Life at camp centers around the core values of friendship, family, and tradition — and the international camp experience is no exception.

Whether campers come from abroad to experience American culture or come from local areas to experience the international camp lifestyle, summer camp has something to offer to everyone when it comes to experiencing a new culture. (And having a blast playing sports, singing around the campfire, and playing around on the lake of course!)

Values in common

International campers may come from countries as diverse as England, France, Spain, Italy, China, Korea and many more, but they all come to camp for the same thing: a traditional American experience that they’ll never forget.

International camp counselors place an emphasis on learning to appreciate the things that are different about the various cultures that arrive at camp, but they also place an emphasis on the things we all have in common.

We all love family. We all love to laugh. And the first time singing around the campfire is magical for everybody — no matter whether they’ve seen a campfire, marshmallows, or fireflies before.

Fun: the universal language

While English is the common ground for international campers, it’s always fun when campers are able to experience a new language, or even find someone who shares their mother tongue to joke around with. “Oh, you speak Spanish too!”

American experiences

Something that draws many international campers all the way to North America is the promise of a traditional American experience… but of course once they’re here, the cultural exchange goes both ways!

When it comes to American traditions, it’s hard to find something more quintessential and unique than summer camp. From raising the flag in the morning to singing goofy songs around the dining hall at dinner, what seems normal and routine to returning American campers is exotic and fascinating to campers from Europe and Asia!

Thanks to the amazing community of counselors and decades of tradition, no international camper returns home without a few amazing stories to tell.

Campers with culture!

Friendship knows no borders. As connected as the modern world is, it’s surprisingly easy to remain out of touch with peers from other cultures.

International camp gives young people the chance to reach out and make contact with new friends from places they might not otherwise even think about — expanding the horizons of every single camper that participates in an international camp.

Passport to fun times

Whether you make new friends overseas, have a fun time guessing each other’s accents, or just learn a word or two in Spanish of Italian, international camp makes incredible memories for everyone that comes out to partake in the camp lifestyle.

…You may not need a passport to get here, but you’re guaranteed to have an international experience!

The post Friendship Without Borders: A Day in the Life at International Camp appeared first on Camp Weequahic.

Whether it’s a dance, an evening of games or a scavenger hunt, it’s important to dress for the occasion and costumes are often encouraged. Acceptable attire often includes tutus, crazy hats or wigs, temporary tattoos and face or body paint. When competition is involved, dressing in team colors is also a must. Friends or even entire bunks/cabins often try to mirror each other with matching outfits, and showing team spirit typically becomes a competition within a competition. Clever cheers (often involving inside camp jokes), singing, and loud encouragement provide the soundtrack to a night of activities designed to help everyone let loose, be themselves, and, most importantly, have fun. So what is the point of so much silliness after a full day of activities? It’s simple. Play. Play has long been touted by child psychologists as crucial to social and cognitive development. At camp, however, the kind of play that happens during evening activities takes on a much bigger role as an avenue for inspiring campers and staff alike to embrace camp values and put them into action.

At least one of these three key words consistently appears in camp mottos: “tradition”, “family”, “friends.” All three are emphasized during evening activities at camp. Whether it’s to win a competition or a race, playful evening activities are a fun way for campers to come together as a family to achieve a common goal. More importantly, individual age divisions often spend time together during evening activities. During the day, campers go in many different directions, depending on their interests and program schedules. In the evenings, however, they come back together as a group. In the midst of lighthearted moments, friendships are born and strengthened.

Sleepaway camp traditions don’t begin and end with campfires and sing-alongs. They are evident—or sometimes born—ineven the wackiest moments of evening activities. Those activities become perennial favorites to which campers look forward all year. They spend time during the winter contemplating ways in which they can enhance tradition and future memories by building upon previous experiences of those activities. They communicate with each other, brainstorm ideas and even make plans. In short, through play, campers take ownership of their camp experience as well as their camp traditions. In doing so, they embrace camp values.

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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 theirsecond 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, 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 Weequahic promotes three main values to each community member: Gratitude, Attitude, and Courage. We believe a gracious heart is a happy one. We believe that attitude is the only thing a person has complete control of in their life. And, we believe that confronting the fear one feels and doing the right thing anyway builds courage.

While we talk about these values at our weekly campfire, there is not a lot of overt GAC ‘speak’ each day. Rather, we take Oscar Wilde’s comment to heart: “Every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.”

Those ‘every little’ actions involve the campers who play, laugh, and learn at Camp Weequahic and, just as importantly, the staff who care for, teach, and guide them.

At Weequahic, we are mindful about the families who join our community. Surrounding our campers with other children interested in being at camp for the right reasons (grateful for the experience, excited to meet new friends, and open to building a great community) is enormously important.

Even more, it is critical for us to identify and hire staff members who already leading their lives in a GAC way. Why? While our nine day orientation is very effective in preparing our staff for campers, it cannot change their nature.

Our staff members’ character is nearly formed by the time they reach us. Therefore, we spend a great deal of time determining their values and learning about their daily conduct with and away from young people through the interview process. Once we have identified staff members who fit our culture, we then train and support them in the daily adventure of building children of strong character through playful mentorship.

Researchers have identified that a large portion of our young people do not place any value on ‘Values.’ Rather, they simply do what they have to in order to get what they want. At Camp Weequahic, we are proud to take an active role in combating this problem in our youth by teaching, in very fun little and daily ways, the GAC values.

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Everything I Need to Know in Life…I didn’t learn in a classroom or in a book.  I learned it at summer camp.  I learned….

• I can make good decisions for myself
• Living with other people requires compromise.
• Learning to say ‘I’m sorry”
• Making my bed every day
• Clean up my own mess
• Don’t overpack!
• Don’t take things that are not yours.
• Write letters. People still love getting mail.
• Trying new things is fun, even if they don’t turn out to be something you’d want to do everyday.
• Sometimes being able to laugh at yourself is the best medicine.
• Everyone should take the time to act silly —even grownups.
• It’s okay not to be the best at something as long as you try really hard.
• Just because you don’t succeed the first time, that doesn’t mean you should give up.
• It’s not so hard to smile and say ‘hi’ to someone you don’t know.
• New friends are great!  Old friends are the best!
• Traditions tie us to others forever, no matter where we are in the world or how much time has passed.
• You have the power to choose whether you have a good day or a bad day.  And even if your day doesn’t get off to such a great start, it doesn’t have to end that way.
• No one wins all of the time.  It’s what you take away from the game that matters.
• Having a routine is a really good way to stay organized.
• Words CAN be just as powerful as sticks and stones, so think about what you say to someone else before you say it.
• Judging people by what they look like or what they wear won’t get you very far in life, and you might miss out on some great friendships because of it.
• Cheering for others is just as fun as being cheered on.
• Every great thing comes to an end.  But the memories of it last a lifetime.

The world would be an awesome place if everyone went to summer camp!

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