Witches and Wizards ran wild at camp, perfecting their skills and fighting evil!

Wizarding week went off with a bang at 4-H(ogwarts) acres. Professor Moonstone cast a protective enchantment across the camp to keep out muggles, so that newly minted witches and wizards could practice magic in the safety of the protected woods. Before heading out to their nature classrooms, the new witches and wizards had to be sorted into their houses.

“Grackle!” cried the sorting hat. “Gull!”

The Grackles and Gulls headed out to their secret locations and began their magical studies.

They built an entire Diagon Alley in the bushes and dry streambed, complete with a flower shop, a magical bank, and plenty of houses.

They built wands and staffs, preparing for an encounter at the end of the week that would test their magical abilities. They gathered blackberries (at the peak of their season) and leaves to create a potion that made their wands stronger and more powerful than ever, gearing up for the final fight.

The final test came after lunch on Friday… the evil Lord Voldemort invaded camp! Some wizards joined the dark side, but the rest fought valiantly against him, sending him running away into the forest, never to be seen again.

Magic lurked in the air even after the witches and wizards went home for the day. Night Owl camp, a brand new option this summer, started at 4:30 in the afternoon and ended at 10, long after the sun had set. The Night Owls focused on fire building, a vital skill for the nighttime in the forest where it gets dark very quickly. By 9, all that anyone could see was the flickering of the fire and the red light it cast on everyone’s faces. The darkness of the trees almost felt like a hug, like nothing else existed in the world except for the fire and the people around it.

Maybe a spell cast by the wizards made the fires look so mesmerizing and spellbinding in the pressing darkness of the surrounding trees.

They gazed at the stars from the field and searched for meteor showers raining down across the sky. On Thursday, they honored their marshmallow torches with a ceremonial burning and chant. There is a certain magic in the nighttime that makes everything more exciting and meaningful, something that brings everyone closer and makes marshmallow torches deserving of the highest honor.

Maybe a spell cast by some wizards during the day created this magic, maybe it was the meteor showers, or maybe it was the mesmerizing fires that created the magic of the Night Owl camp.

Photo Gallery Week Seven