By Anna Mefford
This past weekend Lovett students journeyed out to Camp High Harbor at Lake Alatoona for the annual Vestry retreat. “Easily one of my favorite weekends of the whole year,” senior Abby Odegard said.
Around 150 Lovett students gathered at 8 a.m. on Saturday to head to Lake Allatoona. They took a 30-minute ride to the camp and, once they got there, dispersed into cabins.
“I was very surprised by how nice and big these cabins were,” said freshman Paige McMillan.
After plenty of top-versus-bottom bunk arguments, students gathered at the Church to split into groups. The Vestry Wardens carefully chose the groups, which was not an easy task. As a warden myself, I can testify that we spent about two months arranging the groups so that everyone had a friend but was also with plenty of people they did not know from other grades.
One of the main goals of the retreat is to meet new people from different grades and form new bonds you never thought you would have made.
The groups then dispersed and played about 2 hours worth of awkward icebreakers to get to know each other.
“Icebreakers are one of my favorite parts about the retreat because while it’s awkward at first it’s the most important part of really getting to know your group,” senior Lydia Wilson said.
After many rounds of “Chubby Bunny,” and “Human Knot,” the groups all gathered together to announce their team names and eat some delicious lunch with their groups.
“Gotta make sure you fuel up before the big game of volleyball,” senior Thomas Harris said.
Arguably, the most renowned part of the retreat is the volleyball tournament. Five groups go to the courts and play four intense games of volleyball (one team refs), with Mr. Kennerson and Ms. Howard keeping score.
While the 5 groups play volleyball all the other groups disperse and do activities and talk about the theme of the retreat. This year Rev Brown chose “Call to Service” as the theme of the retreat.
So, groups gathered together and talked about biblical stories such as the conversion of Paul, Noah building an Ark, and Moses and the burning bush. During their talk, the groups were challenged to build their own version of an ark with just cardboard scissors and duct tape.
“Special shoutout to Scarlett Rouland who told us about buoyancy and the need to have an air pocket under the ark,” said Charlie Sheets.
After lots and lots and lots of duct tape, groups took their ark to the cafeteria to see how well their boat could hold up as many pebbles as possible.
Rev Brown explained how the point of the ark activity was to teach the students that God does not always call the equipped, but he equips the called.
“I really liked the activity as it was engaging but also had a very good spiritual connection to it as we could experience what it was like to have to adjust to certain circumstances to achieve what was being asked of us,” said junior Mason Bosworth.
The groups then rotated around each of the activities and all gathered at the end to watch the volleyball tournament championship. But before the games began, seniors Corrine Dunlap and Southerland Newton led everyone in the singing of the national anthem, “a classic tradition,” said senior Francie Loven.
Finally, after a very intense game, Group 4 (named “the holy hitters”) came out with a dub and earned bragging rights for the rest of the trip (which they did not pass up).
“I was very proud of my group and our win,” said junior Knox Amos.
To end the round of games, discussions, and ark building the groups gathered together in prayer, led by senior Hill Mauldin, and then went to dinner. The menu for the night was pasta, grilled chicken, and salad, and was “the best vestry dinner I’ve had out of all my years on the retreat,” said senior Calder Shurling.
To end the night everyone gathered in the chapel to watch the entertainment and the famous senior skits. The entertainment this year was the Kenn Scott magic show where he showed us many card tricks and how to solve a Rubix cube in under 3 seconds with one hand and eyes closed. After Mr. Scott was done leaving everyone in awe and extremely confused, senior wardens Francie Loven and Reeves Malone took the stage for the senior skits.
“The skits are my favorite part of the retreat and I was so excited to plan them this year,” Reeves said.
Some of the skits included sibling trivia, couple trivia, bachelor, and the bachelorette. Special shoutout to Senior Thomas Harris who took on the role of “Waldo,” a nature-loving unemployed, very caring man who was looking for a girl to go to the botanical gardens with.
“I’ve never laughed harder in my life than I did when watching Thomas do the Waldo skit,” said Junior Hollis Fann.
After the skits and abundant laughter, all the students ventured out to the campfire to make s’mores. Shortly after, everyone sat down and listened as each senior gave a short speech with advice to all the younger grades.
“It’s never too late to make a change and if you don’t make a change it becomes a choice,” advised senior Sally Berry.
The campfire brought tears to many as it was the end of their last Vestry retreat.
“I always would listen to the seniors and never really take in what they had to say because I always thought I had so much time but standing there really made me realize how fast time has gone by,” said senior Francie Loven.
Then, after the fire, the students went back to their cabins and rested up from a long day’s worth of activities. They then were woken up at 8 am the next morning to eat breakfast and venture back to the Lovett school.
When the Vestry Wardens met with Rev Brown after the retreat, he said he thought it was a huge success. He was relieved since it was his first year leading it. But even before we left for the retreat, he was tipping his hat to the student leaders. “I would like to give a shoutout to the wardens for all their help,” he said to everyone before we loaded onto the buses, “and I encourage all to sign up for next year’s retreat.”
