My Summer Home

Last updated by

If the cold weather has you exploring summer job options or you’ve been considering working at sleepaway camp this summer, this week’s guest blog is for you. It was contributed by a Starlight staff member and originally posted to the Camp Starlight blog on January 6, 2014.

I’ve spent the last three summers at Starlight as both a counselor and assistant division leader. It’s hard to remember who I was before I came here, considering how much being at camp has changed me. As cliché as it sounds, I have truly grown as a person and met some of the most wonderful people while doing so. Every summer, since making the decision to join the staff, I’ve had opportunities to do other things, but never really considered being anywhere else….this is where I am supposed to be.

I have talked my friends deaf about my experiences and attempted to share with them the magic that Starlight holds, but it is something that needs to be seen first hand to fully grasp. The want for everyone to have this experience I have been blessed with has made me one of the biggest advocates for my peers on both trying and returning to camp.

We use the term “summer home” quite a bit, but it is for good reason. As soon as I venture up the camp road for that first entrance of the summer, I immediately check any stress and outside pressures at the door. Starlight is where I am with my friends, amazing campers, and a community of once strangers who I now consider family.

-Banner W.

Access all of our blog archives here

5 Reasons Kids Can’t Stop Talking about Camp

Last updated by

Raise your hand if this happened to you this year—as it does every year right about now. Just when you thought you’ve finally—FINALLY—heard the last of the camp stories, it arrived. Maybe it was the camp video, the camp newsletter…even an invitation to a camp reunion. Whatever it was, it was about camp, reminding you that we’re halfway to another summer, and now you’re hearing that waterskiing or baseball story for, oh, about the 27th time. And raise your hand if you ever find yourself questioning how a few weeks each summer can have such a profound impact on your children that they’re still talking about it in the dead of winter as if it was just a couple of weeks ago. Not that you mind. You’re very happy that your investment in summer camp has been a good one. But you still wonder. Well, here are a few things to consider.

1.) At summer camp, campers get to spend all day, every day with their friends. Before you argue that they get that at school too,consider this: At summer camp, campers not only spend all day with their friends, they get the opportunity to interact with them. When you think about it, interaction with friends at school is primarily limited to hallway conversations between classes, recess (for younger children), and lunchtime. Sure, they may steal a few exchanges during class at the risk of detention, but for the most part, talking while teachers present lessons (which comprise the bulk of the school day) is generally discouraged. In juxtaposition, summer camp is more like a sleepover that lasts several weeks, and everyday campers get to do something special with their friends. Beat that on the fun-o-meter!

2.) Children can be themselves at camp. Not that there aren’t rules to follow at summer camp, too. But the rules tend to bethe kind that promote being at ease. They are considerably more relaxed than those imposed at school, and even those pertaining to appropriate conduct in social situations are somewhat lax in comparison to those they have to follow the other ten months of the year. Most restaurants (or their patrons) probably aren’t too excited when children start singing or cheering in the middle of their meal, for example. Most summer camps encourage it.

3.) Children get to be independent at summer camp. Not that your children don’t love and adore you, but they like doing things on their own too. Children take a lot of pride in accomplishing something they tried for the first time at camp on their own (with the support of their fellow campers, counselors, and a host of other camp staff as well, of course…but in their minds, it was all them, and that’s okay). It gives them a sense of pride to know that they don’t need Mom and Dad to do everything.

4.) Camp is a youthful environment. Camp is an environment dedicated to youth. Even staff members are young at heart. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but think about the “real”world from a child’s perspective. It’s basically a place where they are constantly put in check by grownups and reminded about all of the things they can’t do until they are grownups. Camp, in contrast, is a place all about pleasing kids and where they are constantly reminded of why it is so sweet to be a kid.

5.) Children observe time differently at summer camp. Really! They do. When the school year begins, so does a countdown that children measure in “months still to go.” It’s a slow moving countdown of which children consistently consider themselves on the back end. There is always still time. When summer camp begins, a countdown also begins. But this countdown is measured in “weeks that have already passed.” Children place themselves on the front end of the camp countdown. In other words, they know that their time at summer camp is limited. From the second they arrive, they set out to make each and every minute count, which increases the intensity of the experience. That’s why those seemingly mundane ‘It’s a camp thing’ or ‘You had to have been there’ stories you hear over and over are so revered by your children. They were actually living so vividly in the moment they experienced them that the moment sticks with them. Not many children share quite the same enthusiasm about, let’s say, their last math exam, for example.

So when the next camp reminder arrives in your mailbox or your inbox and the stories start again, just remember that, for campers, an arrival of anything from camp is like receiving a postcard from Neverland.

The Laurel Camps’ Melting Pot

Last updated by

The guest blog this week was originally posted to the Camp Laurel and Camp Laurel South blogs on January 1o, 2014, and speaks to the tremendous diversity of the campers who call sleepaway camp their summer home.

Walking around the Laurel Camps on a typical day, you may not notice the vast geographic diversity of Camp Laurel and Laurel South.

We welcome campers from all over the United States and overseas. In 2013, The Laurel Camps welcomed campers across 16 countries, 5 continents and 42 out of the 50 states in the U.S. (Yes… 42!!)

Not only do we have campers from every US region, there’s vast diversity within each region. Take the Empire State of New York: we have campers from 34 different towns and cities. And from the sunshine state of Florida, campers hail from as far south as Key Biscayne all the way up the interstate to Gainesville! The northeast often leads the charge in terms of critical mass, but we also welcome campers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas and Ohio – to name just a few.

And what about staff? In 2013, our staff represented 43 of the 50 states. Not a bad representation!

Our geographic mix impacts the camp experience in so many ways.

We’re a break from “the neighborhood” and any prior stigmas. It’s a community where you can explore new interests and make new friends with less preconceived notions of who you are “supposed to be.”

Our campers and staff have a chance to learn the necessary skills to successfully get along with others from different cultures.

And of course, Laurel’s vast geographic diversity allows our campers and staff to make lifelong connections with friends across the world.

Camp provides so many different life skills; independence, problem solving, self-confidence – the list goes on and on. Let’s add encountering and embracing diversity to that list.

Looking through Camp Photos…Again.

Last updated by

Admit it. During the summer, you just scroll through the camp photos looking for any part of your child—a pose with friends, a smiling face, an arm, a shoe, a finger—anything that you can bookmark and study intensely to see what information you can garner using every technique you’ve ever learned from Law & Order. But have you ever gone back through the photos months after camp ends and just browsed at large, not just at your children, but at camp at large? If you haven’t, you should.

Camp photos aren’t just random shots caught by the camp photographer as he or she casually passed by. They tell a story. The story of camp and how the summer unfolds. The camp photographer is, undoubtedly, one of the hardest working people at camp. In fact, the work is so difficult, that many camps employ more than one, plus a videographer or two. Camp photographers are some of the first people out of bed each morning and some of the last to go to bed each night. Daily, they are charged with capturing the spirit of camp in pictures. If that sounds easy, try making around several hundred acres to capture about twenty activities happening simultaneously. On top of that, you’re taxed with trying to capture images of each and every camper each day. It’s a task. But a valuable one. Because, at the end of the summer, what a camp photographer leaves behind are images of the best moments at camp.

If you look back through the camp photos, you see friends enjoying time together in arts & crafts, sports teams in action, candid shots of campers living in the moment of whatever activity in which they are participating, being reflective, or just taking it all in. You also see moments of true surprise, awe, joy, and even disappointment. You can literally relive the summer by looking through the camp photos. If you want to know what your child is up to, scroll for the photos of our child. But if you want to know what is happening at camp, take the time to look through the camp photos…again.

Home Away from Home

Last updated by

If ever anyone could ever spell out why camp why camp is awesome, it is Camp Weequahic camper Jenna H., this week’s guest blogger.

18439 is the zip code that has become my second home for five summers.  Starting at the age of six, I learned many core virtues at Camp Weequahic in Pennsylvania.  Summer camp has absolutely changed my life.

Living and sleeping in a cabin with different girls and no parents involves plenty of responsibility.  Everyone has to clean their bunk and the bathroom everyday with only a little help from the counselors.  Also, each camper has to create his or her own schedule of fun activities planned.  In addition, I have to be accountable for brushing my teeth and folding my laundry.  Responsibility is important, but cooperation is also a big part of the camp experience.

At sleep away camp, cooperation is used everyday no matter what.  All campers must cooperate completely during their activities by including everyone. By cooperating with my fellow bunk members, we can accomplish chores and activities more quickly than doing it all alone.  In competitions, different teams have to cooperate in order to win.  When the entire camp breaks into different tribes, girls and boys work together creating songs, competing in relays, and answering trivia questions.  At times, I can be a strong leader in my bunk or for my tribe.

Finally, I have gained independence every year I have been at this camp. Living 3,000 miles away from home allows me to take care of myself and be independent.  I am in charge of serving others and myself food.  I try new things like cooking, sewing, tubing, and kickball.  I have created friendships with people from all over the world and have stayed in touch with them.

Arriving at camp is the best experience of the whole year.  I am away from my parents but at least I still have my bother there with me.  I learn many things and make many new friends.  All of this creates a remarkable summer experience!

–Jenna H.

The preceding blog was originally published to the Camp Weequahic website on December 19, 2013.


New Year, New Summer

Last updated by

There comes a point for everyone involved with camp when we finally stop wishing for it to still be last summer and begin looking forward to this summer. The beginning of the new year is the perfect time for this. The new year is a time of new beginnings for most people and, although that long list of resolutions most of us start out with in January has already been all but forgotten by the time the first spring blooms begin to peep out of the ground, there is always the promise of camp. January starts that final countdown toward summer. We’re finally in the year 2014, and it is only a matter of months before we arrive at the Summer of 2014.  And a fast six months it always is! We spend cold winter evenings watching our camp videos or reading our camp newsletters. We attend camp reunions and follow our camp Facebook pages. By spring we’ve ordered all of our new camp gear and are eagerly awaiting for it to arrive.  We start to set goals for the summer with our camp friends. Then we blink, and it’s May. It’s time to start packing! School ends and the countdown is down to days…days that seem to take longer than all of the months we’ve waited put together. But it comes, the new summer of the new year, faster than we ever thought it would a year ago.

Like Father, Like Son

Last updated by

This week’s guest blog first appeared on the Camp Laurel blog on December 10, 2013, and is a nice reminder of what a great multi-generational tradition that summer camp can be for families.

In 1977, Ron Scott, the former director of Camp Laurel, visited then potential camper Greg Racz’s father’s office. His mission: to talk about Camp Laurel. “A number of friends from Ethical Culture school already went there,” Greg recalls. It was an easy sell.

That summer, Greg made his first camp friend: Jem Sollinger. As the weeks – then years – passed, Greg grew to appreciate everything about Laurel; his fellow campers, the staff and the beauty of Maine. “Coming from New York City, being outdoors was great and I loved being able to play so much tennis.” As Jem recalls, no one was more consistent on the court than Greg, “He got everything back!”

More than 30 years later, “Laurel has only gotten prettier,” Greg says. He has a good way of knowing: His son, Daniel, is now a Laurel camper too. It seemed like “déjà vu all over again” in the early fall of 2012 when Jem visited Greg’s office to discuss Laurel for the next generation of Racz’s.

“Jem has done a phenomenal job,” Greg says of his longtime friend, now the camp director. “He’s got a great group of counselors.”

“Holly is still there with her husband, Warren,” Greg recalls, referencing 35-year Laurel veterans, Holly and Warren Williams. Amazingly, in 1980, Warren was Greg and Jem’s counselor in the Falcons.

Greg adds, “The waterfront is still drop-dead gorgeous and the many ping pong tables are a welcome addition,” speaking to another one of his passions!

Daniel’s route to camp was similar to his father’s. Daniel’s friends – at the same Ethical Culture school – also go to Laurel. Of course, he’d also heard about Laurel “100 times” from his dad, Greg. Getting off the bus, the first person Daniel saw was Jem. Some things never change.

Daniel’s favorite parts of camp are the sports facilities. “The Fieldhouse (a new addition since his father’s day) is great. It’s so big, with lots of space.”

Does he talk to his dad about the old days? “Yes,” Daniel says. “He likes to talk.”

Daniel’s younger brother Joshua may follow in his brother and father’s footsteps. He loved the water-slide on Visiting Day and Daniel would love to have his younger brother at camp with him, “It would be a lot of fun having a family member there.” That would make Greg doubly happy. “Visiting Day was too short,” he says. “It’s great to get a second chance at Laurel” – even if its just for a day.

And what about the second generation of campers from Laurel South. Founded in 1993, we expect the first influx of alumni campers over the next couple of years. “We can’t wait for the first alumni campers” says Laurel South director Roger Christian. “Family – isn’t  that what camp is all about?” At the Laurel Camps…it definitely is.

Benefits of STEM Related Summer Camp Programs

Last updated by

STEM is a popular buzzword—or, more appropriately, acronym–circulating among educational circles, but it might not be a term one might expect to hear within summer camp circles. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, four subject areas to which educators are increasingly striving to give students additional exposure, and summer camps are hopping on the bandwagon. According to the American Camp Association, STEM related activities have been among the most popular additions to summer camp programs over the past five years and for good reason. Summer camp provides campers with an alternative venue to learn in ways that are fun. Classrooms are replaced with the outdoors or facilities designed exclusively for individual programs and class size is vastly reduced allowing campers to be able to take a more intricate, hands on approach to exploring STEM areas through related camp activities. According to the New York Daily News, the average class size in New York, an area in which summer camp is particularly popular, is 25 students. In some schools, class sizes exceed 30 students. STEM related camp programs such as Nature, Rocketry and Radio, are often capped at fewer  than a dozen campers per activity period.  STEM related programs increasingly prove to be among the most popular with campers. So why are children flocking to educational niche programs? There are likely several reasons.

First, summer camp provides an informal, laid back setting. There is no homework. There is no syllabus. There are no lectures.There are no deadlines. There are noexams. It’s completely a ‘participate to the level of your comfort’ environment. All campers are encouraged to try camp STEM related programs at least once during the summer, but some find a new interest or passion and return several times. The ‘participate as you wish’ approach also allows campers to choose how to focus their interests. Counselors, often college majors or professionals in the area that they lead, are facilitators. They are there to encourage and assist campers in channeling their efforts into particular aspect of a STEM related activity if they so desire.

Second, the whole point of summer camp is for campers to have fun. So it goes without saying that camp activities are designed to emphasize fun, even those related to subject areas in which students are traditionally less than enthusiastic during the school year. In that regard, educational niche programs at sleepaway camp aren’t intended to compete with or replace the learning that takes place during the school year, but to enhance it.

Third, there is a healthy mixture of activity. Unlike a school setting in which students move through subjects throughout the day typically in a lecture setting, at least half of the day at a traditional summer camp is spent outside where campers take part in sports and water activities. Many camps also incorporate a designated time to rest into their programming day in order to give campers and staff the opportunity to recharge. So those program activities that could be perceived as educational are mixed in with healthy doses of physical activity and relaxation.  This allows campers proper time and space to both process the activities in which they take part throughout the day and to approach future activities with a fresh mind.

Although traditional summer camp STEM related programs are not intended to replace those offered in schools, they may ultimately be equally attributable to inspiring future scientists, technologists, engineers, or mathematicians by encouraging campers to explore these subjects in ways and to a level that they might not get to do during the school year. Some campers may carry a new found interest in these subject areas home and take on a new enthusiasm at school, making summer camp STEM related programs an invaluable addition to their program lineup.

They Just Don’t Get It

Last updated by

The guest blog this week was originally posted on the Camp Starlight Blog on December 10, 2013.

As the winter season is upon us, for many people, memories of the summer are fading but for a bunch of us, summer is still very much on the forefront of our minds. This is because we are camp counselors. Even though it’s been 4 months since we were at Camp Starlight, we are not quite used to the “real world” yet and long for a time when singing songs about napkins and moustaches is normal. A place where tutus for men, suspenders made of duct tape, and blue and white face pant is just typical everyday attire. A place that you “get” and it “gets” you.

You can never truly explain to people who have not spent a summer at Camp Starlight what the experience is like and trying to get them to understand a story or sing along with hand motions to a song is lost on them. Why don’t they understand how eating a piece of cantaloupe is important, or why this square dancing bracelet is a bragging rite? Why don’t they get it?

Only the lucky ones that have worked at camp can empathize with what we go through; trying to explain how hard but crazy good our kids were, why you can’t stop singing those songs, or why if you see a child you immediately turn back into a counselor.

I guess you have to realize that the summer of your life was unique and special and something most people will never “get”.  But that won’t stop you from trying to get others to come with you next summer to Camp Starlight!

Experts Agree: Camp is Cool

Last updated by

Our guest blog this week was first posted to the Camp Laurel South blog on October 10, 2013.

Summer is over – which means camp directors can catch up on our summer reading.

In the past few months, the media has been filled with stories examining the camp experience. A variety of writers extol it, from several intriguing angles.

Reviewing Michael Thompson’s new book Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow, Time Magazine’s Bonnie Rochman said the author focused on the magic of camp after realizing “it’s where most kids first battle homesickness only to emerge triumphantly independent.” But it’s not only children who benefit: the Time story is titled “Summer Camp: Great for Kids, Even Better for Parents.” Camp lets parents realize that their children are growing up; that they can be independent, and survive away from home. And, of course, time apart from their kids is important for parents’ own relationships and fulfillment.

Talya Minsberg picked up on that theme in her piece for the New York Times’ “Motherlode” parenting blog. Youngsters grow and explore at camp, she says, “despite their parents’ worry.”

Minsberg should know. A former camp counselor herself, her piece is a paean to “the in-jokes, goofy rituals and the cherished memories” of a camp-filled summer.

She called camp “magical…a place removed from the stresses and distractions of the real world, where staff members and campers alike discover a new kind of independence and responsibility. Camp is a place of positive transformation – where you…clean up your dishes and make your bed with no complaints, and meet undoubtedly the coolest people in the world: your 19-year-old counselors.”

Writing lovingly for Slate, John Dickerson also nailed the camp experience — with a twist in his article, “My Daughter Went Away to Camp and Changed.” A former camper who returned to pick up his daughter 36 years later, he noted that camp hasn’t changed. However – happily – she had.

In her father’s absence, she’d grown up. She’d explored, taken risks, tried new identities. “We are not invited” to camp, Dickerson said. That’s “a paper-cut echo of the truth at the heart of parenting: You’re doing it best when you’re teaching them to leave you.”

Camp is a perfect way for parents to teach children to leave them. It’s also a perfect way for parents to teach themselves how to let go, and take their own steps toward independence. Independence, that is, from their kids. That doesn’t mean they love their children any less. In fact, it means they love them more.

The young people these writers love are back at home now. They’re glad to be there. Their parents are happy to have them. But odds are good that they can’t wait for next summer to arrive.