Week three at Camp Mah-Kee-Nac was pretty much as exciting as camp gets, and the name of the game was Green & White.
But before we get to that, a quick review of the rest of the week, which began with our second Polar Bear Plunge. Early risers came together and jumped into the frigid lake. It’s a great way to start the day!
We hosted some great tournaments here at MKN, which is particularly fun because the kids who don’t compete in the events can cheer the campmates on from the sidelines! We held a B7 Basketball tournament with multiple camps – some of our campers even served as referees! We also hosted a B8 Street Hockey game vs. Camp Lenox, which almost the whole camp attended as spectators! And we won! And we held an all-ages tennis tournament as well as a B9 flag football game.
LSR participated in their annual, two-day game of Survivor, whereby they had to “Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast” their fellow competitors. Survivor is played in teams of ten, rather than every-camper-for-themselves. Over the course of the competition, they had to complete multiple challenges, including unlocking hints to find one of their survivors, shooting arrows on the archery to make the letters “L S R”, and working together to declare a “King” on water and land.
Now, on to the main event….On Friday night, as the kids lined up for flag lowering, the field was suddenly flooded with music. Everyone looked up the hill to see a group of bagpipe players marching down, followed by plumes of Green & White smoke. Clearly, Green & White was breaking out, and chaos ensued! The whole camp moved to the sand area where fire performers put on an amazing show before the boys separated into their teams.
They proceeded to compete in their first event – a flag-themed treasure hunt, which was followed by an exhilarating volleyball game, during which special guests Jaidin Russell and David Decker from the UCLA volleyball team joined four Senecas and one staff member per side. The first game went to White, the second game went to Green, and the third and final match, which was VERY close, went to White.
By the next morning, everyone was in pure “Color War” mode and we had a day full of events. We started with a five-game sporting rotation that included volleyball, basketball, soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, and street hockey. The teams were split into small groups and would spend one minute playing each game, then rotate to the next. We then moved to a game with PVC pipes, followed by Elimination – a flag tag free-for-all that comes down to the “last man standing”. The afternoon’s event was a long, rope race obstacle course with 25 stations. After dinner, we tapped into our creative side with talent competitions like Dancing with the Stars, “Prom-posals”, Acapella, Wooden Car making, Synchronized Dancing, Lego Building, and more. The teams battled back and forth all day and the score remained continuously close.
The final day of Green & White began with “All or Nothing” – a collection of win-or-lose events like musical chairs and tag, which was followed by a Synchronized Swim-off, the Belly Flop contest, and a Boat Tug-of-War. The afternoon activities included Sudden Death, whereby teams played sports like volleyball, street hockey, swim relay, golf, Watermelon, soccer, archery, basketball, and football – all for one point only. And then Royal Rumble Dodgeball, which requires every member of the G&W teams to give it their all.
At the end of 2.5 days of nonstop competition, the campers went into the most exciting event of Green & White – the annual Rope Burn. The Rope Burn is a rite of passage whereby Senecas – our eldest campers – must build a fire from scratch to reach a rope hanging ten feet above. Going into the event, the Green team had a 95-second lead due to their accumulated points, which meant that if White’s rope burned first, Green still had an extra 95 seconds to catch up.
Both teams worked so hard, with each group of Senecas employing different strategies and fire-building and burning skills, supported by their teammates who cheered them on and completed challenges to earn prizes like extra wood and flint and steel. White quickly built a towering inferno, and their rope burned first. But Green still had 90 seconds for their blazing fire to burn their rope. After the time was up, the Green rope was still intact, and White team was officially declared the winner of Green & White 2025. They raced to the rock to celebrate, which is painted each year in the winning team’s color, then returned to the sand to stand arm in arm with their Green team brothers as they waited for the second rope to burn. It was an exciting, thrilling, emotional and amazing event!
That’s it for week two. Don’t forget, family & friends can get MKN news every day on MKN Today. Be sure to create an account and read about all about the daily happenings at camp!