Camp Green Lane Blog Post, August 9th

This morning, a new generation of boys took the Plunge.

A Camp Green Lane tradition, now in its seventh running, the Polar Plunge came to camp with Aunt Rose and continued this morning with some new faces. And some old ones, too.

The Polar Plunge is a rite of summer for the Upper Inter Boys. Towards the end of the summer, the oldest Inter Boys, who will return to camp next summer as Cadet Boys, take part in a secret, surprise event in the early morning hours.

Well before Reveille (Spelling Bee word) , the boys and their counselors are woken up. They walk down to the lake and one by one, they jump into the water for a daybreak dip they’ll remember forever.

It’s something they look forward to for weeks. In previous summers, boys slept in swim trunks for days in anticipation. They’ve been asking about it for weeks, and finally, the day they’ve been waiting for arrived.

It was a chilly morning with a scene-setting steam rising off the water and at 57 degrees, it was a true Polar Plunge when the 2025 Upper Inter Boys jumped in. I’m told Matt was the first to jump. Condo made the Plunge for the third time, a CGL record. Dax said, “I’ve been waiting for this all summer!”

But the coolest ripple of all this was Ben Goodfriend, who is now a counselor. He’s the first person to make the Plunge first as a camper, seven summers ago, and today as counselor of the Blue Jays. That’s tradition.

A few weeks ago, Ben’s mom, Hallie, wrote some words about what CGL Magic is and the tug of that very same tradition.

“For me, camp was never about the landscape, the facilities or the trips out of camp, it was the time spent in the bunk and the camp traditions that gave me the ’10 for 2′ perspective when I returned to school in the Fall,” she wrote.

“Green Lane was always my happy place … because of how it loved. It’s impossible to put these feelings into a promotional brochure, but if you witnessed the generations of families sending their kids every year, you’d get it. It has given me the greatest gift of lifelong friends, and now I’m lucky enough to watch my kids share in the same magic.”

Today, the Upper Inter Boys got the surprise they’ve been waiting for.

And that made for a magical morning here at camp.