). The visual of the whole camp in that region with their faces painted is something that will not soon be forgotten. Each village went head-to-head along with the female and male staffs before all was said and done.
At lunch, the official shirts were distributed with this year’s logo on the back. The afternoon was myriad of creative and artistic activities. Many campers worked with staff in preparing for acts for Showdown at the O-Rec while other campers and staff competed in other intensive competitions including Iron Chef, cake and cookie decorating, sand castle building, seaweed sculpture, sneaker design (for the team’s generals), pet rock and habitat design, tapestry design, and all camp scavenger hunt. The afternoon was followed by the traditional “Showdown at the O-Rec” which included several classic events such as Step Squad, Onondaga Dance, Staff/Camper Duet, Staff/Camper Band, Drumline, but also featured several new additions such as Mashup Song, Square Dancing, and the ever-pertinent Blacklight Dance. The highlight of the night came in the Square Dancing with each team featuring incredibly thoughtful and creative dances. The night was capped off with each team happily consuming the 500 cookies designed and baked by each of the teams.
There was concern that it would be tough to sustain the momentum from the first day, but those fears were quickly quelled when the Senior Campers took it upon themselves to wake up the whole camp. Immediately following breakfast, the two teams were marched to the Basketball Courts where they found 5000 blown-up balloons (red and blue of course). With the entirety of each team on the courts, the task was to pop every single balloon of the other team’s color as fast as possible. When the buzzer sounded and there were only a couple dozen balloons left, it was Blue that reigned supreme by the skin of their teeth having popped just one more balloon than their Red rivals.
The two teams then moved over to the Pool where the staff of each team competed to get 2000 golf balls out of the pool. It was the Red team who prevailed in this event, keeping pace with Blue. Up next came the Tug-of-War right behind the Pool. Each village took their turn on the rope with the rest of their teams yelling and screaming right next to them all the way through the female and male staff rounds.
Following lunch, the program continued to move in the physical direction with mostly team sports in the afternoon. These events did not lack in drama with both the camper/staff mixed Speedball and Softball teams needing overtime to solve their contests. The Canoe Across the Lake had no shortage of excitement as well with Blue’s fleet of three just edging out Red’s. The teams also competed in a younger 3K (two Cayugans, two Onondagans), a 5K (2 Mohicans, 2 Senecans, 2 Tuscarorans), and a grueling 7K for staff. There were also camper and staff basketball games, camper Water Polo, Archery, GaGa for all ages, doubles and singles tennis.
The afternoon culminated with the traditional running of the Ironman/woman. The training that the Senior Campers put in all summer was very noticeable with the entire camp watching on. Each team had four male competitors and four female competitors, all of whom finished the extremely challenging course in record time, impressively defeating some of the staff who competed as well.
After all of these events, the teams entered the final evening deadlocked. Four events which had been going on the entire program – Mural, Inferno, Documentary, and Fire Sign – came to exciting fruition. The murals were crafted for two straight days in the Back of the Dining Hall with the presentations coming after Dinner. The Red team stuck with their common theme of the program with a beautifully-crafted bull while Blue reached closer to the theme of the program (and summer) with red and blue figures lighting a fire sign (more on that below).
The Inferno took place on the M-Field which was an epic event unparalleled in the history of Color Wars at any camp. For two days, campers and staff worked to create twelve fire pits on the M-Field and fill 2000 water balloons. At approximately 8:00 amidst a steady rain, each team assembled in the middle of these twelve fires with the charge of putting out the six fires of the other team. Each team had 1000 water balloons and each camper and staff member had a cup. In the middle of the field was four canoes filled to the brim with the water. And with the water balloons and cups of water, the teams had to put out each other’s fires. It took approximately 90 seconds before the Red team had successfully doused Blue’s fires. An enormous cloud of smoke hovered over the M-Field for a good 20 minutes after. The Red team, which had been trailing at Dinner had drawn even with their enormous victory in the Inferno. With just two events left to be scored, the teams remained knotted.
After leaving the Inferno, the two teams walked across camp to the O-Rec to watch the documentaries. For two days, campers and staff worked to document (through photo and film) the various components of the program and encapsulate these elements in the most creative way possible. The two teams were completely mesmerized by…themselves…from the previous 48 hours. At this point, darkness had fallen upon camp and every member of each team had glowsticks to continue the camp’s great divide.
One last stop after the O-Rec…The Fire Circle for the final event of the program, the Fire Sign. In the last couple of summers, Fire Signs spelling out certain words have become a synonymous fixture of the CSL community. Staff from each team were prompted to bring their creativity to the competitive arena and did not disappoint. Red’s sign was first to be lit. General Jason Feldman (Mohawk Unit Head) dressed head-to-toe in red glow sticks, climbed a ladder laced in red glow sticks to a 25 foot landing where he picked up a bow and show a flaming arrow to light his team’s sign which said “Red Blue.” After about two minutes of those words burning, the “Blue” fell down and in its place the word “Hot” was lit. The Red team exploded in cheers and excitement as they sensed their comeback could be complete. The Blue Team’s Fire Sign did not disappoint with movement from their initial burning as well with two lit hands moving aside to reveal the flaming word “Blue.”
All of the competition had ended yet there was still excitement to come. With the score settled, the Program Leaders had no interest in revealing the winner in any traditional form. From the shore, fire works shot into the air and exploded the color of the winning team…RED.
Color War V is a year away.
