Alina Yu

Accents sing and dance to new numbers in their choreographed set. In order to bond closely as a team, the girls had participated in camping activities and will continue to do so on Sept. 7 and Sept. 8.

From the evening of Friday, Sept. 7 to the morning of Saturday, Sept. 8, the Accents choir will travel to White River Campground in Cicero for the third annual team-bonding camping event.

According to choir director Kathrine Kouns, the Accents girls will bring tents and their own sleeping materials for a night filled with fun activities, such as sitting around the firepit and singing campfire songs, as well as participate in a service project to help the campground staff. Past projects included cleaning out a wood barn and rocks laid to make a path. Furthermore, Kouns said this year they are additionally going to visit Koteewi Aerial Park in the morning to go ziplining.

“I went to (Koteewi Aerial Park) over the summer on my own with my kids and it was so much fun. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is just down the street from the campground we go to, and so I wonder if some of the Accents girls would want to do this right after camping,’” Kouns said.

The team-bonding event started three years ago when the choir chose to do a campground set for their former competition season, according to Kouns. She said most of the girls in that year’s choir had not even been camping before, so she decided that in order to truly display a campground-like competition show, they would have to experience camping.

Allie Crawford, three-year Accents member who went on the first trip and senior, said, “I think it is a really good way for the team to bond, especially since it’s happening at the beginning of the year.”

Kouns said the girls in Accents do multiple bonding activities throughout the year on their own time, through their own group chats as well, but the main event she likes to participate in and schedule in is the camping weekend.

Crawford said, “I’m really excited because this group is really fun and we all have really quirky personalities so I think it will be a lot of fun seeing how we all interact in the wilderness.”