On Wednesday, April 26, the junior class took off for YMCA’s Camp Duncan, located in Ingleside, Illinois. After almost three full years of high school, this was the first overnight high school retreat for this class. The retreat was full of unique activities, experiences, and bonding time for the juniors.

Junior grade heads Andrew Bigelow and Bridget Lesinski started organizing this retreat last year, and there was a lot that went into it. The grade heads created different groups for different parts of the day. Bigelow stressed the importance of being inclusive in the activity he led, and his goal was to “purposely try to put people together that they normally don’t spend time with,” Bigelow said. The juniors had different cabin groups, activity groups, and dining groups which mixed it up as much as possible. 

“My favorite part of the retreat was spending time with my fellow classmates that I don’t get to see as often,” junior Noah Pendo said.

On the first day, the juniors went through four different activities: four square, rock climbing, slingshot paintball, and archery. Each activity lasted an hour and was designed to get students engaged. “My favorite activity was four square,” Pendo said. “It was great to see everyone get involved.” 

Other activities throughout the day included pairing up students to have a conversation with one another for 30 minutes, making s’mores at a bonfire, and playing cards in the dining hall. When they weren’t doing organized activities, students were able to enjoy free time. “We wanted to have a nice balance of fun activities and then some deep dive reflections on how far we’ve come,” Bigelow said. Junior Izzy Markel said that free time was her favorite part: “Students were playing soccer, football, cards, and other games; I got to join in and had a great time,” Markel said. 

There were twelve chaperones who came on the trip and participated in some of the activities as well. “It’s hard to get people to commit,” Bigelow said, “but they did such a wonderful job interacting with the kids and helping out the staff.” Jeremy Freeman, the camp director, helped out with scheduling activities and created one called Music Mania where the students used their teamwork to guess the song that was playing.

YMCA’s Camp Duncan had a lot to offer for the juniors. There were playgrounds scattered throughout the camp, basketball hoops, and even a volleyball net. “We couldn’t have asked for better weather,” Bigelow said. The class took advantage of the weather by playing a game of Capture the Flag before getting on the bus home. 

“I think the retreat was a success,” Markel said. “It boosted my morale for the coming weeks, and I feel a lot more comfortable with people in my grade.”