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Have raft, will paddleDespite the blistering heat for our trip down to Gippsland, the weather for the rest of the week turned rather cool and grey. So the rafting activity on Wednesday didn’t look quite so appealing!

Nevertheless, competition between the teams – as they raced out to a leader in the water to answer a question and get a puzzle piece – was fierce. So fierce in fact that rafts were quickly abandoned and it was into the warm and shallow water of the Lake to swim out and triumph by being the first team to complete the puzzle.

Welcome to The ConnectionSummer camp is always about water activities and this camp – with rafting, tubing, a boat race and a beach day on the agenda – was to be no exception. And it seems that ridiculous amounts of watery fun were had by all. Our special thanks go to Peta from Aquamania for coming down to the camp to run the tubing activity. (It is possibly our most fun activity ever.)

But even all that fun and relaxing time in the water could not get the spectre of Jaws out of some peoples’ heads. It was all hands on the panic button when a fin was spotted in the water during the beach day. Much to the chagrin of those who lead the panic, it turned out to be a friendly local dolphin – no risk there!

Our use of Camp Mallana is with thanks to Wesley College and the Camp Mallana Trust, and despite an unscheduled delay on the way down, it was with lots of cheer that we kicked off our four days away together.

We’d like to thank Cherie Evans who represented the Trust on camp for the week and was also an invaluable member of the team. Our thanks too to our amazing volunteer leaders for their general awesomeness. And also to our sponsors for their support and to our campers for being there and giving everything a red hot go.

A special thanks to Leader James Morris who was also the official photographer for the week and put his considerable talents to work making us all look amazing in the photos you see in this newsletter. Catch the full set on the InterConnection MySpace and Facebook pages!

It wouldn’t be an InterConnection camp without a little drama to put a spark in everyone’s day – and with the dawn of one of Victoria’s hottest days of the year, this camp just couldn’t fail to deliver.

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I’m a Survivor, I’m gonna win itThe Survivor challenge is always fiercely fought, but there can only be one winner.

Congratulations to Bradbury for taking out first place in the Survivor challenge, triumphing with 518 points. Mandela was led by debut Leader Wes Petit, and his champion team consisted of Harry Lee, Martin Martin and Jesse Farrelly – well done to all!

When all the final scores were tallied the tally board read:

Bradbury 518 Jordan 411 Camplin 379 Burns 377 Mandela 373 Kewell 362 Thorpe 360 Bradman 262

Huge congratulations again to everyone involved for all your hard work.

Getting in to the spirit of thingsThe David Smith Spirit Award was created to recognise the camper who, over and above what their team did, put in their best efforts on camp and made the most of every situation on offer by their energy, enthusiasm and willingness to help out.

At SC10, the David Smith Spirit Award winner was Jed Fraser, an ICA camper whose spirit fingers and general enthusiasm has charmed us all. Jed is a stand-out recipient of the award. Congratulations!

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And now, a word from our LeaderInterConnection’s CEO Jason Matchado offers his selection of highlights from our 2010 Summer Camp:

1.Getting the food on the table within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. And having clients and Leaders come back for seconds ... and thirds!

2. I loved the Glee activity – it was fantastic and challenging. A lot of the clients really had to come out of their shells and expand their comfort zone and yet they all participated. It also stretched some of the Leaders who had to encourage their clients to try new things.

3. The hardest thing about camp was having to cope without Eliza, Lauren and Lisa, three members of the Board who are usually camp stalwarts – I think it is only when you lose three members of such a close-knit team (thankfully temporarily) that you realise how hard they were working – because everyone else has to step up and fill in! But I was very impressed with the way the rest of the team responded to the challenge. My special thanks go to Alice, Mike, Dylan and Joss.

4. The Camp Lantern innovation. When it’s a total fire ban and you have an evening of storytelling around the campfire scheduled, you are forced to improvise. Well done to the bright spark (oh, the puns) who came up with the idea of using the lantern as a substitute. It’s not quite the same, but it certainly served the purpose and an enjoyable evening of storytelling was had.

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Taking the leadAn integral part of everything InterConnection does is the Buddy Progam. Buddies are are chosen by InterConnection for their leadership potential, attitude, friendliness and willingness to have a go.

On camp, Buddies are our ears among the clients. They are there to back up group and activity leaders, helping to ensure that everything runs smoothly and according to our rather punishing timetable.

A big thanks to all our Buddy leaders on Summer 2010: Ayden Lacey, Dylan Stewart, Emma Lucas and Sarah Miller.

We’re pleased to announce that Emma and Sarah will be full Leaders as of Winter Camp 2010 and Cailin Taylor will be a Buddy Leader.

Thank-you to all our sponsors, noted below. We’d particularly like to thank Peta at Enterprise Cruises for the tubing activity; and thank bestchance, Berengarra School and City of Yarra for buses.

We also thank Fuji-Xerox for their recent, very generous $3000 donation.

www.rivieranautic.com.au