Camp Champions Blog

We are done with the Lake Swims and the kilometer swims.

When talking with our camp parents, I often talk about the many ways that children grow at camp; discovering themselves while away from their parents' shadows. I love the chance for campers to challenge themselves and feel the excitement of triumph. I also love watching them learn to cope with disappointment and even failure, because this will teach them to deal with adversity later in life.

After talking with several of the campers who have graduated from the Senior Camper Program, we have learned that attending the program helped get them into the schools of their choice.

Cute pic - has nothing to do with blog

It took ten years.  Some said it would never happen, yet it did.

This occurrence is rarer than a total solar eclipse or a Dallas Cowboy playoff victory or a quality movie from Michael Bay.

Liam Baskin became a torchlighter.

Frankly, I debated whether to write about this.  After all, you want to hear about your children, not mine.  I do not want to be the myopic parent that assumes that everyone wants to know about me and mine.

I am also reluctant to write about this because I think it can suggest that being torchlighter is more important than it actually is.  It was somewhat important to Liam because his twin had received it, but we can easily over-emphasize it.

But Susie Ma’am suggested that there are some useful lessons in this unexpected occurrence that I should share.

And I ALWAYS listen to Susie Ma’am.

First, it is a reminder that being a torchlighter is much less important to campers than parents sometimes assume.  Liam loves camp.  Sure, there are moments that he wanted to be a torchlighter, but he loved camp independent of that.  We have focused a lot of energy on celebrating the torchlighter for 5 minutes and then redirecting the attention to the entire community.

Second, it became a teachable moment.  When he would say “I wish I were a torchlighter” (which he would on occasion), we chose to respond “who in your cabin and division did get it?  Did they do anything you did not do?”  In Liam’s case, the answer was usually staggeringly blunt “well, he was always nice to everyone and I got into a few arguments with some other guys . . . a LOT” or “he was helpful to the counselors, I kinda resisted at times”.  Ultimately, his greatest challenge was being a consistently good cabinmate.  He would have days where he was much more focused on having fun and hanging out than having responsibilities and helping out.

Third, I love seeing campers get torchlighter after 5, 7 or 10 years.  Our children (yours and mine) have been raised in the shadow of the self-esteem movement where every mini-triumph is celebrated and perseverance is less emphasized.  Knowing that some things might take many years of effort is a great lesson for children to get.  The truly great gifts of life generally require many years of sustained effort: college, marriages, building a career and – most importantly – raising children.  The noble endeavors are not like microwave meals; they take time and consistent effort.

Fourth, having campers wait 10 years helps reduce parents’ stress if their child does not get it by year 3, 4 or 5.

Of course, some campers are perfectly happy never worrying about it.  Seven years ago, one of the members of our Leadership Team (and one of the best counselors I’ve ever worked with) said that she knew she would not be a torchlighter.  “I was pretty hard-headed and I could be bossy.  But my cabin loved me and I loved them.  I, however, did not always make the cabin easier.  It would have taken too much effort to do what I needed to do to be a torchlighter.”  Once she was a Senior Camper, the same energy and head-strong tendencies made her a wonderful cabin leader to 8 year-old girls.  Her strengths were now truly strengths and she – like Liam – was first recognized as a high schooler after 9 or 10 years. This summer during orientation, a 13 year camper and senior camper was recognized for the first time as a counselor.

I feel I should also share a quick story from a 7 year camper who loves camp (and we adore him).  He was asking about SCOPES.  SCOPES are the daily report on each cabin and every camper.  In them, the counselors report on the behavior and emotional comfort of every camper (along with comments).  They also share thoughts on the previous nightly ritual as well as the strengths and challenges of the cabin.  Finally, this is where they first nominate torchlighters (starting an elaborate vetting process).

Our 7 year camper then stopped the counselor, “Wait YOU are the one that nominates?  But, I have been sucking up to Leadership all these years and misbehaving in the cabin.  Wow, looks like the wrong strategy, eh?”

As long as I am talking about SCOPES, I wanted to share one from a Rookie cabin.  Here are the entries:

Nightly Rituals: They love the stories we read and the stories we share.  Evening bonding is great.

Cabin Successes:  They show fantastic teamwork – pulling together as a group consistently.

Cabin Challenges:  Unfortunately, they use teamwork to form a mutiny against authority . . .

Yep, sounds like the cabin is bonding well!

Steve Sir

Our Inner Battle
Each summer, I always share the same talk with the boys.  Since they seem willing to forgive this redundancy, I will repeat it for you as well.  The talk is about embracing challenges.

The Lake Swim entails swimming across the lake and back (roughly 700 meters).  We basically take over the lake, lining it with 26-30 kayaks with 3 boats providing additional help.  It is one of the longest standing camp traditions and a true challenge to our oldest campers (the oldest gals go Tuesday morning).

At dinner, we hosted the T-Bone Club.  The members of the club are the campers finishing 8^th grade who are entering their last week as normal campers.  Once they are in 9^th grade, they will return as Senior Campers (our high school leadership program). So this last week is extra precious to us and to them.

With this in mind, we invite them to the Outdoor Cooking Pavilion during our Sunday picnic.  While the rest of the camp is enjoying hamburgers and host dogs (and miscellaneous other outdoor fare), the T-Bone Club gets a special treat.

Yesterday, I told you that we would have our Double Play closing.  Double Play is an option for first time campers (having just finished 4th or lower) to attend two weeks with an option to extend.  The families that chose not to extend left this afternoon.

It was a small, but lovely gathering.  Susie Ma’am and I love seeing the parents.  We believe that we serve families, not just children.  But we get the vast majority of our time with the campers, so it is a special treat to talk with the parents as well.

Tonight, we are having a special event at torchlight: the Drum Café.  Susie and I saw this group last October and instantly said that they had to come to camp.  When I told other camp people about this idea, they all asked one simple question.

“Why?”

I would find myself unsure how to respond.  I could not give a clear programmatic or philosophical reason other than one.

This is a slightly unusual blog.  I want to tell you about a very exciting project we are doing at Camp Champions.  I also want to ask for your help.

Almost 2 years ago, Paul Tough published a book called “How Children Succeed”. In it, he details the massive array of research that shows that success in college has more to do with “non cognitive skills” like grit and self-control than IQ or academic success in high school.

In the book, he especially focused on the KIPP schools.  KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) is a public charter school program that focuses on inner city, under-served youth.  Typically, the parents of KIPP students never attended college and many never graduated high school.  Despite this less-than-ideal background, over 95% of the KIPP students will be accepted to college!