Camp Champions Blog

I was a little unsure what to share with you today, but a creative group of counselors fixed that at lunch.

Susie Ma’am got a special invitation yesterday afternoon: a spa treatment.

July 4^th is a special day at camp.

You may not know this, but on Lake LBJ, an epic battle of Hellenic heroes rages each summer:

This photo is from an activity that is the beginning of the Senior Camper program. The Senior Camper program is our high school leadership program and is one of the programs we are most known for. In fact, Susie Ma’am and I have given over 20 presentations at national and international camp conferences on the topic of camp and teens, including one in Turkey and 8 different locations in China. I will also give a talk in Sochi this October.

The campers often ask me what my favorite activity is.

About 9 years ago, Susie Ma’am and I realized that we were not getting much of the joyful aspects of camp. Sure, we enjoyed Torchlight and Flag-raising and the special events, but our days were less fun. We found ourselves in “problem-solving” mode most of the days, dealing with issues that crept up with campers or counselors.

Yesterday and today, we had a visitor. Sam Goodgame is the son of a dear family friend, Dan Goodgame. Dan was a Rhodes Scholar with my older brother and was one of the senior writers at Time before moving to San Antonio. His son Sam went to West Point, trained as a Ranger and served in Afghanistan. He is now finishing up a Masters degree in data science.

Sometimes, the best camp memories entirely emerge from the minds of the campers.

Each evening, every cabin comes together for a “nighty ritual”. These nightly gatherings help cabins grow together, but they do more than that. They give campers a chance to practice communicating important ideas and their listening skills. Also, we design these gatherings to train the campers to focus on finding the positive in each day.