Patrick Hosken

Each summer, anywhere from 32 to 64 players ready their rackets, suit up in their team colors and hit the courts at the Chautauqua Tennis Center for its annual Team Tennis Tournament. This competition, the Tennis Center’s largest event of the season, will take place from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Team Tennis features four teams of 16 players — or eight, depending on participation — competing in a combination of men’s, women’s and mixed doubles, a formula that Lee Robinson, Tennis Center program director, said makes for a successful event year after year.

July 21 was what some might call a “scorcher,” with temperatures approaching the 90s even before 11 a.m. That didn’t stop campers and counselors from heading down to the Boys’ and Girls’ Club annual carnival and enjoying the scene.

In the late 1960s, Tommy James and the Shondells and Felix Cavaliere’s The Rascals, then known as The Young Rascals, could be found at the top of the charts in America. The latter scored big with their soulful hits “Good Lovin,’” “Groovin’” and “People Got to Be Free,” while the former rocked and rolled with “Hanky Panky,” “Mony Mony” and “Crimson and Clover.”

SLIDESHOW: At 2 p.m. Wednesday, rows of Boys’ and Girls’ Club campers lined the shore behind Beeson Youth Center. Dressed in swimwear and wrapped in beach towels, the kids eagerly awaited instructions from Chuck Bauer, Club’s aquatic director, who stood on the dock in front of them, megaphone in hand.

At the end of Week Two, three Boys’ and Girls’ Club counselors were decorated with Club’s top honors: the “Counselors of the Week” award. Gabby Salva, 18, from Napa, Calif., Libby Goodell, 19, from Bronxville, N.Y., and Suzie Tuthill, 17, from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, took home the award last Friday.

Down at the edge of the Institution’s grounds, in the shadow of the grand Athenaeum Hotel, canopied by a few tall trees, sits a quaint little house — Chautauqua Sports Club. Green shuffleboard courts lie to the left. A few picnic tables with chess and checkerboards on top decorate the front lawn. The lake rests behind the house, with paddleboats, canoes and kayaks bobbing in the water near the dock.

The term “Western Reserve” refers to a patch of land in northeast Ohio previously owned by the state of Connecticut in the 18th century. Members of the Brass Band of the Western Reserve picked that name over, say, “Brass Band of Akron,” to highlight the group’s diverse geographical makeup. “It just seemed like a good name,” said band director Keith M. Wilkinson. “We didn’t want to pinpoint the name to any particular city, because that’s not the band.”

Amidst the chaos of lunchtime at the Youth Activities Center, two Boys’ and Girls’ Club counselors stood out as recipients of the prestigious “Counselors of the Week” award. Emily Horak, a nature counselor from Jamestown, N.Y., and Kurt Wissing, a music counselor from Buffalo, N.Y., were Week One’s winners.

SLIDESHOW: Last week, the Arthritics topped the Fashionable Gentlemen, the MOMS took down the Chautauqua Lakers and the Boomerangs beat the Belles. That could only mean one thing: Softball season at Chautauqua has begun.

Government decision-making can be difficult, especially in an age characterized by perpetual change. For Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, American society faces many challenges, few more pressing than the need for constants.

Since the mid-1980s, Sandra Thurman has been fighting for AIDS education and prevention throughout the world. As director of Emory University’s Interfaith Health Program, she leads health practitioners into different faith regions to bring about community health improvements.

During the season, Jason Yacone, Chautauqua Tennis Center’s maintenance supervisor, keeps the grass cut short, the weeds plucked and the nets pulled tight. But his real work begins when visitors are still months away from arriving.