Weekly Update: July 13th, 2025

Thank you. Thank you for sharing your incredible campers with us. Even though it has only been 24 hours since our last campers arrived at camp, we have been ecstatic about the energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, new connections and genuine happiness that they have already brought to the community.

From rounds of Gagaball to 9-Square in the Air, to leadership All Days for the Outbackers and Junior Counselors, to trip sign up, to ridge/unit activities, and to our Basic Equestrian Training, your campers have been eager and ready to get Summer 2025 underway. They are making new friends, trying new food, sleeping in new spaces and pushing themselves in new ways.

Camp is different from life at home–and the seasonal staff and the year-round team provide additional supportive adult relationships outside of the family of origin. At camp, there is often more asked of campers like remembering to pack a daypack (and what should go in it) or helping with daily chores and unit cleaning, choosing their own trips and activities and more. There is a collective recognition from the campers of the new independence they have and the responsibility and teamwork that independence–and interdependence–requires.

This morning, in the Big Spring lodge, Josiah (our Kitchen Coordinator) had a group of highly motivated Able Waiters who were ready (bright and early!) to help serve the meal to the rest of the community. Many other campers rose with the sun and did early morning hikes to the new treehouse, visited the “trip” of baby goats who like to roam the area around the High Trails Barn and practiced yoga on sleeping pads on Sunday Rocks. Campers helped clear tables, participated in cabin and unit clean up and helped new campers figure out which trips to do. They included and taught new campers how to play our different field games and helped each other find Big Deal Hall and the Arts & Crafts barn.

Campers at both camps independently filled out their trip sign up sheets and participated in unit and cabin activities to help them become better acquainted with the main camp areas and with each other. Last night and into today, our cabin groups and ridge units met and talked about community expectations–having conversations that asked, “What SHOULD we do together in this community?” as much as they discussed respectful boundaries and rules.

This process helps set the tone for the summer in our living units and provides community members with agency to share how they want to be treated, listened to and heard by the people they will be living with for the next two weeks or a month. These conversations allow for campers to “understand each other’s understandings” while defining a set of community norms that provide a foundation and structure for community living.

We also found a lot of time for chanting and singing in the lodges, at Vespers and at Big Springs’ Opening Campfire. High Trails Vespers was held at the central campfire due to a southern storm that brought more needed rain and an incredibly stunning sunset, while Big Spring Opening Campfire focused on singing and skits about each of the “GTAILS”–the ridge specific character traits that campers seek understanding and embody throughout their summer at camp (Growth, Teamwork, Awareness, Integrity, Leadership & Service). These character traits provide the foundation for continued individual and collective growth and development at camp by providing campers with the opportunity for others to see and name their positive contributions to the experience.

And the most positive contribution? Simply being here to try it out.

It feels risky coming into a new community where you may only know one or two people (or none at all) and to know that you will need to build/rebuild a new experience together. On Friday, we did a “late onboarding” training for some of our new staff and we talked about how important it is to make “one good friend” to establish the sense of connectedness and belonging while at camp. But making friends and finding shared connections can take time and can feel hard.

Yet, because we know we do hard things here, defining yourself and finding a group of like-minded friends is an important part of that first week of camp. This is also the week where you may receive a Sad Letter from your camper, and–if you do–know that is normal. As campers transition into camp, they sometimes miss the simplicity and ease of Life At Home–but, for the majority of them, they start really finding their groove at the exact moment the Sad Letter arrives in your mailbox. AND, if you are concerned, please do not hesitate to write us an email or give us a call.

We post photos every Sunday evening so we can try and capture and collect as many experiences as we can both on and off of the property during our very busy weeks. These photos can be accessed and downloaded for free via the Campanion app (download via the app store or Google Play) or on your computer via your Camp InTouch account. As we shared a few days ago, when you upload a recent image of your camper(s), the Campanion app does a better-than-average job of finding photos that include your camper and the app will push those images directly to your phone for viewing, downloading and sharing.

This week, campers will embark on their “Unit/Cabinside” overnight providing them with important LNT skills and a focused time to learn and practice these skills prior to using them on trips for the rest of the session. We will wrap up the week with All Day trips for many of the HT and BS campers, as well as All Day trips the latter part of the week for everyone who is in camp. This weekend, we will have our first theme dance and the ever-popular “ice cream social” as well as time to just relax and listen to the wind.

Prior to “zipping” down the zipline earlier today, our High Trails Junior counselors answered a question, “After this final year as a camper, what do you think you will take away from this place?”…and the resounding answer: friendships.

So thank you for providing your child with opportunities to push themselves in the outdoors and also socio-emotionally as they use the skills, knowledge and modeling provided to them to comfort a friend who is missing home, to include someone new in a conversation, to share clothes or equipment with someone whose luggage is still missing* (*the suitcase from Mexico has been located), to squeeze together so everyone can read the lyrics of “Paradise” in the songbook and to provide each other with new perspectives about ourselves, our community and the natural world through a lens of adventure, wonder and possibility.

We are so glad they are here.