Staff Day at Spectacle

The Day we have all been working tirelessly towards is finally here, STAFF DAY! A day of stress-free relaxing, swimming, and of course a little friendly competition in the form of All Access v. No Access kickball.

Even the boats in Boston have a Boston accent

The day began with the Save the Harbor staff meeting Bruce Berman and his Wife/ President of Save the Harbor Patty Foley on their boat, the Verandah. Parked on the dock of beautiful Spectacle Island, we crowded around the Verandah and enjoyed a quick appetizer spread of cheese, crackers, and grapes that were fit for a Roman feast! Combating the intense heat with layers of sunscreen and as much coverage as possible, we tracked up the hill to the battlefield... the kickball field. It is a yearly tradition that the staff members from All Access Boston Harbor challenge the members from the remaining summer program sites to a "friendly" game of kickball. I put friendly in quotations because this game is taken as seriously as a professional sport. 

Action shot courtesy of Kelly Randall  

Friendships were put to the test, harsh words were exchanged, and unfortunately for me, those who are not so coordinated are put on display for everyone to heckle. This year the No Access team, led by myself, came to play. For what seemed like hours (but in reality was about 30 minutes) our teams dueled it out under the intense summer heat. Fighting off exhaustion and sunburns, we played our hearts out, but sadly came up just two runs short in the last inning. I couldn't have asked more of my team in such grueling conditions, and all I can say is the All Access team better watch their backs next summer!

After that intense kickball game we made a mad rush for the showers to cool off before lunch. Armed with a single grill, Bruce was able to prepare enough hot dogs to feed an army, or in this case, a hungry group of camp counselors. After downing a few hot dogs and some cookies, I was ready to spend the rest of the day relaxing and of course swimming on Spectacle's spectacular beach (pun intended). 

Lunch with a view!

Although it was almost unbearably hot out, I could not have asked for a more beautiful day. Finally getting a day to not worry about kids or programming was a well earned relief. Since we are all distributed through the different sites all summer, it was fun to be able to have everyone at the same place at the same time. Now we're in the home stretch of summer programming, and its a bittersweet end. I'm going to make the most of the next week and a half we have left, and squeeze every last drop of fun and excitement out of what has already been an amazing summer. 

Until next time, keep on exploring!

-Luke