By Preston Leong, age 17
“Serial Killer!” someone shouted, as Counselor Catherine, fitted with a bowl of cereal and a plastic knife from the dining hall, danced over to a group of staff—with another pun up her sleeve. After the laughs and chuckles from the first pun subsided, Catherine had someone remove a small scrap of paper from her mouth.
It read “You took the words right out of my mouth.” Songs like “HOT TO GO,” “Pink Pony Club,” and “Love Story” blasted as campers danced together until curfew. Line dances, mini-mosh pits, and dance competitions filled the Field House. The theme of the dance: “wordplay.” While a bunch of campers were inspired to dress up as letters, words, phrases, puns, and even punctuation marks, the majority of campers just dressed up for fun. Many campers came in a variety of creative outfits, from brightly colored dresses and t-shirts, custom-made costumes, to letters taped onto ordinary clothes.
Part of the fun of the dance party every year is that campers are not told the theme of the dance until the morning of. All Thursday, campers were in a frenzy: brainstorming outfit ideas, coordinating with friends, and rushing to build the most clever outfits up until just minutes before the dance. No matter what campers wear, WriCampia’s dance party is still viewed, in Upper Camper Maxanne W-S’s words, as “definitely the best evening activity at camp.”
