“That's actually the first place I sang when I was a really little kid. I was terrified and I really didn't want to go up on stage and sing but mom was good she said, 'Oh you have a really great voice. Go sing.' And so I did but I practiced by singing to the trees because it's like in the middle of nowhere in Upstate New York, so it's really quite beautiful there. So it's kinda become my motto because of that one performance because of singing to the trees. Whenever I get nervous I pretend that I'm just singing to trees.”

This is the most intense moment in any dodgeball game. 

It's the moment when someone decides are they going to go for it? hang back and hide? hang back and taunt?  There are fewer decisions in a camper's day that are so telling.

No - Not really!  But I'm not too far off.

I honestly believe the secret to my summer camp's success is that we engage everyone. 

Throughout everyday we try to make sure everyone (campers and staff) feel engaged and welcomed.  Travis Allison from CampHacker recently posted a brillant interview with Joanna Warren Smith pleading for camps to fully engage their campers.

The 8-10 year old children in this video are playing a heavy metal song about dealing with your fears.  They would totally fit in my camp!  These kids would have a standing encore from the entire dining hall.  

Please don't mis-read this post.  I'm not saying my camp is into heavy metal. 

What my camp is into is celebrating every camper's achievements.  Five children coming together as a team to put on a performance for an audience, in addition to learning such a complicated musical piece, is a huge achievement. 

Would your camp celebrate this? If not, I hope you have a good answer as to why.

I noticed they had a few qualities in common.  One was how their campers were able to leave their mark in the cabin.  Both camps allowed each cabin group to make a sign for their session.  Those signs decorated and painted by campers, hung proudly each cabin.

Campers must love coming back after a long school year to find their name on last year's cabin  untouched.  They had campers decorate on a separate piece of wood to hang in cabin so it wouldn't just appear like grafitti.  

It's a tradition I'm considering starting at my camp.  Do you let your campers leave their mark?

Chimney Corners

Camp Coniston

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting my notes from The Referral Engine by John Jantsch.  It’s a great book for camp professionals.  We all hope that our camper families and alumni speak about the importance of summer camp. 

The question though is presented in the first chapter, “The Realities of Referrals.”

Jantsch writes "This is somewhat puzzling. How can a business owner know that word of mouth is so powerful and then do so little to take advantage of it?" (11) 

Whenever you ask camp professionals, they all say their biggest marketing tool is their word of mouth.  It’s a simple concept: provide a great camp experience and your campers will bring their friends next summer.  How many camps though help and encourage families to send them new campers? How many use alumni, the people who are most passionate about their camp, recruit children to get the same experience? How many directors tell parents what to look for when picking a summer camp?  How many camps use their campers and parents words to promote what they are doing?

I submitted two pieces for this book.  One piece about how summer camps has been an expert in squashing bullying without knowing it.  The second piece was about how technology and camp can live together, but it is up to the camp director on how that will be achieved.  

Please check it out! 

Recently I was quoted in an article about Frost Valley YMCA in Hudson Valley Magazine's 2011 Summer Programs issue.  Here you go!

Frost Valley YMCA

Summer sleep-away camp holds a special place in the hearts and imaginations of many Americans. Even those who never attended have surely gotten the gist from movies like The Parent Trap, Camp Nowhere, or Little Darlings. In between arts and crafts and toasting marshmallows, there’s a lot of growing up that happens at summer camp, while the hijinks and heartbreaks of bunk wars and first crushes make for one-of-a-kind memories. Deep in the heart of the Catskills, Frost Valley YMCA has been providing these experiences to kids from the tristate area and abroad for more than 100 years.

As a YMCA camp, Frost Valley is based on shared principles of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility, in addition to abiding by its own credo of community, diversity, inclusiveness, and stewardship. According to Director of Camping Services Dan Weir, besides hosting children from various socioeconomic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, the camp accepts those with developmental and learning disabilities, and with high-maintenance medical conditions. “We accept all kids,” he says, “and that creates a really nice environment.”

Roughly 2,300 kids passed through a Frost Valley summer program last year. Sessions offered include a girls-only equestrian camp, a residential farm camp, and a teen adventure program. The sleep-away camp — which entails separate programs for grades two through seven and grades eight through 10 — runs in four two-week sessions. “It can take several days to get adjusted, so two weeks allows three to five days to settle in and then the rest of the time just flies by,” says Weir. Despite the large number of campers, Frost Valley provides an intimate experience by separating kids into “villages” — communities of cabins which each house eight to 10 children and two counselors. “The cabin counselors do everything with the kids,” says Weir. “They are the mother, father, caretaker, best friend. This structure gives camp a family feel, and also makes sure the campers are being supervised adequately.”

Frost Valley offers a wide variety of activities, including animal-interaction lessons, trail building, kayaking, swimming, hiking, and other sports. “We have something for every type of child,” says Weir, noting that there are also special music or theater endeavors. “The power of the residential camp experience is that you get to be what you want to be. You may feel pigeonholed at home, but you can start from scratch at camp.”

More than 70 percent of both staff and campers return to Frost Valley year after year, a statistic Weir happily touts. “There are amazing social skills that happen here. Kids make really strong, lifelong friendships,” Weir says. And he surely knows what he’s talking about. After all, he says, “I met my wife here.”