Dancing off into the sunset…we had a ball at CAMP! in 2024
With a full roster of campers and staff, we looked forward to an action-packed 2024 week of camp, buoyed by forecasted sunshine all week long. The lake and pool proved popular, amidst a myriad of fun and engaging activities created by our wonderful, talented volunteers who make this magical time together possible. We are so grateful for your support and dedication!
What can a camper experience at CAMP!? They might find a new favorite author, thanks to the generosity of CLiF (the Children’s Literacy Foundation), who supply the kids with two free books. They could learn how to shoot a bow and arrow for the first time. They might make a colorful tie-dyed creation. They could turn a wooden keychain using a lathe. One might learn a song in Spanish or build a sculpture from bread. There are strokes to master in the pool and paddle boards to balance on in the lake. Friendship bracelets and pendant necklaces become treasured keepsakes, as do garnet gems hammered out of rock or miniature figurines decorated with felt.
Each meal is a scrumptious, made-from-scratch bounty of healthy foods, some of which may be new to our campers. It’s a gargantuan effort to provide this amazing food for over 200 people, three times a day; we are so lucky to have Kitchen Director Ken Wyman and his rock-star team keeping us happily fed from sunrise to sunset. We are also grateful for the musicians who wake us up each morning and fill our days with the merry songs that stay in our heads throughout the year. (Mango, mango mango…) Above all else, there is an understanding at CAMP! that kindness is of utmost importance…we repeat this mantra throughout the week: we are kind to ourselves, we are kind to each other, and we are kind to camp.
After a day spent living camp to the max, after supper we present a different fun activity each night. On Monday, campers learned that Great Scott had “lost his groove”…but disaster was averted thanks to the Funky Bunch who taught campers some fabulous dance moves. That set the stage for Friday’s disco-themed carnival, a shimmering musical celebration to cap off the week. Campers chose their own adventure on Tuesday, with options like ultimate, karaoke, paddle board disco, magic tricks, and slack line. We were enthralled by storytellers Joy Smith, Michael Caduto, and longtime supporter Simon Brooks on Wednesday night. Thursday is spent hanging out with campers of the same age; many s’mores were consumed around campfires.
There’s no doubt this session of camp was both fun for campers and a ton of work – at times exhausting – for our beloved staff. We particularly owe a debt of gratitude to our Health Center team – Shelby Sullivan and Heather Fergerson – and our Head Counselors – Keegan Sullivan and Emily Gibbs – whose grace, determination, and love for our campers is an inspiration.
And then in a flash, the week is over. As daylight fades, the disco music stops and carnival concludes. Campers file into the auditorium to sing songs and shed a tear…or twenty…while Great Scott’s slideshow reminds us just how much we did over the past 6 days. Walking back to our cabins and tents for one more night under the stars, past glowing ice candles lighting the way, we hold a mountain of memories in our hearts. Next year is only 51 weeks away.
CAMP! brings joy to over 100 campers in a momentous 2023 session
The summer of 2021 was about making camp happen somehow, some way. In 2022 we returned to a more familiar schedule, while keeping camper numbers at 75% of normal. This year, we resumed hosting a full roster of over 100 campers, divided into 6 pods for the first time since 2019, along with a robust Teen Leadership Program. We were short a few staff members, and we certainly would have loved a lot more sunshine, but thanks to the immeasurable support of our dedicated, enthusiastic, and caring volunteers we ended the week on a high note.
Music was everywhere at camp, a treasured element of our week, including our morning wake-up band, singalongs at the Hearth, a ukulele Awesome Workshop, jug band Choice Workshops, a few spirited karaoke sessions, and then 7 pod songs and more at our closing assembly. We learned a few fun new songs in Spanish this summer to accompany our old favorites. Thank you to stalwart volunteers Ed Paquin, Alan Graham, and Gini Milkey – along with many others – for keeping the tunes flowing!
We were thrilled that our Environmental Science Director Emmi Saunders secured a visit from Little Ray’s Nature Centres to start off the week with a program featuring several live animals, including a snake, tarantula, hedgehog and armadillo. Needless to say, campers and staff were enthralled! Core programming also included our longtime partners at the Children’s Literacy Foundation bringing two books for every camper, and Art Director Kerry Gaj engaging our campers in creating a magical mascot for their pod. Aquatics Director Robyn Moore led a small but mighty team of swimming instructors whose efforts can impact our campers for life. The pool is popular from polar bear swim before breakfast right through evening when staff get a chance to swim under the stars.
Each day brought a new adventure for our campers. The Teen Leadership Program took to the climbing wall on Monday morning thanks to our hosts at Camp Farnsworth, the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. Boating on Lake Abenaki remained popular despite the rain, and you’re gonna get wet at Bilge Wars anyway! Thanks to Boating Director Loki Snook and her spirited crew for bringing the fun once again. Campers spent Monday evening on a scavenger hunt to save the CAMP! multiverse from becoming “boring,” but we know camp is never boring when Great Scott and Carnival Director Mason Rachampbell jump into character. Just a few of this year’s daily activities included archery, a multitude of arts and crafts, improv and role playing games, field sports, cheerleading, dance, bread making, and a very popular pen turning project with a lathe donated for the week by new staff member Bob Robinson.
Our annual Wednesday Storytelling Night was organized once again by our dear friend Simon Brooks, featuring the return of the exhuberant Andrea Kamens, and in her first visit to CAMP!, the delightful Joy Smith. We are so grateful for the time this talented trio dedicated to sparking the imagination of our campers and staff alike. Friday’s Carnival, organized by Mason and the Teen Leadership Program, took place indoors to save our soggy feet but once again delivered a fun-filled evening for our campers. A plentitude of the best pizza you can find anywhere capped off a week of wonderful and nutritious made-from-scratch meals from our beloved kitchen crew. Campers all received a backpack full of school supplies, thanks to a donation campaign by board member Melanie Kenton, and a new Vermont Teddy Bear in a CAMP! T-shirt, thanks to the efforts of Pod 4 Director Brad Boquet.
The feeling at the end of camp is hard to put into words. We are both energized and exhausted, happy for what we accomplished and sad because it’s over. Great Scott’s annual slide show closes out an evening of music, laughter and hugs. The next day campers depart, then staff, after a herculean effort to clean up camp and move a truckload of supplies into storage in just a few hours. We return to our lives outside of camp but there’s always a part of camp that sings in our hearts. For all of us who “rise when the sun she rises,” our camp in “these Green Mountains” is truly home.
Our Volunteers Make The Magic Happen Again: CAMP! in 2022
This year, it really felt more like CAMP! After missing 2020 and restructuring our schedule for 2021, this summer’s CAMP! returned to a familiar pace. And we couldn’t have done it without a dedicated group of over 80 volunteers who shared their time, their energy, their talents, and their caring spirit with the 81 campers who gathered in Thetford during the third week of August. We are ever grateful for all that our staff give to camp, and for our donors who give funding, services or supplies. The magic of camp can only happen because of you!
After a whirlwind staff training, campers arrived bursting with spirit on August 14th. Grouped into four pods and our Teen Leadership Program, they got to know each other and their enthusiastic counselors and programming staff through games and core programming activities over the first day and a half. Campers experienced an introduction to art, natural science, boating, and swimming, while also receiving two brand new books, thanks to our cherished long-term partners at CLiF, the Children’s Literacy Foundation. Our CAMP! musicians led us through songs new and old, while our fabulous kitchen staff filled bellies with nutritious and delicious food, much of it locally-sourced. Watching over it all, our health center staff helped us stay safe and healthy.
Campers choose most of the activities they participate in throughout the week, led by staff members who dream up fun and diverse program offerings. No week at camp is complete with a session of bilge wars in canoes, or creating something special in the art room, like a colorful tie-dyed shirt, a rubber band bracelet, or a marvelous mask. We had archery at the range, sports on the field and yoga on paddle boards. Tiny terrariums captured a wee bit of the forest while pirates practiced their “yarrrrrs.” There were board games, Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and improv games that kept campers thinking – and laughing – on their feet.
We learned all about trees while keeping Paul Bunyan at bay during Monday Night’s activity with our dining hall tables. Wednesday was Storytelling Night, thanks to our longtime friend Simon Brooks, the return of Vermont legend Tim Jennings, and our new friend Andrea Kamens. Friday featured the egg drop challenge followed by our signature carnival. Organized and built by our Teen Leadership Program, it’s a whirlwind of games, pizza and ice cream that helps close out the week, in tandem with our final assembly where we sing songs, laugh and cry, and look back at the week through Great Scott’s touching annual slide show. Walking out into night, past the flickering ice candles, we hug and hold tight to the memories of another magical week, all made possible by our loving volunteers. Thanks again, and see you in 2023!
It All Came Together for a Joyful Week: CAMP! 2021
Should it happen? Could it happen? Would it happen? It was difficult to miss our in-person week of camp in 2020, but we know it was the right decision. Throughout the winter, a committee of the CAMP! Board of Directors met regularly to determine whether and how we could hold camp in 2021. Amid positive trends in the course of the pandemic this spring, and with favorable guidance from the state of Vermont, the Board voted to move forward with an in-person session, at about 75% of our usual capacity. Throughout the summer, weekly planning sessions covered all aspects of how we could safely provide our program. We modified our pod structure, daily schedule, meal planning, arrival/departure, and more, with an eye toward keeping the spirit and feel of camp intact while staying staff. Then came the delta variant, and a worrying rise in cases. We redoubled our efforts to keep safe, and moved ahead with our plans, knowing how much this week could mean for our campers.
An all-vaccinated staff began to arrive on Friday the 13th – a date which proved most fortunate – with a negative COVID test in hand. Over the weekend our staff prepared to safely welcome our campers. On Sunday, they arrived! We asked their parents to drive them this year, and we swiftly conducted COVID-19 PCR tests before sending them off to have fun with their pods. Volunteer Steve Kenion drove up from Boston to pick up the tests and get them to a lab in Cambridge that evening. By Monday night, they all came back negative! Campers stayed with their pods through Tuesday, and ate all their meals with their pod throughout the week. We held most activities outdoors and everyone stayed masked when indoors. Thanks to the Pomfret Fire Department, we had a nice big tent to hold some programming in. We are grateful to our hosts, Camp Farnsworth of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, for providing a facility with so much open space for outdoor fun.
Thanks to our talented program staff, and to our patient and creative camp counselors, the first few days featured fun activities in our core focus areas. Campers took swimming lessons in the pool and splashed about the lake in canoes, kayaks and paddle boards. Outdoor music sessions featured songs both silly and soulful. Campers had fun learning about plants and bugs, and making artistic creations in the ever-popular art room. We were thrilled to welcome back Duncan McDougall from the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), with stacks and stacks of books from which our campers selected two to take home.
Campers chose from a diverse catalog of activities for much of their day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Returning favorites included archery, paddle board yoga, chopsticks, gems, and egg protectors and flubber. Tie-dye became a three-day activity and included special night sessions for staff. Campers strummed ukuleles on the porch and Quidditch returned to the lake. Among our new additions for 2021, campers created fabulous monsters in the art room, played battleship in canoes, made hummingbird feeders and crafted turtles from yarn. We’re grateful for our all the work our counselors and program staff put into these fun and engaging activities!
Special events this year included our annual Storytelling Night on Wednesday. Our friend Simon Brooks was under the weather but recorded a special video for our campers, and we were excited to welcome Papa Joe in person. Friday evening’s Carnival was extra special this year, as it was largely planned out, constructed, and staffed by our Teen Leadership Program (TLP). This group of over twenty teens were instrumental to our camp program this year, setting tables for every meal, cleaning up the dining hall, and helping out with Awesome Workshops. Carnival gave us a chance to celebrate their help and accomplishments. The night ended with funny and poignant songs, Great Scott’s annual slide show featuring every camper and staff member, and a new CAMP! film by Tony Bacon in which campers and staff shared thoughts on a hard year and what it meant to have camp in person this summer. Campers walked home in the glow of the ice candles and held tight to their memories of the week.
It took a mighty effort, but what a reward…CAMP! 2021 was one we’ll never forget. In this challenging time, we are so grateful for our passionate volunteer staff members, donors, and camper families who made this week possible for 81 children. We miss you, we are already planning for 2022, and we can’t wait to see you all again in the summer air, beside the lake, in these green mountains we call home.
A Taste of CAMP! in 2020
In May of 2020, our Board of Directors made the difficult decision to cancel our in-person week of camp for this year. While we were sad to miss seeing our campers in person, our counselors and staff got together to think about what we could do instead. Of course, there’s no substitute for the real thing, and we knew we couldn’t replicate camp and send it off to each camper. But, we found some ways to give campers a taste of CAMP!…something to remember their time with us in years past and to help you look forward to years ahead.
About a week before camp would have begun, our campers received a “CAMP! In A Backpack,” stuffed full of fun activities and supplies by our counselors and staff members, with help from generous donors.
As every year, there was a Core Nature Activity (mini greenhouses) and Core Art Activity (decorate an image of your hand). We also had several cool Choice Activities to explore. Some of these activities had accompanying videos to better help explain them, on our CAMP! YouTube channel.
Head Chef Alison prepared ingredients and recipes to make oatmeal and pancakes, and campers received their own little jar of maple syrup to pour on them!
CAMP! songs and stories are such an important part of our week. We included a songbook, and camp staff recorded several videos of songs. Some of these were edited to include images from camp thanks to Brad Boquet, and all are available on our YouTube channel. Our backpacks also included a CD of stories from Simon Brooks, and he recorded a special video of stories just for CAMP!. To watch, click this link: https://vimeo.com/448630261 and enter the password: CAMPEP2020! Thanks very much Simon!
Each camper received two brand new books thanks to our longtime partnership with the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF). We are grateful for their support! We couldn’t forget CAMP! Mail either…so campers found a few pieces addressed to them, thanks to our creative staff.
The backpack also included a bunch of school and art supplies, a cool picture of Great Scott to remind you of CAMP! throughout the year, and it wouldn’t be camp without a CAMP! T-shirt, this year signed by several staff members in advance on the back.
Our campers were welcomed to the week CAMP!, with their backpacks and videos to watch, with a filmed greeting from Great Scott and several counselors and staff, edited together by Tony Bacon, and available on our YouTube channel.
It wasn’t the same, for sure, but we hope this taste of CAMP! brought some fun, and some cool things to learn, but also that it reminded campers of the spirit of camp, the spirit of kindness that brings us together, with warm memories to lift you up when you’re down and know that you’ll be back at camp again in the future, and we are very much looking forward to that.
CAMP! 2019 sails off into the sunset
The tide started to roll in on Friday…a tide of almost 100 volunteers who shipped out to Thetford, VT to provide a boatload of fun and meaningful experiences for 110 deserving campers in August of 2019. Much preparation ensued over the next 48 hours so this crew could set a course for a week’s magical journey to the land of CAMP! On Sunday afternoon the campers arrived, full of excitement, and sometimes a little trepidation. The crew knew what to do and with the wind in their sails, it was full speed ahead!
As part of our introduction to core activities, campers received a special treat this year – a traveling exhibition from Little Ray’s Nature Centres. Watching their eyes open wide at the sight of a tarantula – that they could touch! – and a boa constrictor named Julius Squeezer was a joy, but the showstopper was Flash the sloth, who chomped away on his sweet potatoes while we all looked on in awe. Huge thanks to Little Ray, Cameron McSheffery, and our own Environmental Studies Director Emmi Saunders for making this possible. Thanks as well to the Children’s Literacy Foundation for providing all our campers with two brand new books again this year, as well as the CAMP! library from which campers can check out books all week.
Monday evening was bound to be mythic, once Poseidon appeared and sent the campers on a quest to learn more about our oceans, while having a raft of fun. Tuesday night’s activities included waterborne quidditch (!), the making of friendship bracelets, hilarious improv games, and sugar cookie decorating (Eric’s favorite). We always look forward Wednesday’s Storytelling event, welcoming Simon Brooks, Odds Bodkin, and Karen Pillsworth back for a night of imaginative tales, music, and wonder. We feel so lucky and appreciative that they share their talents with us each summer! Thursday night is Pod Night, a time for canoe trips, campfires, games and more.
Every day campers participate in a myriad of activities that they have chosen to engage in. Arts and crafts keep the creativity flowing, from weaving and drawing to making shell wreaths and playing with oobleck (“ocean sand”). The pool is bustling from Polar Bear Swim and lessons in the morning to free swim in the afternoon and a popular staff night swim each evening. The action at the lake revolves around canoes and paddle boards, including the ever-popular bilge wars, and this year a band of pirates was sighted as well. Brand new this summer were 10 ukuleles that campers learned to strum, and which enhanced the sound of our morning and evening singing. CAMP! was also able to purchase new archery equipment this year (thanks to our generous donors!), heightening that popular activity for our campers.
Scrumptious and nutritious food made from scratch is a highlight each year and a hallmark of our program, with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and bread, pizza, and more baked on site. Kudos to Alison and her talented and hard-working kitchen crew! We also say thanks to the young leaders-in-training who make up our Teen Leadership Program for all they do to keep things clean around camp while learning life skills.
As Poseidon promised, our week came to a crescendo with a sea-themed carnival captained by Ken and his mischievous crew. We closed out Friday night with music, drama, laughter, and tears, including a dance through the sands of time (well, one week’s sands of time) with Great Scott’s annual slide show. Campers and staff hugged and said thanks for the week that was, and headed off into the night while the ice candles shimmered in the dark. We all received a special patch to remind us of CAMP! when the cold wind blows or when we just need a warm memory. As the tide rolled out and the campers and crew sailed off for another year, we hope the magic of this week left its mark on all involved, and we thank everyone who gave of themselves to make that magic happen.
A day in the life of CAMP!
by Melanie Kenion
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sunrise at camp, but I wake up early enough to listen to the morning sounds, the birds, perhaps a deer nibbling on the wet grass. Deep inside my sleeping bag, I enjoy the warmth, while the cool dawn air surrounds me.
At seven, the sound of the wake -up band emerges from the distance. Marching closer to our encampment, the melody of bugle, drum, maracas and more wake my sleeping girls. They stir in their bunks, and complain that the rousing is too early. Sliding to the floor, they pull on their clothes, not caring what is clean or dirty from days before. Some leave for the lake, an early morning swim or paddle awaits them. Others run from cabin to cabin yelling to friends missed during the night.
I head to the dining hall, rustic and majestic, still quiet before the room fills with campers. A mug of steaming coffee in hand, I find myself a spot. Counselors crowd the stairs and porch rocking chairs. We whisper morning greetings. Gathering with purpose, we watch the mist rise off the lake.
Campers, ready for breakfast, line up at the dining room door. Our work has begun. Grace is sung, “thank you very much for food and friendship”. Pancakes passed, milk poured, manners taught, tears wiped for some injustice remembered from the day before. Then, morning meeting over, we walk the path back to the cabins, stopping to admire a lily pad on the pond or brag about an arrow shot at archery. We tackle morning chores; cabins swept, compost toilets scrubbed, toothpaste rinsed from the sinks.
Soon enough girls and boys scatter, excited that the day’s chosen activities await. Who will learn to bake bread, eat with chopsticks, canoe, and craft ? Who will make fire starters, bottle rockets, and walk through the woods looking for bugs and edible plants? The morning flies by, followed by lunch, much needed rest time, swimming, and more. Skits and dance routines are practiced, ready for the evening meal, but counselors are looking for a second wind for what follows. I look forward to the comical evening announcements, and familiar songs sung around the hearth. The nighttime activities vary, campfires and storytellers, a camp wide scavenger hunt, evening swims, and the culminating carnival.
As evening draws, my girls tumble into bed, still chattering with the news of the day; who skinned their knee, talked to a boy, swam to the raft. Who missed their home? I open a book, turn on my flashlight, and crack the page. Silenced descends in the now dark cabin. I read to my girls until their breaths grow rhythmic and soft. I close my eyes and join them in sleep
Dreaming of CAMP! 2018
It starts with a bunch of volunteers arriving from far and wide over the course of a hectic weekend. There is a storage unit to unpack, a kitchen to organize, programming to prepare, and a lot of catching up among friends. The energy is extraordinary. And then, on Sunday, the campers burst from their buses into a wonderland that our camp staff members have created in just 48 hours. The magic of CAMP! 2018 unfolded over a hot, humid, and sometimes rainy week but nothing could dampen the fun and the fellowship.
The week began with an introduction to several core activities, including a presentation from the Children’s Literacy Foundation where our campers each received two books. Thanks to CLiF and to author Doug Wilhelm for your efforts to inspire a lifetime of reading. On Sunday evening, campers chose their Awesome Workshops, an activity they participate in each day. Our talented staff presented such fun and creative options as waterborne quidditch, archery, making your own board game, fire building, bread making, beaded characters, tang soo do, and much more.
Our dining hall families hunted for the “Dream Weavers” on Monday night, under the watchful eye of the Sand Man, who just needed to get some rest. Tuesday night’s activities included an “Escape from Alcatraz” live-action role play, the ever-popular Hunger Games, crafting of dream catchers, a GPS quest, and learning how to twirl batons, among others. There was much anticipation for Wednesday’s Storytelling event, when we were again incredibly fortunate to host Simon Brooks, Odds Bodkin, and Karen Pillsworth, whose spellbinding tales inspired our campers’ imaginations into the dark of night.
Our focus on nature and art programming provides campers with a chance to learn about the natural world and create all manner of beautiful things. In the summer heat, you can’t beat being at the pool while learning to perfect your backstroke, or getting the hang of using a paddleboard on the lake. Campers played ultimate, soccer, gagaball and more. They went off into the woods as Nature Detectives, and splashed about in canoes for Bilge Wars. They watched feathers come together into a pair of colorful wings, and they rewarded each other for acts of goodness and kindness. Pod Night featured such fun as fire on the water, songs around a campfire, and a spa and dance party. All week long we ate a bounty of nutricious and delicious food thanks to the incredibly hard-working kitchen crew, and we marveled at our Teen Leadership Program who kept everything clean while learning about what it takes to be a leader at camp.
A dreamy carnival helped close out the week, once again created from scratch by Carnival Ken and his merry magic makers. We ended Friday night with dance, drama, laughter, and music, plus a look back at the week in Great Scott’s signature slide show, featuring photos from Owen Leavey and Brad Boquet. Tears and hugs reminded us of how special CAMP! is for all involved, and when we pin this year’s camp memento close to our heart, we are transported back to a time and place where dreams come true.
Time Travel Back to CAMP! 2017
It is hard to believe that after months of anticipation leading up to this year’s CAMP!, our special week is now history for the 27th time. Once again we are indebted to a our tremendous group of volunteers, partners, and donors who make camp possible.
There is always tremendous enthusiasm when the buses arrive and the campers get off to join their pods. The week holds so much promise! We were fortunate to receive two books for each camper from the Children’s Literacy Foundation once again, and we thank author Marv Klassen-Landis for helping with the CLiF program. On Monday night the campers helped “Doc” search for the Flux Capacitor, and we met a talented bunch of time travelers along the way. Pods took to the fields, the dance floor, the forest, and the lake on Pod Night. We marveled as three fabulous storytellers spun tales both poignant and funny; a huge thanks to Simon Brooks, Odds Bodkin, and Karen Pillsworth for volunteering your time on Storytelling Night.
All week long there was fun in the pool and boating on the lake. The art and nature rooms were popular destinations to check out cool bugs or make some camp mail. Campers learned how to make fire with flint and steel and to put fire out with a fire extinguisher. Arrows and spears flew threw the air and chopsticks picked up tiny grains of rice. We learned about the sticky, slimy side of nature and we exercised our minds and body with Tang Soo Do. There was tie-dye and flubber, friendship bracelets and much, much more.
The rains couldn’t dampen our annual Egg Drop and our Time Travel-themed Carnival was just as fun indoors. Cheers to all who stepped up to make it magical. Our Friday night ended with song and dance, drama and comedy, Great Scott’s ever-popular slide show of a wondrous week, and the premiere of the third CAMP! movie, produced and directed in just a few days by Tony Bacon. There were tears, but then there were Flux Capacitors for everyone, so that we could time travel back to the week that means so much to all of us. As we set off into the night amidst the glowing ice candles, the memories were warm and the love was real.
Another Amazing Week…CAMP! 2016
While CAMP! 2016 came and went in a flash, we will hold on to our memories for months to come. A huge thank you to our volunteers, partners, and donors who made our 26th week of camp possible. Check out our 2016 CAMP! slideshow, and visit our Facebook page for more remembrances and to share your thoughts.
We chuckled at the “Evil Dr. No Fun” tooling around in his golf cart. And we loved how the heroes hugged him with kindness. We launched water balloons to an impressive distance and we scrunched our faces at the taste of “interesting” jelly beans. We marveled at the fabulous CAMP! News and all its special effects. We cheered for the dancers and the thespians, and we sang song after song, from morning to night.
Big thanks to Alaina Pinto from Local 22 and Local 44 for visiting us on Wednesday morning, and to the talented storytellers Simon Brooks, Odds Bodkin, and Angela Klinger for captivating us with your wondrous tales on Wednesday night. We were fortunate to receive two books for each camper from the Children’s Literacy Foundation once again, and we thank author Marv Klassen-Landis for helping with the CLiF program.
We’ll remember lots of fun in the Gagaball court, watching a floating camp fire, and setting rockets off into the sky. Teenagers tackled the climbing wall and just about everyone made it to the brand new pool. There were dance parties, drama games, and sports galore. The art room was abuzz with activity, with projects like stuffed animal making, tie-dying T-shirts, the ever-popular flubber, and a myriad of others. Plus, who can forget seeing the hand prints of all the campers come together in the dining hall.
It was a magical week, once again, and we’ll think of it often while leaves change color, snow flakes fall, and sap boils, until summer brings CAMP! back to us in 2017.
How Do I Love Thee: Let Me Count The Ways
(or 7 Things CAMP!ers Love About CAMP!)
by several dozen campers as told to Scott Moore, Managing Director
CAMP! is not just a summer camp. I say this to people all the time: there is a sense of wonder and magic about the place that is hard to capture in words. This year will mark my fifteenth year as a counselor at Camp Exclamation Point (CAMP!). Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes will know of my love and passion for the work and fun we create at CAMP! And yet sometimes I find it difficult to describe.To help me out, I asked current and past campers and counselors (including counselors who had been campers in their day). Here is some of what they had to say, in no particular order.
1. CAMP!ers love CAMP! energy from the very first day:
My favorite memory would be the first time that I stepped off the bus back in Pod 2 [my first year at CAMP!] and how the energy that hit me felt really good.
As a camper walking off the bus I remember being afraid of being different, of not knowing anybody, and of being unsure what to do. [And] then walking off into the crowd of smiles and happy faces as a camper, or [later] being a part of that crowd as a counselor and inviting new children into the family, showing them what camp is about, and helping them find the activities that call to them the most.
Seeing all of those kids come off the bus each year, or being a part of that group of children, each has its own sense of wonder, of family, of excitement and good times to come.
[The best thing is s]eeing everyone getting off the bus at the beginning of the week.
2. CAMP!ers love activity choices:
[I loved best] being a Dolphin [most advanced swim class] with Alexis my first year. I thought it was great because it was just me and my cousin in our own little group.
Running around playing kickball and other games outside.
3. CAMP!ers love being silly (we can’t lie: even very silly):
Staying up after hours and playing spoons with the other counselors, singing songs, being a lifeguard and watching the children become more comfortable with the water, seeing all the little girls squeal when you came down with a green face mask on.
When I was a CAMP!er, [what I loved the most was] the original Super Hero group — the thing we did every day for an [Awesome Workshop] activity — or the lake swim or working for the CAMP! Magazine.
When I was in the Super Hero [Awesome Workshop]: that was fun!
4. CAMP!ers love doing all those quintessential camp things:
When I was in the Teen Leadership Program, [I loved the] tree house, s’mores, and night swimming.
When I was a Counselor, [I loved] having the girls all want to sit with me and get piggy packs and look up to me. Great feeling I’ll never forget.
Last summer for [group] night, the Teen Leadership Program went night swimming. That was so fun!
5. CAMP!ers love music:
[I remember m]y counselor singing us to sleep with her guitar.
[I remember t]he first time I saw all the campers and counselors sing Country Life together.
Singing the songs is the best thing.
6. CAMP!ers love joy:
I loved seeing joy on kid’s faces as they experienced things they never had [experienced] before.
7. But more than anything, CAMP!ers love the community we all are part of:
Alright, where to start: with the freshest first. My favorite part of CAMP! is the loving sense of community and the bonds you build over just one short week. After years of being away from CAMP!, I was offered a position to come back as a staff member. Kids I’d gone to camp with, as well as counselors that had been there when I was attending myself, all remembered who I was and welcomed me back like I hadn’t missed a beat.
[I love best] hanging out with the friends I met there and to meet new CAMP!ers every year!
I think my most favorite memory of CAMP! was going home after my first week and crying. I know it seems strange, but it’s my favorite memory because I’ve never had such a strong emotional attachment to any place. Before that week at CAMP! it was hard for me to express myself and to accept love from others. It was that week that helped me come out of my shell.
There you have it. And this is just some of the memories of the hundreds of people whose lives have changed for the better because of CAMP! Stay tuned for our next installment of memories at CAMP! when we post again.
What I Learned From A Bunch of Kids and the Random Spider
by Scott Moore, Managing Director
When I was in third grade I misunderstood an assignment. The class was learning how to write in cursive. This was only the second time we were expected to use cursive and this new and different writing style was not yet second nature to me. Instead of using the looping, gliding, connective grace that bonded letter to letter in a synergy of literary accomplishment, I — gasp — printed.
The rest of the class had to walk past me to turn in their finished work. In my memory, as they filed by and saw me reworking my sheet, each of them uttered their own version of, “Shame!” Looking back now, I wish I could have handled their looks and snickers with a calm, level-headed, mature-for-my-seven-years-of-age flair.
Alas.
Instead I gripped the sides of my desk with white-knuckled fury and flipped it with a howl of anguished outrage.
Not surprisingly, my teacher noticed my discontent and came to my side to see what had transpired. Through my tears and sob-wrenched speech she was able to make out that I was upset. She asked what had upset me. Them, I said: the other kids. They did it. With their shaming and their pointing. They made me sad, mad, and made me flip my desk, they did!
I wish my seven-year-old self had known what I have learned since becoming involved with Camp Exclamation Point.
CAMP! is a week-long residential summer camp in Vermont, where 100+ amazing kids and quite a lot of wonderful adults come together every year. At CAMP!, we operate through Choice Theory Psychology, an explanation of human behavior developed by Dr. William Glasser, M.D.:
“A central aspect of Choice Theory is the belief that we are internally, not externally motivated. While other theories suggest that outside events “cause” us to behave in certain predictable ways, Choice Theory teaches that outside events never “make” us to do anything.”
To put it another way, life gives us information. What we do with that information is up to us.
That simple insight is something I now use every day. For example, when I am on the phone with a client, and they don’t love my work, I have choices. I can fly off the handle and lose a client, or I can choose to look for the reason we don’t see eye-to-eye: miscommunication, shortcuts, different assumptions about the work. I now understand I don’t have to choose to have my emotional strings pulled and shaped by others. I now know that I can choose how I react to any information presented to me.
Yes, CAMP! is an overnight summer camp with swimming, canoeing, friendship bracelets, campfires, arts and crafts too. But it is so much more than that. That regular summer camp stuff is like the block printing I mastered by third grade. CAMP! is the cursive I had yet to learn. It is a magical blending of a volunteer staff guiding and shaping and growing the leaders of tomorrow and the wide-eyed hope of eager young minds. The cohesiveness of cursive holding letters together in the same way that campers learn to support each other. We teach the campers to have a self-confidence and grace in the same way that the elegance of cursive letters hearkens back to a more sophisticated time. And as we brace ourselves for spiders and all the other good stuff that comes with camp, we, the adults, learn with them.
CAMP! is more than just a summer camp. Stay tuned and we will tell you all about it.
What a week – CAMP! 2015
Memories of our spectacular 25th summer keep us smiling all winter long! A hot air balloon glowing at night. Three captivating storytellers. 25 years of T-shirts hanging in the dining hall. Finding the Knights of the Round Table. Hot summer afternoons spent on the waterfront. Singing “Mango, Mango, Mango” and “Country Life.” All of camp decked out in tie-dye. A fabulous hand-made medieval carnival, with a visit by the dragon. And no better way to remember it all than by watching the CAMP! Movie (hooray, Tony Bacon!) and the 2015 CAMP! slide show (way to go, Scott Moore!). Check out our facebook page for pictures and more.
Camp was made possible by over 80 talented volunteer staff members who created magic for our almost 100 campers. We were thankful for the participation of CLiF, donating books to all our campers, as they have for over a decade. We were also honored again by the presence of three wonderful storytellers for our campfire story night – Simon Brooks, Odds Bodkin, and Papa Joe (who filled in for Angela Klinger). A big thanks to Camp Farnsworth in Thetford, VT, operated by the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, for their hospitality.
