Want to succeed at summer camp? Preparation remains crucial

It is interesting to be interviewed by different writers for a variety of family publications and it seems like this has increased recently . Over the years, I must be in a number of rolodexes by now ---or address books or groups or whatever current terminology is for ‘find someone who knows something about this topic and get some quotes’. It is fun when some of our campers and families can get involved, which has happened several times this year. When you believe that summer camp is a valuable experience for young people, you welcome opportunities to help educate families on how to choose a camp and why go to camp at all. This isn’t just about going to Falcon but about finding the right camp for your family’s needs. If more families understood the value of what the camp experience does for you, everyone benefits. Falcon will get our share of campers because we’re good at it and we’re worth it. If you have had a great camp experience (even if it wasn’t at Falcon), tell people about it! You’ll be doing them a favor.

Please read the following article by Sue Hoffman, Want to succeed at summer camp? Preparation remains crucial to read more about the preparing for summer camp.

Camp Is Right Around the Corner!!!!

It’s hard to believe campers will be coming down the camp road in less than 80 days.  It’s even harder to believe the staff will be arriving in 70 days! Is summer ever going to arrive this year? As hard as it is to believe that summer is right around the corner and that it is actually spring, Dave, Nici and I are finishing up the last of our staff hiring.  

Time and time again I am asked as a Summer Camp Professional, what do you do all winter?  I jokingly say that I watch a lot of TV.  This year I say that I shoveled a lot of snow!  But the fact of the matter is that Dave, Nici and I spend a lot of time talking. (Sounds like tough work, doesn’t it?)  It’s not really tough work, but interviewing staff is a job duty we take very seriously. All of our staff receives an interview, even our returning staff. Technology has made it simple to speak with everyone and sometimes even see their smiling face. It seems obvious why we interview our new staff: we want to hear about why they think Falcon is the right place for them. We also ask potential staff about their values and whether they have ever been a positive influence in someone else’s life.

It is a little harder for people to understand why we interview our returning staff.  We do this for several reasons.  A large majority of our staff will work with us throughout their college career, graduate, and then look for a “real” job.  We believe that by having each staff interview each and every year, it is giving them a chance to practice their interviewing skills.  But more importantly, we like our staff a lot and it gives us a chance to catch up with them and hear about all the exciting activities they have been participating in since they left camp.

It’s an exciting time at camp right now! See you in a few months!

Camp Communication 2.0

I remember the plan. 

Step 1: The Letter

Use my favorite turquoise blue pen to ink a note to my best friend on the colored stationary I brought home from camp.  No letter was complete without some envelope doodles and Lisa Frank stickers.  The crucial part of the letter was to set the date and time for the phone call.

Step 2: The Call

Drag my ten foot phone cord into my room, slide it under the door away from potential eavesdroppers, and wait for the ring. The adventure of getting ready for the call was almost as exciting as the shrill bell. No matter what was going on at school or home, I was about to connect to "the friend."  That off white corded beauty transported me back to my bunk bed to lay awake telling stories, laugh with my friend, and feel comfortable in my own skin.

Step 3: The Consequences

Who could put a time limit on such an experience? We had so many things to discuss and debate. But the laughs were my favorite. This was the real friend laugh.  The ugly one with occasional snorts and spitting, the kind that overpowered the need to worry about what others.

My parents, however, had a different view of the experience.  To be fair, that view was the monthly phone bill. I knew the billing cycle and timed my calls accordingly.  All sleepovers and material requests completed in week one or two and Doom's Day was week four. But the extra chores were totally worth it.  By extra chores, I mean grass edged with a butter knife. 

How technology has changed my little world.  The constant bombardment of instant electronic communication has changed my lifestyle for the better. The internet allows me to reconnect with so many Falcon friends that my phone bill would not have previously allowed. A girl can only edge so much grass!  

Yet I credit the ability to reconnect with these camp friends to the unplugged Falcon experience. Falcon friendships are forged in the endless conversations, adventures, and mishaps that we shared together in our safe and sheltered home in the woods.  Experiences that extend far beyond a screen that taught us to embrace living and working together on the good and not to good days.  

I appreciate technology.  But I cherish the social foundation and lifelong friendships created at Falcon.

Choosing the Right Summer Camp

The longer I am a camp director and work with young people, the more convinced I am that a good camp environment is truly a tremendous addition in growing up. I’ve always known that but it seems to become more and more valuable in a pretty hectic world. To me, part of my job as a camp professional is to help families find the right camp for their children and not just push Falcon all the time. I probably spend as much time in the winter pointing families in directions I think are better suited to them as I spend in advocating for Falcon. Hopefully that results in more happy families and campers, certainly it is one of the reasons Falcon feels like such an easy community for campers to be comfortable.

Because of my efforts to discuss the value of summer camp rather than just sell Falcon, I’ve ended up on the contact list of a number of writers on staff of different parent magazines and other similar media. Occasionally you see a published article and find that Falcon is the feature storyline and that’s kind of fun to read. With this writer, we were talking about overnight camp in general and were discussing how parents could find the right camp for their child and I asked her if she wanted to speak with a few of my camp families about it. That pretty much veered her writing in a different direction as I got permission from the John Family as a first time camp family and the Faxon Family as an experienced Falcon Family for the writer to speak with them. It’s nice to see our families involved and it’s nice to get some positive media even if it wasn’t originally planned that way.

Click on the link to read the full article:

http://www.northeastohioparent.com/adventures-summer-camp-sweet-summertime-ritual-gets-creative/