Tohi
Tours & Traditions

"We call it fun but some may call it madness..."


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Camp Traditions
At Tohi, we have many traditions, some of which go back as far as the camp itself. They are part of what makes this camp Tohi, and what makes it so special. Campers and counselors alike enjoy these traditions, and we will continue to carry them on as well as start new traditions ourselves.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta lives under the big stone right near the flagpole outside the dining hall. She knows everything that's going on @ Camp Tohi, and loves getting letters from campers. Whether they're sad or happy, she'll always write you back! Rosetta is magical, and some claim to have seen her before, but no one can be sure.
the Wishing Tree
The wishing tree is actually two trees that have grown together over the years. It's just off the path from the cookie bridge on side 2. Legend has it that if you can walk between the two trees without touching either one of them and make a wish, your wish will come true.
the Cookie Bridge
The cookie bridge connects the two sides of camp, which are separated by a creek. If you can run all the way across it from one end to the other while holding your breath and making a wish, your wish will come true. This is always a fun challenge for both campers and counselors to try.
Pooh Sticks
While on the cookie bridge, throw a stick into the creek on one side of the bridge and make a wish. If it comes out on the other side, your wish will come true!
Campfires
Campfires are an important tradition at Tohi. Every Sunday and Thursday night, the whole camp gathers in the campfire field to have a campfire. At Sunday's opening campfire, the counselors of each group sing a song they wrote about their group to introduce themselves. This way the campers get to meet all the counselors. We sing some silly songs, action songs, & repeat songs, as well as some slower songs w/ guitar accompaniment. Often a story or two are read. At Thursday's closing campfire, each group of campers performs an original song or skit about their week. The campfires are run by a small group of the staff each week, and each one is different from the next. Campfires are one of the favorite camp activities.
All Camps
All-camps are held on Tuesdays and Fridays, and every camper and every counselor participates. Each week we have different all-camp activities, including counselor hunt, gold rush, water carnival, capture the flag, scavenger hunt, and more. These are also a favorite camp activity.
Camp Names
This tradition, which is probably as old as the camp itself, is a fun and much-loved one. Each member of the camp staff has a nickname that she uses as her regular name. It's always fun for the campers to try and guess their counselors' real names, because it's supposed to be a secret. It's completely normal to hear a counselor being called Daffodil, Jinx, or Munchy!
Flags
Counselors make personal flags with their name on it, as well as something about themselves or the country their from. These flags hang along the wall in the dining hall all summer, and are a way campers can get to know more about the other counselors and where they're from.
the Tajar & Pranks
"The Tajar is a forest creature who loves to dance in the moonlight, and his adventures are rich in fantasy and imagination." On some nights, the tajar visits Tohi to cause mischief or do good deeds. His favorite things to do is play jokes or pranks, such as stealing all the kitchen utensils and making us go on a scavenger hunt to find them, or rearranging the office outside (pic. at right). He also likes getting into things such as flour, paint, or saran wrap. We all love the tajar, but no one's ever actually seen him.
Themed Meals & Dining Hall Antics
Themed Meals are very common at Tohi. We have backwards meals, mummy meals, stop and go meals, one utensil meals, and many others, and they're always received well by campers and counselors alike. Other things you're likely to see in the dining hall during meals are the order of the scraper, cook's parades, a birthday girl running around the tables, a game of invisible frisbee, a counselor doing a wacky dance in the middle of the aisle along to the campers' singing, and many other crazy quirks of tohiness as well. We hold a flag ceremony before breakfast and dinner, followed by the campers singing a few before-meal songs. At the end of the meal, you'll hear a bunch of singing about tables, too. :-)

the Tohi Tour
I'm not gonna take you on a full tour of Tohi. If you want that, click here to see council's. But wait! don't leave yet! What I'm gonna do is show you special places that stand out in Tohi. Now we all have our own little favorite places throughout camp, but these are some of the main ones.
Take the barn, for instance. The barn stands raised a tiny bit higher than the rest of camp, and a ramp leads up to the door. Inside, it's very barn-like; old & dingy wood, creaky floorboards, dirty windows, junk stashed in all the corners and around the sides - but in the middle is an open area of floor, with an elevated stage at the back, that makes it perfect for escaping the rain, sleeping overnight, watching a movie, working on a craft project, or just hanging out. There is an upstairs too, which is used for storage, and nobody's allowed up there b/c it's not sturdy enough. The barn has a lot of character at Tohi.
Next we have arts & crafts. (It's the little brown part of the building on the right.) Creativity runs wild in here. A long, long time ago this builing used to be the dining hall, but nobody that's around now remembers that far back. :-) Now it's arts & crafts, where we do everything from tie-dye to woodburning to painting to pottery to beads to papier-mache to this to that to everything in-between. There's always music playing, and the tables, benches, floor, walls, and ceiling are covered in paint - from pictures, to quotes, to names, to messages, campers and counselors both have decorated the arts & crafts room for years with their own personal touch. It's always just as much fun to look at it all as it is to make your own creations! Messiness is no object here, and it's a favorite place to hang out and chill in front of the giant fans.
To the left of arts & crafts is the office & staff house. Now the staff house - this place has character. It's a very crooked little house - literally. The doorways, walls, ceilings, floors - nothing matches up right. There is probably a one-foot difference between the height of one side of the room from the other. It's an old house, with small rooms and a thin staircase. The sofa in the staff house is the comfiest sofa I have ever sat on. It's old and lumpy, and incredibly soft and comfy. It's a great sofa for piling as many people as you can onto and just laying there in a heap, too tired to do anything else. Also great for bonding, sleeping, and anything else you desire.
The pool is another favorite hangout at Tohi. There's always a crowd there, and one of the most fun things is to get a group of people lined up at the edge of the deep end, count to three, then all run and jump into the pool at the same time, in whatever funky style imaginable! Volleyball and chicken fights are also popular, as are the scuba gear and fins. And campers love watching their counselors compete in greased melon fights! There's always music playing here too, and if you're not swimming there's plenty of space on the grass or on the big rock next to the pool. Just don't forget to flip your buddy tag! (haha)
And now, my favorite building on camp: the Stone House. This is where I lived this past summer (2002), with my fellow interns and kitchen aides. We loved it! The Stone House is a beautiful, very old stone house. It's got charm, but not space. There were 7 of us living in one small room, and we eventually gained use of the other room on the first floor, which we turned into a makeshift "living room/den" type thing. It was very fun to live in, and to explore. It dates back quite far, and is unique in many ways, from the old wood smell, the low, wooden-beam ceilings, the foot-thick stone walls, the windows and doors, the staircases, the 2nd floor (which was fun to discover), the 3rd floor (also fun), to the Tohiness, such as the handprints on the inside of the closet door, the old staff flags and country flags in a box in the corner, old staff books, songs, quote & memory pages, and other random Tohiness that makes Stone House so cool. So anyway, on with the tour...
There are plenty of other cool places at Tohi, but if I tell you too much about it, you won't get to find out for yourself by going there! I would tell you about the dining hall too, but I pretty much covered that in the traditions part. And then there's Hibucks, the trails, Old Hempsie, Old Wyconda, the frog pond, dragonfly pond, ropes...


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