Camper FAQs About Camp Kupugani

There’s no better way to have fun, make real connections with lifelong friends, and become more in touch with the environment, all while becoming a better all-around person. Studies show that campers get better at responsibility, decision-making, social skills, and appreciation of natural surroundings. You make new friends, get to know other campers who are different from yourself, feel good about yourself, and do things that you might have been at first afraid to do!

Camp Kupugani / Camp White Eagle is less than a two-hour drive from Chicago, Illinois, and nestled within 126 acres of lush forests. We’re located in Leaf River, Illinois, alongside the Leaf River in the northwestern part of the state near Wisconsin and Iowa. The Leaf River is a tributary of the Rock River; via the Rock, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. Click here for a map!

Throughout the summer, northwest Illinois enjoys moderate temperatures with average highs ranging from the mid-70s to the low 80s. Occasional rain showers ensure lush green forests and fields while the regular warm sun-filled skies provide the perfect setting for playing in the waterfall or dipping in the pool. There are plenty of bright sunny days for activities of all sorts to take place around camp.

Girls

At our girls-only program, we’re able to address issues specific to girls and women. You can interact with women in positions of authority and have more opportunities to “be yourself” without having to impress the boys. Without those kinds of distractions, you can be more comfortable, focused, and establish more meaningful relationships. You’ll feel supported and safe, without the pressure and competition that might exist in a co-ed camp.

Plus, you get to try new things like dam jumping and rock climbing, develop positive relationships with other girls in your cabin groups and teams, and overall just have a space where “girls can be girls.” Free of any self-consciousness that might happen at school, other social settings, or at a co-ed camp, you get to concentrate on skill-building, personal growth, and having fun changing your world!

Blended

If you’d rather have girls and boys at camp at the same time, we do offer a separate blended camp session. Even though there’s much research to show the benefits of single-sex environments on a child’s confidence, self-esteem, social, and personal development, sometimes you want to have a camp environment that helps apply a full range of social skills to real-life situations. Kupugani’s blended session offers the best of both worlds. We aim to provide the same safe and supportive environment in a setting with girls and boys both present.

At Camp Kupugani, we focus on you as an individual, so we can give you the most rewarding, fun, and memorable summer experience possible. There are a ton of cool activities and great staff members. We strive to have fun and empower our campers, so if that’s what you want, please join us! You get to have a great time making fantastic new friends while reconnecting with old ones. You’ll enjoy activities like rock climbing, canoeing, playing under waterfalls, and night hikes under the stars, plus carefully designed group activities and games so that fun and personal growth coincide. At Camp Kupugani, you get to have fun changing your world!

There’s something here for every type of kid. All campers join our family environment in a community of big (and little) sisters and brothers, with available mentoring, traditions, and the opportunity to become a mentor in the future. At Kupugani, you’ll become part of an accepting and loving family of friends; there are activities that promote understanding and bonding, and the opportunity to form lifelong friendships.

If you’re seeking a leadership experience, here, you can branch out and become friends with a nice variety of people; you can learn more about yourself and others, all while having a great outdoor experience and expanding your horizons. There are activities that promote understanding of self and others, lifelong friendships, leadership skills inherent in building meaningful cross-cultural friendships.

If you’re someone looking for adventure, you can have a camp experience that keeps you on your toes; you can jam-pack your schedule full of outdoor adventures, with physical activities, ropes courses, other physical challenges—all done in a safe and supportive environment. If you’re somebody who’s sick of feeling like you have to be a certain way at school, here, you can explore exactly who you are and who you want to be—especially with activities that promote understanding of self and others and group bonding, and a nonjudgmental atmosphere.

If you’re somebody who just wants to relax and chill, you can have that too—126 acres of beautiful nature, a nice pool, the river and lake, sun, and fun!

Our staff members are carefully selected from hundreds of applicants from throughout the United States and all over the world. We offer positions to only those truly committed to being a teacher, counselor, mentor, protector, and friend to our campers. Our counselors love to play and have tons of fun and are great people to go to if you ever have something you want to talk about.

Our campers come from all over the country and the world! Campers have come from as far as Japan, China, Liberia, Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Germany, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Anguilla, the Bahamas, and Mexico, with others joining them from the Virgin Islands, California, Washington State, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Utah, New York, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Wisconsin, in addition to kids from right here in Illinois. Our campers’ ethnic backgrounds are a nice mix too–including Caucasian, African-American, Bi-racial, Hispanic/Latina, Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native American; our young people embrace identities from everywhere!