Month: May 2014

Camp Friends

May 15th, 2014

Dictionary.com defines a friend as someone who is a “patron or supporter.” Whether you’re a child or adult, chances are that your friends are a crucial part of your life. Of course, there are different kinds of friends and some are closer than others. They’re all very special. However, there is one type of friend who is the most special — the camp friend. For those who have never experienced summer camp, it’s difficult to grasp the idea of forming a lifelong bond with someone with whom you spend time for weeks each summer. Yet, that is exactly what happens for the millions of campers who attend summer camp each year. There are many reasons why the summer camp environment actually facilitates friendship.

Camp is a 24/7 environment

Children don’t have play dates at camp where they meet someone for a few hours and then return home. Campers play together, eat together and live together. They have constant contact, which psychologists say leads to an open environment, conducive to making friends. The more time campers spend with each other, the more they get to know each other, and the less they feel the need or desire to shield aspects of themselves from each other.

Camp is a common experience

Common experience is another crucial element to friendship bonds, and camp friends are special because they share a very special commonality. The things that happen during those weeks at camp each year are shared by a realtively small circle of campers who attend a respective camp. .

Camp develops shared traditions

By attending summer camp, campers develop shared traditions. Camp traditions bond children to each other. They add a sacred element to friendship. Much like sorority or fraternity membership develops friendships leading to a lifelong network, so to does summer camp.

Camp encourages socialization

Camp encourages interaction. Too often, an inhibitor to those who have trouble making friends is a lack of social maturity. Whether it’s on a sports field or court, sitting at table in arts and crafts, enjoying a meal together, or relaxing in a bunk or cabin, the camp environment is social. Campers are not without adequate time for introspection, but the opportunity for learning how to be with other people is there.

Camp focuses on the positive

Summer camps focus on harnessing moments and making them special and fun, whether or not they are planned. Not only does this teach children to have a great amount of flexibility both individually and with each other, it teaches them to remain positive. Positivity helps children remain in an open and accepting frame of mind.

Camp friends are definitely some of the most special friends.  Friendships made in camp are bound by a commonality of experiences that may very well be cherished for a lifetime.

Camp Trips

May 13th, 2014

Campers love their camps.  They’re green, picturesque and they often feature facilities for just about any activity a kid can dream up. One thing campers also love, however, are camp trips. Camp trips are a lot like school field trips — only better.  Way better!  They’re a special time away from the daily routine. Campers get to board buses with their friends and go off on an adventure outside of the camp environment. Yes, playing by the camp waterfront with friends is a great way to spend a summer. But taking in a baseball game, visiting a local amusement park, or going bowling with them adds an extra element to the camp experience because it allows campers to do normal “friend things” with some very close friends who they often only get to see during the summer.

Rites of passage are a big part of camp and trips are among those rites. While all campers enjoy some of the same trip destinations throughout the summer, other places are reserved for campers of certain ages. In this respect, trips become a way for campers to mark time in their camp experience. An exclusive trip makes that specific summer unique because it’s the only summer a camper may go to a specific place..

Camp trips also help campers put their summer camp experience into perspective. Sure, they could do just about anything they do on a camp trip without having gone to camp, but doing them at camp makes them part of camp. And makes them very special.  And very fun! The memory of having done those things at camp makes these excursions even more special, which is likely why there is always a tinge of  excitement in the air on trip day.

Environmentally Friendly Noise

May 10th, 2014

Whether you’re a new or returning staff member who is preparing to work at camp this summer, the decibel level of those first few days at camp are always a bit above what you anticipate. Of course, we hear noise every day.  But camp noise is different than other noise. A camp staff member once relayed a memory of her first summer at camp. She recalled the shock of the day the campers arrived. ‘It was suddenly very loud,’ she said. ‘They don’t prepare you for that at orientation. Then again, there is probably no way they could.’ She is right. There is no way to describe what several hundred excited children who have been waiting for a moment for ten months sounds like. It’s certainly not noise pollution, though. It much more closely resembles environmentally friendly noise. It’s the noise of excitement, happiness and anticipation.

A strange phenomenon happens with environmentally friendly noise. You not only expect it, but anticipate hearing it every day. You don’t even realize how much you look forward to camp noise until the end of camp. When the buses pull away on the last day of camp, the quietness that settles over the campus is one of the saddest moments of the summer. You realize the kids are gone, and the summer really is over. Even after you return home, you find yourself wishing to hear the sounds that defined your summer–bugle calls to signal daily activities, constant cheering and laughter, mealtimes with hundreds of other people. Everyday noise just seems like noise pollution.