by Elisha VanZant
This first week of Optionals for the VAMPY campers is a fun and exciting time for all, with a wide variety of activities for the campers to choose from. On Wednesday, counselor Jocelyn Martin and I held an optional titled Extreme Makeover: VAMPY Edition as a play off of the hit reality TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In our Optional, we paired up each camper with a random partner. Their goal was to take turns doing each other’s makeup to the best of their artistic and creative ability. Whether the final results looked good or not, everyone had loads of fun.
The campers came into the Optional with a wide range of makeup application skills, from beginner to advanced. Those who came in with more experience took the lead and taught the others how to apply certain makeup, such as fake eyelashes and eyeshadow. Campers Lyla Wood and May Queener took on these leadership roles, teaching other campers such as Abigail Hicks and Shawn Cochran. The campers who had little to no experience learned a lot from both other campers and the counselors.
In the middle of this activity, another Optional, titled Paparazzi, with counselors Malcolm Jones and Chloe Banaszak, infiltrated our room with cameras made from paper as they pretended to be the paparazzi and asked us all questions. This allowed us to talk to each other about a variety of topics, such as pop artist Olivia Rodrigo and her recent album, which has been a camper favorite. Overall, this was an engaging and interactive Optional for the campers, who enjoyed getting to know each other and paint each other’s faces.
