Our pre-camp crew has been hard at work and the Camp Weequahic campus looks amazing! It’s not quite perfect, though, because you—our campers—aren’t here yet. Every day as we walk the campus, we think to ourselves that the only thing missing is our campers. As picturesque as our campus is, it’s our campers that make Camp Weequahic “Camp Weequahic.” Opening Day of the Tribal Session is only 18 days from now, however, and we absolutely can’t wait to hear the buses driving up the road. You’ll meet the awesome staff that we’ve assembled for the summer. You’ll walk into your Summer 2014 bunk for the first time. Then, together we’ll raise the flag for the first time for the summer of 2014. We’ll gather in the Dining Room for our first meal as a camp. And, for the next six weeks, we’ll swim, climb, sail, ski, tube, kick, bat, pitch, volley, skate, make, build, cook, sing, dance, flip, cheer, create, make new friends, putt, enjoy new adventures with old ones, and just about anything else we can think up or imagine.
Campers: June is finally here and you’re about to head off to camp for the summer. Whether this is your first summer or your seventh, it’s completely normal to be a whole lot excited and even a little bit nervous. This just HAS to be the best summer EVER…as in epic! But do you ever find yourself a little bit confused about how to make that happen? Here are a few ideas to help you out as you get ready for camp.
Make new friends
Of course your old friends are amazing. That’s why they’re your friends. But new friends are pretty great too. Make it a point to say ‘hello’ to people and introduce yourself to those you don’t know. Talk to other campers to find out what you have in common besides camp. Show support for other campers at activities.
Get involved in camp activities
There are so many awesome things to do at camp. Take advantage of the opportunity to get involved in them. Don’t just rely on favorites for your summer fun. Try some new things too. You’ll find that if you go to each activity—even those you don’t love—with a positive attitude and get involved, camp is even more fun.
Show your camp spirit
Camps rely on their campers to create a fun, energetic environment by showing their camp spirit. There’s a reason you count down the months and days each year until it’s time for camp and why YOUR camp is the BEST camp. Don’t be shy about showing it at camp.
Be your best self
Camp is the most fun for everyone when campers are positive, energetic, open and inclusive. There’s no need to make it like school where only certain types of people hang around together. If someone in your bunk or at your activity is shy, go out of your way to include them and take a leadership role in introducing them to others. If your friends try to say negative things about other people, change the subject or reply with a positive. Encourage others at activities, particularly those who struggle or who fear being made fun of. The more fun that everyone has together, the better camp is!
Keep an open mind
Sometimes, things at summer camp don’t go quite how you expected. Think before you react. Don’t let one bad activity, conversation or even day ruin your whole summer. Remember, it’s just one thing out of thousands that happen over the summer. Rather than dwelling on that one thing, shake it off and move on. If you do, you probably won’t even remember it by the end of the summer.
In just a few weeks, buses will arrive with Camp Weequahic campers and the summer of 2014 will begin. While thinking about how close we are to another camp season, we started wondering about summer camp in general. How many are there? How many campers attend summer camp each year? The more we wondered, the more we asked. In the end, we collected a pretty respectable list of summer camp trivia that we bet you don’t know (We didn’t!)… 1.) The oldest summer camps in America are the brother/sister camps of Camp Dudley for boys in the Adirondacks of New York and Camp Kiniya for girls in Lake Champlain, Vermont. Both were founded in 1885 and are part of the YMCA camp system.
2.) It is believed that Camp Pemigewassett in New Hampshire holds the title for the summer camp contiguously owned and operated by the same family—or, in this case, families. The camp was founded in 1908 by the Favers and Reeds families, who both still own and operate the camp.
3.) The 1961 movie The Parent Trap, a movie in which a set of twin sisters separated as babies meet at summer camp and swap places, was filmed at Bluff Lake Camp. The 1998 remake starring Lindsay Lohan was filmed at Camp Seely. Both camps are in California.
4.) According to the American Camp Association, there are more than 12,000 summer camps in the United States. More than half (about 7,000) are sleepaway camps.
5.) Eleven million people (adults too!) attend summer camp each year. Those eleven million people are in some good company. Just a very small fraction of famous people who also attended summer camp: Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks and featured entrepreneur/investor on Shark Tank), Michael Eisner (former CEO of Disney), Ralph Lauren, Mark Zuckerberg, Albert Einstein, Chelsea Clinton, Clay Aiken, Adam Levine, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jonah Hill, Zoey Deschanel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Natalie Portman, Emma Roberts, and Seth Rogan…Oh, and Michelle Obama worked at a summer camp.
6.) More than 1.5 million people can boast that they work at a camp each year.
7.) The top five camp activities (according to the American Camp Association): Swimming, Arts & Crafts, Ropes, Archery, and miscellaneous water related activities.
8.) Wayne County, Pennsylvania, where Camp Weequahic is located, is home to 30 Wayne County Camp Association member camps. Collectively, they are attended by approximately 25,000 campers each summer.
9.) Although “bug juice” is a popular camp term that refers to the flavored drink served by a lot of camps at mealtimes, like many camp terms and traditions, it has military origins. American soldiers were provided with fruit flavored powdered drink mix that they combined with water. The sugary drink attracted insects. So soldiers dubbed it “bug juice.”
10.) Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp), a famous comical song about summer camp, is based on actual letters that Allan Sherman, one of the writers of the song, received from his son during the years that he attended Camp Champlain in Westport, New York.
