Sweden takes gold in VAMPY Olympics

By Ellie Hogg

Camp Olympics are one of the most spirited activities we have at camp. Each female counselor group pairs with a male group to form a country that competes in a series of events ranging from the typical (tug-o-war) to the more obscure (competitive story writing). The diversity of events allows for both athletic and relaxed participation.

This year, my group, which was made up of my campers and counselor Harsh Moolani’s campers, represented Sweden. However, due to fairly limited knowledge about Swedish culture, we chose to really emphasize one of Sweden’s most popular creations: the furniture store IKEA. Rather than carrying a flag during the opening ceremonies, Harsh and I carried a chair and a lamp, respectively.
Chants included “IKEA, you Kea, We Kea, SWEDEN JA,” “When I say ‘chair,’ you say ‘Chair,’” and, my personal favorite (though unrelated to IKEA), “When I say ‘Stockholm,’ you say ‘Syndrome.’”

Thanks to a first place victory in both Tug-o-War and Trivia, Sweden was able to take home the gold. “Gold” in our case was a gnome that my girls have named IKEA Chair-Stockholm. We tied for first place overall with the country of Atlantis, led by counselors Emily Powell and Andrew Brown. All of us counselors were just as excited as the campers (if not more so) about our victorious olympics experience.