10 Camp Things for Which We’re Thankful All Year Long

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The holidays are upon us and ‘tis the season to ponder those things for which we’re truly thankful. For those of us who are fortunate enough to eat, sleep and breathe camp 24/7, 365 days a year, it’s hard not to make an exclusive “camp” list. After all, camp is just as much a part of our lives in November as it is in June. So we figured we’d share some camp things for which we are thankful all year long.

1.)    Our campers. Each and every one of our campers brings something unique to camp that makes our camp family complete. Getting emails and phone calls about our campers’ accomplishments throughout the winter makes the memories we have of the summer that much more special, and makes us even more excited to see everyone the following year.

2.)    Our camp parents. We feel pretty lucky to have so many parents who as enthusiastic about camp as their children and who keep in touch throughout the winter, providing us with fun and interesting updates.

3.)    Our staff. Finding a staff of talented people who are willing to leave their first homes and make summer camp their second home for several weeks  each summer in order to literally live their jobs day and night is no easy feat. That we’re able to put together a staff each summer who is so vested in creating an amazing summer for all of our campers is truly a blessing.

4.)    Alumni. It’s always a special treat when our alumni share their favorite camp memories and reiterate how great their camp years were. The fact that so many of our alumni are still in touch and/or are active within our community says a lot to us about just how special camp is and motivates us to continue to strive to make camp a lifetime worth of memories.

5.)    A beautiful campus. That first drive into camp each summer is always so special. No matter how many times we’ve been there, that first glance of the bunks/cabins, the dining hall, the fields, the courts and the waterfront each summer is something we anticipate all year long.

6.)    Memories. Memories are what makes each summer different than the last. Even in the fall, we find ourselves asking each other, “Remember when…?” and laughing over our favorite camp moments throughout the year.

7.)    Camp Songs. We often find ourselves turning up the volume whenever a song that proved popular the summer before plays on the radio or humming the alma mater or a favorite dining room tune while we’re busy planning for next summer.

8.)    Camp friends. It’s so nice to have someone with whom we can remember those special moments from previous summers and with whom we can have a hearty laugh about those inside moments that only our camp friends can understand. It’s also nice to be able to re-experience camp through meetups through the winter and makes us even that much more excited about next summer.

9.)    The camp tradition. It sounds pretty obvious, but just the fact that we’re able to carry on such a beloved tradition is a privilege. Summer camps have been around for more than a hundred years and such an iconic part of our culture that movies and television shows have been made about summer camp and books have been written about it. Not to mention, without summer camp, we’re not quite sure what we’d be doing. We certainly can’t imagine doing anything else.

10.) The promise of next summer. We’ve said it a million times, but we start anticipating the next summer as soon as the buses pull away. That ten month wait each year seems like forever, but it proves to be just enough time to plan another summer that promises to be even better than the last. The anticipation drives us all year long as we plan and makes us thankful to be part of camp all year.

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Camp Creativity

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This week’s guest blog was originally published on the Camp Weequahic website on October 14, 2013.

It’s a great joy to see young people create something fun with their own hands from lumps of clay, blocks of wood, or bits of string. Each day, girls and boys build confidence by creating something new, bond with their new friends across the crafts table, and interact with teachers who have creative flair and patient, encouraging words.

However, no matter in which creative studio they play, Camp Weequahic campers get to explore, learn, and create in ways not often enjoyed at home or school.

The Arts Studio provides a number of options for campers to enjoy.In the hub of our creative commons, campers explore jewelry and candle making, drawing, painting and more. The attached ceramics studio allows for time on the pottery wheel as well as hand creations, molds, and more. Sometimes, campers enjoy projects they’ve done before. However, more often than not, they are challenged to create in ways and methods they’ve never tried. These creative fits and starts lead to understanding and, later, confidence.

Creativity at Camp Weequahic is not only confined to our well loved Arts and Crafts studio. The newly improved woodshop offers campers of all ages treats and challenges. A flotilla of boats were created by Junior Boys while the girls built enough birdhouses to fill the woods.

One of our Senior campers built his own lectern (which he used as the head announcer of the Weequahic Basketball League) while a rising 7th grade girl built an Adirondack chair that many thought could only have been built by the woodshop staff. The creations flowed out of the woodshop all summer – and we can’t wait to see what the kids create for Summer 2014.

Not to be outdone, campers in our newly developed Top Chef facilitycreated scrumptious meals of omelets, pad thai, spring rolls, handmade pasta, s’more cookies and more. Not only did they enjoy making these dishes, but they enjoyed sharing them with their friends, especially those next door in CW Designs, our fashion design studio.

Whether making pajama pants in CW Designs, a mini-desk for their bunk bed in woodshop, or bracelets for friends in Arts and Crafts, Weequahic campers create and laugh and learn every day!

Seven Summers

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Most children step off the bus and get their first glance of summer camp as eager, excited, and slightly nervous seven or eight year olds. It’s their first time away from home and they’re not quite sure what to expect. Few register those first moments as the first of a seven year adventure. It’s just the first summer, after all. Even parents sometimes forget that summer camp isn’t just one summer and, in that regard, is much more than a campus. It is a place where children grow up, and it should be a place where campers are every bit as enthusiastic about stepping off the bus their seventh year as they are their first. It should be a place where they feel an integral part of something larger.

Relationships form early at camp. The friends campers make their first year are often their closest throughout their camp careers. The adrenaline filled first meeting is the beginning of several years in the making. But the accepting environment of camp that encourages children to try new things also facilitates the promise of new friendships each summer. What campers learn as they progress through summers is that at “their camp,” no two summers are quite the same.

There is always the element of the unexpected at camp. Anticipation throughout the winter to return to camp is driven by the mystery of how the next summer will be different than the last. The ability to envision the campus as pretty much the same way they left it (with maybe a few upgrades or improvements) eliminates the element of fear in change for children. The stability of the campus itself makes change something to which campers can look forward. Boating docks, dining halls and arts and crafts studios become favorite spots as the settings of memories from summer to summer. Although they are the same places they were the summer before, the memories campers associate with them make them slightly different.

That first exploratory summer, young campers are also able to observe and begin to anticipate the various rites that occur as they age. They look forward each summer to special trips and activities that are exclusive to their second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh summer. In the end, summer camp isn’t a singular experience. It’s the sum total of many summers and a culmination of friends, activities, traditions and memories that builds from that first welcome on the first day of camp that first summer.

Sleepaway Camp: The Ultimate English Language Experience

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There is a multi-cultural aspect to summer camp that is a great benefit to campers who attend summer camps in America. While standardized test scores dictate students’ admission into certain high schools, learning programs, and universities, summer camp is an esteemed diversion. That a student ventured to America and invested in an American tradition so revered as summer camp provides international campers an opportunity to advance English skills and immerse in American culture that is almost un-rivaled. The big picture in those countries in which learning is the gold ticket is to take in “all things English.” To experience summer camp is to give a student an advantage beyond any of his or her classmates. Four hours per week in school could never equate to those of several weeks spent at a summer camp experiencing traditions that are quintessentially American while forming friendships that last a lifetime. English is a language that is as much about experience as linguistics. It’s a complicated mix of culture with as many exceptions to rules as there are rules. The best way to understand English is quite literally to experience it. At camp, children can make friends, participate in activities and become a part of traditions that are more than camp: They live English. For those children seeking to become truly fluent in English and gain an advantage over their fellow students, summer camp is an essential investment.

Watching Campers Grow

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Campers may begin attending camp when they’re seven. They come in as frosh or juniors and you observe them. They’re young. They’re cute. You blink. They’re in upper camp. As a camp staff member, there are few things as satisfying as watching your campers grow older. Every year, you get to see them mature. They eventually become more than campers to you. They become colleagues.

For perennial camp staff members, there is probably no bigger problem. There comes a moment in your camp career in which you realize the children you once mentored are now co-workers. It’s a bittersweet moment. You taught them well. But you still see them as those children you mentored. You want to see them succeed at all costs.  You struggle with whether to treat them as campers or colleagues. They’re your campers after all…except now they’re not.  They’re grown. They’re mentoring the same children you are. You’re both enthusiastic and cautious at this prospect. Has this much time really passed since you started working at camp? They’re good at what they do and you want to take some credit for that but are not entirely sure you’re entitled to do so. Either way, these are your campers, and you’re proud.

You revel in seeing them succeed, even though it is so hard to comprehend them as adults. This is all you ever wanted for them. You watch them with your campers and know that this is what camp tradition is truly about. To see a whole new generation of campers successfully become staff members is more than you could ever have imagined as a measure of success.

Evolving Camp Menus

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If you’ve ever been to camp, then you know what s’mores are best made over a campfire, and that knish is the perfect side dish for a cookout or brisket meal. Campers who jump out of bed every morning and race to breakfast, hoping it’s an S Day Breakfast as well as those who can’t get enough of the pizza, know that camp food is as much a part of the camp experience as the activities. Like many other camp traditions, the menus constantly evolve to meet the current demands of campers.

One concern heavily influencing camp menus is the growing awareness to develop healthy eating habits early in life. Camps are introducing new and healthiermenu items. Items such as Greek yogurt, hummus, guacamole and wraps are finding their way onto camp menus to enhance salad bars, longtime camp dining staples, and give campers and staff more nutritional options. Lite dressings are also appearing alongside regular ones and more fruit and vegetable choices are being offered. But the camp food revolution doesn’t begin and end at the camp salad bar.

Camps are increasingly using olive oil instead of vegetable oil and are playing around with herb and spice combinations to enhance the taste of food. This isn’t to say that some traditional camp favorites are disappearing off menus. Grilled cheese, pasta, and chicken fingers are all still very much camp fare. Camps are simply trying to make healthier versions of them by using fresher ingredients and fewer pre-packaged ones.

Campers are very enthusiastic about the recent trends in camp food. Today’s campers have savvy palates and they like that favorite foods which have traditionally not been available at camp are finding their way onto menus.  Meal times are important parts of camp each day. They are times for the camp to come together and dine as a family. They are times for singing, cheering, and catching up.  Perhaps that why camp food is such a key part of camp.

While You’re Waiting until June…

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So, the summer of 2014 is still a l-o-n-g 8 months away. But here are a few things to keep you warm during the colder months of the year…

1.)    Opening day. Is there any better feeling than that moment the bus pulls up to camp, you step off and are immediately tackled by a herd of camp friends who have waited all year to see you?

2.)    Campfires. Every camp has its own version. In fact, your camp’s campfire is a big part of what makes it your camp. You’re sure of two things: 1.) your camp’s campfire is the best. 2.) S’mores made anywhere other than camp are just not as good.

3.)    Sing-alongs. It’s amazing how much singing silly songs arm-in-arm with your camp friends during the summer makes you feel. Admit it. You find yourselfsinging to yourself throughout the winter. Your school friends catch you. ‘It’s a camp thing,’ you say. You immediately send a vine to all of your camp friends of you singing—doing motions too–of your favorite camp songs.

4.)    Arts & Crafts. Seriously, you can tie-dye at home too…really.

5.)    The official camp video, yearbook, or seasonal newsletter. It should be showing up in your mailbox anytime now. Host a party. Reminisce about this past summer. Know that next summer will be here before you know it. Set goals now. Next summer will be epic.

6.)    Camp Shows. Thespians and camp go hand-in-hand. It’s no coincidence that a lot the biggest names in Hollywood are summer camp alumni. Summer camp is a breeding ground for creativity and the perfect environment for exploring your creative side.  Admit it. You’re still humming the songs from your camp shows this past summer.

7.)    Boats. Camp has lots of boats. Ski boats, sailboats, kayaks, canoes: whichever your choice, one fact hails true: some of the best moments of the summer happen on the water.

8.)    Trips. Is a baseball game at home ever as good as it is when you’re enjoying it with your camp friends? What about a roller coasters? Didn’t think so.

9.)    Camp food. Admit it. You live for chocolate chip pancakes.

10.)  Bunk/Cabin mates. When you come home with something exciting to share during the winter, with whom do you share it?

Missing Camp

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This week’s guest blog was contributed by a camper at Camp Starlight…

It has already been more than a month since our amazing summer of 2013 at Camp Starlight came to an end. Through Instagram and Facebook, we have been frequently refreshing to see what camp pictures and posts have been uploaded. Texting and emailing our best friends, everyone has been in touch. School and work has started for everyone at this point, and when you first walked into your classroom, thoughts and flashbacks of getting up on the waterskis for the first time or swishing the 3-pointer makes you sad that we have to wait ten more months.

This blog was originally posted to the Camp Starlight blog on September 24, 2013.

Camp Souvenirs

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It happens while you’re unpacking.  You happen on an oddity or two—or ten—in your child’s bag or maybe shorts pockets.  Crazy little circular chains of rubber bands (dozens of them!) seem to be tucked into every crevice of clothing your child could find; a water bottle filled with what appears to be sand and lake water, or a pocket full of leaves.  These are but a few of the little treasures that made their way home with your camper.  You ponder over your child’s spoils from camp for a few minutes and try to figure out what it’s about.  Then you finally decide to ask about ‘a Ziploc baggie full of sand?’

‘From the waterfront!’ Your child proudly declares.  ‘I wanted something to remember the fun I had there this summer.’  You sit the bag (that you were considering throwing out a few seconds before your child walked into the room) down on the nightstand and make a mental note to pick up a container that will do it a little bit more justice than a Ziploc baggie.

‘And what about what about those rubber band things?’

‘Bracelets’.

‘Ahhhh…Of course.’

The souvenirs that find their way home from camp are always one of your favorite parts of unpacking.  It’s become a game for you, trying to guess the chain of events that led to you finding that random piece of burnt rope alongside your child’s socks and putting it together with the years prior to this summer that he and his camp friends spent plotting their rope burn strategy.

‘Rope burn?’

‘We won!’

‘Yes!’ You guessed one.  You’re starting to get good at this.  What you begin to realize is that the random discoveries you’ve been fishing out of your child’s luggage like an archeologist at a dig site aren’t random at all.  They’re memories.  More importantly, they’re the summer’s best memories in the form of rubber bands, lake-water filled water bottles, sand filled Ziploc baggies, and, yes, even burnt pieces of rope.  The candles and ceramic animals are obvious.  You like them, too.  But it’s these special little surprise finds that tell the more complex story of your child’s summer–the reason you’ve come to like, actually anticipate, unpacking after your child returns home from camp.  You’re not exactly sure what you’re going to find or what it will mean, but you can’t wait to find out.

10 Reasons Working as a Camp Counselor This Past Summer Was the Most Awesome Job Decision You Ever Made…

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1.) Being able to put “Provided excellent care and fun for several hundred children” or “helped children improve athletic skills” on your resume is a pretty sweet bonus.

2.) Saying, “My friend who lives in Australia…” or “My friend who lives in Arizona…” sounds a lot cooler (and more worldly) than, “My friend who works two cubicles down from me…”  Not to mention, you’ll save a whole lot of money on accommodations the next time you travel!

3.) You’d take tutus over “business casual” as dress code any day.  Shorts and staff shirts meant you got some extra Zs in the morning, too, because you didn’t need an extra half hour to stand in front of your closet wondering what you should wear.

4.) Fetching snacks for your campers was so much more fun than fetching coffee for a boss–and your campers were more appreciative, too.

5.) You got paid to do lots of fun outdoor activities everyday.  Your friends had to request a day off to do fun outdoor activities.

6.) Your “office” had a much better view than your friends’ cubicles. Summer camp provided plenty of breathing room in the form of roomy campuses as workplaces.

7.) Every day brought new opportunities and challenges that, by the sounds of it, were much more gratifying than spending an entire summer filing and creating mail merges.

8.) Letting loose and acting silly was not only acceptable, it was encouraged.  Your friends got verbal warnings for laughing too loudly in their offices.

9.) The amount of friends and connections you have through social media outlets multiplied exponentially.  Who knew summer camp would be such a great place to network?

10.) It was EPIC fun!