Camp Fire Fires at Camp Quinebarge
Yes, you read that right, at Camp Quinebarge we like to use unique names for our events and the Camp Fire Fire is certainly one of those.
Each Sunday night our Camp Quinebarge community gathers for an evening CampFire Fire (more on the name in a moment). Gathered around our fire pit on Piney Point, we sing, many would say yell, our Q-U-I, Bo Bo, Bill Grogan’s Goat and other Quinebarge staples, enjoy numerous other old and new camp songs, have cabin skits or counselor skits (a summer camp parody on Eric Carlson, our ED, is a favorite, as is Quinebarge in 100 years), welcome our new campers to camp with their QuineBeads and Monkeytown Olympics team assignments and tell stories about camp in the past. (Our Monkeytown Carnival, an all-camp festival, has each cabin designing their carnival game and they sell a food item they won at the Monkeytown Auction after pooling their collective Monkeytown Money). We finish with an all-camp S’mores-athon and end with our nightly Friendship Circle. All of this is done as the sun is setting for the night and campers and staff head off to their cabins under flashlight.
The Camp Fire Fire name came from a debate among a couple of directors many years ago about whether the actual fire at a camp fire was a camp fire fire. This was a very animated discussion that went on for about 30 minutes. At one point, another director (we’ll call him Eric) then quickly changed the Camp Fire article on Wikipedia to mention the alternative name as Camp Fire Fire, mostly just to stir the pot as the whole discussion was hilarious, and suggested they take a look, and the anti-camp fire fire director conceded. The spelling of the event, Camp Fire Fire or Camp Fyre Fyre is a debate that continues to this day.
Camp Fire Fires at Camp Quinebarge are among the most special events that take place. They are first and foremost a lot of fun and usually very funny. The ending with the Friendship Circle is a time for reflection on summer camp, their friends and experiences and something campers and staff remember years and decades after they leave Camp Quinebarge.