Tag: sleepaway camp

While You’re Waiting Until June…

October 29th, 2013

While You’re Waiting until June…

So, the summer of 2014 is still a L-O-N-G 8 months away. But here are a few things to keep you warm during the colder months of the year…

1.)    Opening Day. Is there any better feeling than that moment the bus pulls up to camp, you step off and are immediately tackled by a herd of camp friends who have waited all year to see you?

2.)    Campfires. Every camp has its own version. In fact, your camp’s campfire is a big part of what makes it your camp. You’re sure of two things: A) Your camp’s campfire is the best B) S’mores taste best when eaten at your camp’s campfire.

3.)  Sing-alongs. It’s amazing how much singing silly songs arm-in-arm with your camp friends during the summer makes you feel. Admit it. You find yourself singing to yourself throughout the winter. Your school friends catch you. You want to explain. But they’ll never get it. “It’s a camp thing,” you say. You immediately send a Vine to all of your camp friends of you singing – and doing motions to –your favorite camp songs.

4.)    Arts & Crafts. Seriously, you can tie-dye at home too…really.

5.)    The official camp video, yearbook or seasonal newsletter. It should be showing up in your mailbox anytime now. Host a party. Reminisce about this past summer. Know that next summer will be here before you know it. Set goals now. Next summer will be epic.

6.)    Camp Shows. Thespians and camp go hand-in-hand. It’s no coincidence that a lot the biggest names in Hollywood are summer camp alumni. Summer camp is a breeding ground for creativity and the perfect environment for exploring your creative side.  Admit it. You’re still humming the songs from your camp shows this past summer.

7.)    Boats. Camp has lots of boats. Ski boats, sailboats, kayaks, canoes…Whichever is your choice, one fact: some of the best moments of the summer happen on the water.

8.)    Trips. Are the movies at home ever as good as it is when you’re enjoying it with your camp friends? What about roller coasters? Didn’t think so.

9.)    Camp food. Admit it. You live for S Day Breakfasts.

10.)  Bunkmates. When you come home with something exciting to share during the winter, who do you share it with?

Camp Creativity

October 14th, 2013

It’s a great joy to see young people create something fun with their own hands from lumps of clay, blocks of wood, or bits of string. Each day, girls and boys build confidence by creating something new, bond with their new friends across the crafts table, and interact with teachers who have creative flair and patient, encouraging words.

However, no matter in which creative studio they play, Camp Weequahic campers get to explore, learn, and create in ways not often enjoyed at home or school.

The Arts Studio provides a number of options for campers to enjoy. In the hub of our creative commons, campers explore jewelry and candle making, drawing, painting and more. The attached ceramics studio allows for time on the pottery wheel as well as hand creations, molds, and more. Sometimes, campers enjoy projects they’ve done before. However, more often than not, they are challenged to create in ways and methods they’ve never tried. These creative fits and starts lead to understanding and, later, confidence.

Creativity at Camp Weequahic is not only confined to our well loved Arts and Crafts studio. The newly improved woodshop offers campers of all ages treats and challenges. A flotilla of boats were created by Junior Boys while the girls built enough birdhouses to fill the woods.

One of our Senior campers built his own lectern (which he used as the head announcer of the Weequahic Basketball League) while a rising 7th grade girl built an Adirondack chair that many thought could only have been built by the woodshop staff. The creations flowed out of the woodshop all summer – and we can’t wait to see what the kids create for Summer 2014.

Not to be outdone, campers in our newly developed Top Chef facility created scrumptious meals of omelets, pad thai, spring rolls, handmade pasta, s’more cookies and more. Not only did they enjoy making these dishes, but they enjoyed sharing them with their friends, especially those next door in CW Designs, our fashion design studio.

Whether making pajama pants in CW Designs, a mini-desk for their bunk bed in woodshop, or bracelets for friends in Arts and Crafts, Weequahic campers create and laugh and learn every day!

Camp Souvenirs

September 26th, 2013

It happens while you’re unpacking.  You happen on an oddity or two—or ten—in your child’s bag or maybe shorts pockets. Crazy little circular chains of rubber bands (dozens of them!) seem to be tucked into every crevice of clothing your child could find; a water bottle filled with what appears to be sand and lake water, or; a pocket full of leaves.  These are but a few of the little treasures that made their way home with your camper.  You ponder over your child’s spoils from camp for a few minutes and try to figure out what it’s about.  Then you finally decide to ask about ‘a Ziploc baggie full of sand?’

‘From the waterfront!’ Your child proudly declares.  ‘I wanted something to remember the fun I had there this summer.’  You sit the bag (that you were considering throwing out a few seconds before your child walked into the room) down on the nightstand and make a mental note to pick up a container that will do it a little bit more justice than a Ziploc baggie.

‘And what about what about those rubber band things?’

‘Bracelets’.

‘Ahhhh…Of course.’

The souvenirs that find their way home from camp are always one of your favorite parts of unpacking.  It’s become a game for you, trying to guess the chain of events that led to you finding that random piece of burnt wood alongside your child’s socks and putting it together with the years prior to this summer that he and his camp friends spent plotting their rope burn strategy.

‘campfire?’

‘The Burning of the W.  I snuck it on my way back to the bunk’

‘Yes!’ You guessed one.  You’re starting to get good at this.  What you begin to realize is that the random discoveries you’ve been fishing out of your child’s luggage like an archeologist at a dig site aren’t random at all.  They’re memories.  More importantly, they’re the summer’s best memories in the form of rubber bands, lake-water filled water bottles, sand filled Ziploc baggies, and, yes, even burnt pieces of rope.  The candles and ceramic animals are obvious.  You like them, too.  But it’s these special little surprise finds that tell the more complex story of your child’s summer–the reason you’ve come to like, actually anticipate, unpacking after your child returns home from camp.  You’re not exactly sure what you’re going to find or what it will mean, but you can’t wait to find out.