THREE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT CAMP
We are only a couple of months away from my favorite time of year --- CAMP TIME! The excitement bubbles up in me when the snow starts to melt, the ground starts to warm up and the trees start getting leaves. It’s now when parents really start to wonder, what will their children do this summer besides telling them, “they’re bored” in the first week of Summer break.
With enrollment growing every day and as our Camp T team is preparing to HOST the BEST camps ever, I have a few minutes to reflect on WHY I get so excited for camp.
SLOWING DOWN
First, during a school year, kids are super busy trying to juggle homework, extracurricular activities, friends, chores and family obligations. COVID brought on even more stress with them trying to figure out how to navigate online learning, quarantining, and how to keep social connection with friends from afar. All of this creates STRESS and sometimes we, as adults, don’t even realize the gravity of this because we have our own stress too.
The camp environment allows kids to BREATHE in the fresh air. Campers get to create new social connection in a judgement free zone. They get to be themselves and not worry what others think. Their obligations are reduced to having fun, dancing, and eating s’mores. We let kids be kids, period. It is a beautiful thing to be a part of! The days are full, but they are only filled with FUN!
BREAKING A SWEAT
I also love that we keep kids MOVING and GROOVING the entire time they are at camp. We don’t sleep in. We create an awesome schedule that has kids on their feet all throughout the days and nights to get in every FUN activity we have planned for them! As adults, we sometimes forget that kids have a LOT of energy to burn and helping them do that in the summer, outside of school, has my heart FULL! It is so cool to see kids OFF of their phones, walking a nature path, summer tubing down big, fun hills, taking hip hop, jazz and tap all in the same day! What’s even better, is they do this ALL with smiles on their faces and sweat on their brow!
FINDING INSPIRATION
Something magical happens at camp that I really haven’t seen in many other environments. I try to explain this when a new family calls to consider camp but it is really hard to do. It is something that people just have to trust me on.
EVERYONE who comes to camp, leaves camp as a different, better, person!
EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.
A transformation begins about Day 2 where confidence is gained. New friends are everywhere. The realization that the world is BIGGER than our home towns happens. We witness greatness amongst our peers. We take a class with a teacher who moves us to tears. We participate in life development workshops where we tap into our TRUE souls. We dance our hearts out. We get lost in the starry mountain sky. As camp nears its end, we can’t imagine going back into our “normal” worlds because of all of the connections we have made.
At camp’s conclusion, we host a Tunnel of Love where each camper gets to come through one by one to talk to every single staff member. During this “tunnel walk” the staff get to share their personal thoughts about the camper’s growth as a dancer and as a human while they have been at camp. It is truly one of my favorite parts of camp. Here, campers are seen for WHO they are and we send them out of the tunnel back into their lives FULL of their own GREATNESS and FULL of inspiration to share with their own worlds at home until we see them again the next summer!
I am so grateful for all that happens at Camp Telaphiba! The staff, the campers and the magic is so special to me and I will continue, as leader, to ensure that every single person feels the way I feel about camp for as long as I am on this earth!