Category Archives: Summer 2011

College Day 2011

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Shouts echoed across camp as we competed in College Day last week. 9 teams of campers competed, representing Williams College, Holy Cross, Elon, George Washington, UNH, Skidmore, Springfield and Colby. Teams took to the field, water and trivia table to determine who would reign victorious and become this summer’s champion.

Springfield jumped out to an early lead in the land events. Campers participate in relays, water balloon tosses, archery, soccer ball kicks and softball tosses as well as hula hooping challenges and sack races. The highly anticipated tug of war saw Elon and UNH face of in the finals. Despite the excellent technique of the Wildcats, the pure strength of the Phoenix helped them tug to victory!

After lunch teams headed to the waterfront, where Springfield continued their streak. Campers cheered their teammates on in a wide variety of swimming events. Unfortunately, the afternoon was cut short by a looming thunderstorm, but spirits were high as campers returned to their cabins.

Despite Springfield’s dominance on land and in the water, any Huckins girl will tell you that College Day is truly won in the trivia round. It was a nail biter right until the end. George Washington came from behind and tied Springfield in overall points. The tie lead to a head to head trivia round, where each team was asked three questions. The team with the most correct answers would win. In the end, Springfield College got two of the questions right and GW got one, making Springfield (Jody’s alma mater) the summer 2011 College Day Champion.

History

Named for Nellie Harmon Huckins, Samuel O. Huckins donated the land, where Camp Huckins exists today, in his wife’s memory. This is most evidenced in his letter where he granted the land:

“I present this living document, which give you the custody of an attractive site for a camp ground. No marble slab, however costly, could do justice to her in whose name this grant is made. Nothing but a living, pulsating institution can justly portray her personality.”

Samuel O. Huckins

With that generous gift, there have been decades of summers filled with laughter, love and growth. During it’s first season, Huckins was open for two weeks for boys only. The following summer, in 1929, Camp Huckins was opened for the entire summer— 4 weeks for boys and 4 weeks for girls. In 1966 Huckins became an all girls camp.

In the words of the first Huckins brochure, camp provides “Training in citizenship for community life and team work, with the cultivation of self reliance, which enables service to others…” This motto still holds true to Huckins today.