Camp Benefits

Empowerment Via Language

I had a prospective parent contact me earlier today, asking about the potential comfort level for her 12 year old daughter. They live in Costa Rica and her daughter speaks only Spanish with rudimentary English abilities. The daughter is excited to get fully immersed in a supportive, English-only environment to maximize her English-speaking. Because our summer camp program has a multicultural, empowerment focus, I felt comfortable relating to the mom that we have had campers of a variety of initial English-language comfort. A cogent example was when we had two […]

Accreditation by American Camp Association

The American Camp Association (ACA) is the largest accrediting body of camp programs in the country. Although many good camp programs are not ACA-accredited, one way folks can feel confident that their loved ones are in a safe and nurturing camp environment is to confirm the camp’s ACA accreditation. To achieve accreditation, camps must comply with many mandatory standards applicable to their specific programs. Accreditation visitors review up to 300 standards — regarding essential health, safety, and program quality issues important to a camp’s overall operation. There is an important […]

Camps Help Make Children Resilient

In a recent article published in the American Camp Association’s Camp Magazine, Dr. Michael Ungar, a professor of social work at Dalhousie University and scientific director of the Resilience Research Centre (go Canada!), discussed how camps, like good schools and loving families, immunize children against adversity by giving them manageable amounts of stress and the supports they need to learn how to cope effectively. Debunking the resilience myth that resilient individuals are those who overcome adversity because of special individual qualities, Dr. Ungar recognizes that studies from fields ranging from child development to […]

Encouraging Independence So Children Can Thrive

Steering Children Toward Healthy Risks Children need to develop a sense of independence to successfully navigate an increasingly complex world. As parents and youth professionals, we need to give them space to grow. But how to do that, given societal pressure on parents to obsess about perceived safety? How do we help parents overcome the pervasive culture of fear so that they can feel comfortable allowing children the opportunities to take on new situations? How do we facilitate children’s growth, via mindful risk-taking, to evolve into competent, independent adults? What […]

Our Camp Staffing Process More Selective Than Harvard

We’ve been enjoying a camp week with the 4H-ers at camp. Our camp staff is amazing, as expected, especially since they’ve been culled from almost 250 applicants. On top of their being just generally awesome, it’s fun to note that our staffing process is even more selective than Harvard. Its acceptance rate is almost 7%, while ours is approaching 4%.

Serious Responsibility of Caring for other Children

I had a couple of amazing moments earlier today–one a parent moment, and one a camp moment. During our staff training for rock climbing, led by our experienced instructors, Mico had his now annual opportunity to scale the limestone rock face. Belayed safely by a new staff member, he climbed his way to the top of the 50-ish feet limestone cliff, watched by smiling Mama and Papa. He was engaged and feeling great the whole way up, which was surpassed at the summit by his absolutely beaming smile and eyes […]

Empowerment Via Language

Accreditation by American Camp Association

Camps Help Make Children Resilient

Encouraging Independence So Children Can Thrive

Our Camp Staffing Process More Selective Than Harvard

Serious Responsibility of Caring for other Children

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