Category: About Camp
Happy 4th of July
Happy 4th of July!
It was nice to see members of the BSC team celebrating this great nation’s independence today. Many a camper and counselor were decked out in red, white, and blue in honour of the holiday.
A scorcher here in Bridgton today, the water-based activities were especially refreshing for our campers this morning. Those who didn’t get to cool off in the lake tried desperately to tell a joke good enough (staff reversed the rules, given the intense heat) to warrant a bucket of water over their heads, but to no avail. Better luck next time kids!
Tonight marks BSC’s annual trip to a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game. It was a spiffy looking bunch boarding the bus in their Bridgton blues. After a picnic lunch in a local park consisting of pizza, juice, and snacks, our campers will take in the ball game and a fantastic fireworks display.
Camp Day #2
We’ve had some rain over the last few days, but today was definitely our rainiest so far. There was also a big drop in the temperature, so we had to break out some sweaters and jackets for the first time this Session. Lucky for us, Koop seems to have it on good authority that the next few days will include just a little bit of rain, some clouds, and SUNSHINE. We’re holding him to it!
Regardless of the weather, it was a day filled with valuable lessons! Coaches spent some time talking about the mental game involved in sport, highlighting the importance of focus and concentration, which can make or break any play in a split second. They also spoke to the value of leadership, noting that any athlete can wear a ‘C’ on his jersey, but that doesn’t automatically make him a leader. Leadership is earned with hard-work, good sportsmanship, and the ability to be a good role model for others.
It was another excellent day on the water, with a few more catches among our fisherman (a big mouth bass and a sun fish) and several BSC campers showing off some impressive moves on the knee boards and water-skis. Hopefully by tomorrow the sun will be shining and the water will be warm for our swim test.
Day #1 in the books
Well, today was a first day for the record books!
Major sports started off in full-force today. Skill evaluations were completed, and the coaches were very complimentary of our Session 1 campers. At line-up, they were full of praise, giving shout-outs to a number of athletes who impressed the staff with their skill, effort, and determination. Way to set the bar high BSC!
There was some excitement among the Minor sports today too! For the first time in 3 years, BSC campers caught fish on the first day of the session, and one of those catches was a catfish to boot!
Dinner was delicious tonight, with a choice of pasta, pizza, and french fries. Plus, it was nice to see so many campers making healthy choices by adding a salad to their meal.
During evening activities, the Gaga Pit was a big hit and the Wolverine’s Den was a nice retreat for a few games of Ping Pong and hanging out with friends, once the rain made an appearance.
What else can I say? If Day 1 is any indication of how great the rest of Session 1 is going to be, we’re looking pretty good.
Camp Has Begun
Well folks, BSC’s 2013 camping season is officially underway!
Counselors, new and returning, from near (Maine) and far (Australia), were keen pupils during their 5-day orientation last week and very hard-working as we prepared for our Session 1 campers to arrive.
Campers from overseas arrived last night to warm welcomes and freshly made beds, and the rest of our Session 1 team filtered in throughout the sunny (and sticky, thanks to the humidity) afternoon.
Mother nature decided to extend our dinner hour with a pretty powerful rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightening. Feeling lucky to be under cover, campers and counselors took advantage of the extra time to get to know one another.
Now all campers are in their dorms, mingling, playing games, or settling in for the night. We have a big day tomorrow … Day 1 of Session 1. Can’t wait!
The Long-Lasting Benefits of Camp
Camp has become a part of the fabric of America — conjuring special memories of hiking, swimming, friendships, and adventure for generations. When children go to camp, they’ll likely come home gushing about the lifelong friends they’ve made, and the exciting adventures they had. What they probably won’t tell you about are the life lessons camp has given them — those skills that, if nurtured at home after camp, translate into a lasting self-confidence, an awareness of the importance of kindness, and a greater comfort in voicing their opinions.
For more than 150 years, camp has been changing lives — allowing all children to feel successful, especially those who may struggle with traditional educational settings. Camp is full of fun and excitement, but it is so much more — developing children who are better equipped to lead in the twenty-first century with skills such as independence, empathy, the ability to work as part of a team, and a broader world view.
Camp is a safe and nurturing environment that enhances social skills. Camp is for everyone, so children and youth have the opportunity to meet and interact with peers from outside their school environment.
Camp supplements traditional education. Camps use intentional programming to create a balance of experiential learning opportunities that are physical, emotional, and social.
Camp provides experiences that promote self-confidence and future academic growth. American Camp Association® (ACA) independent research shows that parents and camp staff, as well as the campers themselves, report significant growth in several areas, including leadership, independence, social comfort, and values and decisions.
Camp encourages a respect and love of nature. Children are able to learn about the natural world. Camp also gives them a chance to “unplug.” More and more experts are advocating the value of time spent in nature for children — and camp is a perfect place to do that.
Camp provides the opportunity to stay physically active. Camp is the ultimate outdoor experience with programs that offer physical activities and sports that enhance health and teach self-confidence.
Camp is a natural extension of the classroom. Research indicates that by participating in strategically planned, structured summer experiences, children reduce summer learning loss. Camp challenges children, keeps them engaged, develops creativity and their talents, and expands their horizons.
Summer Camp: Can It Make Kids More Responsible?
There aren’t a lot of Harvard students who’ve worked as camp counselors, but I can usually spot them: they have a combination of flexibility and interpersonal savvy that makes them good leaders. I always thought that the kind of person who chooses to be a camp counselor is likely already an affable and mature person. But many educators have come to recognize that summer camp, and specifically being a counselor, fosters precisely the skill that we value so highly in young adults: taking responsibility. Caring for younger children helps teenagers learn how to be more mature themselves.
Interaction within mixed-age groups is increasingly rare, undoubtedly a by-product of our “overprogrammed child” culture, with soccer leagues even for preschoolers who can’t find the goalpost. Girls can still gain this valuable experience through babysitting (though it seems like fewer girls are taking on such work), but for boys it is much harder. As Michael Thompson, the author of Raising Cain, pointed out recently at the Aspen Ideas Festival, teenage boys face something of a Catch-22 in that adults are reluctant to give an immature teenage boy responsibility for the young kids who would help him mature. Overnight summer camps provide just such a mentoring opportunity through an incremental leadership pathway that enables teenagers, usually starting at age 14 or 15 as counselors in training, to assume increasing levels of responsibility for kids.
Peter Swain, executive director of YMCA Camp Fuller, in its 125th year serving youth on the shores of Rhode Island and one of the oldest camps in the nation, is explicitly aware of this learning opportunity. “Seeing young, anxious campers grow into confident, capable leaders is why I have continued to do this job,” he says. “It’s great to see camp staff carry their camp values into their college and working life — it really means that the work of camp has meaning to society.” As Swain notes, “The path from camper to young staff is well-worn and thus clear to follow. And the role models are obvious and always there to see.”
Camps also provide a safe place for young staff to make mistakes without dire consequences. One of my sons, for example, now 17, learned to windsurf at camp, where he joined a special leadership track for senior campers in his final year. He returns to camp this summer as a junior counselor, teaching windsurfing to younger children. The gravity of supervising children in open water is not lost on him, but he feels up to the task because he’s surrounded at all times by senior staff and he knows the water and equipment well. There are few other situations where a young adult can take on a serious leadership role with as much responsibility and careful guidance as in a camp.
A study of 4-H camp counselors in Ohio (some as young as 14) showed increased leadership skills and improved motivation to stay in school and plan for the future. Many of the counselors were also able to learn from unsuccessful strategies they tried, like the fact that simply yelling at children doesn’t necessarily make them compliant.
Traditional summer camps do such a great job of supplementing the work of parents and schools that we often miss the complexity of what they’re up to. Some people think of camp counseling as a frivolous endeavor, something for big kids who can’t quite cut the umbilical cord of childhood. The stepwise leadership structure — which virtually guarantees high percentages of alumni staff — can create the impression that camp jobs are not real work on par with college internships in the financial industry or working in a lab but something more like a nostalgic hobby. Even high school students worry that a summer-camp job isn’t substantive enough to put on a college application.
But if we are serious about developing young leadership, we should get over these parochial views and take steps to make camp counseling more common. We should consider a tax credit or financial aid for counselors who might otherwise take a better-paying job. And employers and college-admissions officers need to hear how the camp-counselor experience prepares successful young adults through teamwork, empathy, cross-cultural understanding, ability to work with subordinates and superiors, creativity, working under pressure and managing with limited resources.
In most societies throughout history, older children have always cared for younger children. The anthropologist Margaret Mead called caretaking a “pivot” role: a person doing something for someone else that was once done for him or her. As she trenchantly noted: “Just as a child is getting old enough so that its willfulness is becoming unbearable, a younger one is saddled upon it … each child being disciplined and socialized through the responsibility for a still younger one.” Among all the foregoing benefits, here’s yet one more: camp counselors may come to appreciate their parents’ hard work too.
Winter Newsletter
Dear BSC Families:
Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, I received phone calls and emails from parents, counselors and even campers checking in on the well being of their Bridgton Sports Camp Family. While we weren’t directly affected, this is an event that will remain in our hearts and minds for a long time and our prayers go out to all of those who suffered an inconsolable loss.
Security at schools has moved to the forefront of parents minds as they return to dropping their children off at school. While we ask ourselves why and how this could happen, we sadly may never find an answer that makes sense. What we do know is that schools and camps have protocols in place to keep your children/our campers safe and it’s important that children are made aware of this. Bridgton Sports Camp has emergency action plans that Wade (assistant director) and I review/update on a continual basis. Children come to camp each summer to have fun, play sports, reunite with and make new friends. It is my job to maintain the integrity of summer camp, while at the same time ensuring the safety of your child. I will meet with Bridgton Academy this winter to review their updated security and emergency procedures and implement these changes into our plan.
On a positive note, between the devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy and the recent event in Newtown, CT, I’m extremely proud of our Bridgton families for all of their phone calls and expressed concerns, thoughts and prayers for fellow campers and their families. We have built a strong community at Bridgton Sports Camp.
Following Hurricane Sandy many school districts have extended their school year. Therefore, to accommodate the families affected, we have decided to push camp back one week. The new dates are included in the newsletter.
Switching gears, our preparations for summer 2013 are going really well. Many of our coaches and counselors are set to return and our programs are being fine tuned thanks to the invaluable feedback received. We will have new equipment and activities ready to go for the summer and I can’t wait to share all of the details with you.
The attached picture reminds me of a personal highlight and it incorporates two of our camp values; sportsmanship & teamwork. Two summers ago, our 15 & under basketball team lost badly to Camp Wildwood in an inter-camp game. Last summer they all returned to camp, practiced hard, and were excited for a rematch. We played hard, took the game to overtime, and only lost at the buzzer. Our team was disappointed, but they shook hands with the opposing team and celebrated their efforts. I was proud of how well they represented Bridgton Sports Camp.
Enjoy the newsletter and I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. Camp will be here
before we know it!
Koop
TO VIEW THE ENTIRE NEWSLETTER GO TO OUR HOMEPAGE AT WWW.BRIDGTONSPORTSCAMP.COM AND CLICK ON THE CURRENT FAMILIES TAB
Should I Be Sending My Children To Camp?
Some six million children in the United States are preparing psychologically to go away to sleepaway camp. Whether these departing children are camp veterans or nervous rookies, they are mentally rehearsing being away from mom and dad, their comfortable beds, their pets, favorite meals and, of course, their beloved iPhones, Facebook and video games.
During the winter their parents made the decision — and found the money — to make it possible for their kids to leave their families and their comfortable homes so that they could spend a week or two or four in a rustic, more-or-less uncomfortable cabin getting bitten by mosquitoes. They will live with a bunch of other kids, some of whom are fantastic, others quite annoying. They will eat a balanced diet of grilled cheese sandwiches and Fudgesicles with the occasional corn dog for good measure. They will play fun but aimless games like “Capture the Flag” and sit around campfires watching hilarious, dumb skits that almost no one remembers two days later (except the authors, of course). They will master skills such as archery and kayaking, horseback riding and waterskiing, none of which will impress their varsity coach or their AP Bio teacher when they return to school.
While the campers are messing about in the woods, many of their peers will be attending summer school or specialized skills programs. Their responsible, if sometimes Tiger-ish, moms and dads will be investing their money in their children’s future differently, sending them to one-week soccer and lacrosse programs, SAT prep courses and unpaid internships designed to polish skills, boost scores and impress college admissions officers. Instead of spending three weeks at an all-around camp, these children will be focused on skill-building, sometimes in three different specialized programs to which their parents drive them every day (allowing time for that all-important debrief in the car going home).
Which set of parents has it right? Or more to the point: Does an overnight camp experience still make sense in this competitive, resume-building world? From this psychologist’s point of view, the answer is a resounding YES. I believe that children develop in profound ways when they leave their parents’ house and join a camp community.
Learning to sleep away from home is, of course, a critical step on the way to independence. Part of the challenge is beating homesickness, which may be hard for some children, and which, by definition, your parents cannot help you do. Kids know they have to do this sooner or later. As my son once remarked with horror, “If you can’t learn to sleep away from home, you have to live with your parents for the rest of your life.” But beyond that, there are things that, as a parent, you cannot do for your children, as much as you might wish to. You cannot make them happy (if you try too hard they become whiners); you cannot give them self-esteem and confidence (those come from their own accomplishments); you cannot pick friends for them and micro-manage their social lives, and finally you cannot give them independence. The only way children can grow into independence is to have their parents open the door and let them walk out. That’s what makes camp such a life-changing experience for children.
After conducting hundreds of interviews of campers and former campers for my book, “Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow,” I know that many young people do not really know how strong they are, how competent they are or even who they are until they get away from their parents and test themselves in a new and challenging environment. Many children told me the best thing about camp was, “I can really be myself here.” What do they mean by that? I am pretty sure I know the answer. When children are away from their parents, they do not have to view their own life and achievements through the lens of my-athlete-father-standing-on-the-sidelines-watching-me or my-mother-is-worried-that-I’ll fail. When a child is on his own, the experience is his alone, the satisfaction belongs only to him and he does not have to filter it through what his parents think and feel.
For the dedicated, loving and anxious parent, letting a child go can be tough. “Will she be happy at camp? Will he make friends? Will she be homesick?” But homesickness can often be confused with a parent’s childsickness. The director of a girls’ camp in Massachusetts tells me she has more and more parents of 9-year-olds calling to say, “Well, she’s ready for camp, but I’m not ready to have her leave.” If you want an independent child, you have to master your own childsickness. Try remembering the sweetest moments from your own childhood. Most adults tell me that the sweetest, most memorable times of their childhood were when they were away from their parents, doing something with friends in the out-of-doors, taking a challenge or doing something a bit risky. That sounds like camp to me.
By the way, when I interviewed college admissions officers about how they view campers, they say that they think former campers are more likely to succeed in college because they have had successful experiences away from home, and they are always impressed by seniors who have been counselors looking after younger children. Camp helps build confidence and identity; it also builds leadership skills.
Michael Thompson, Ph.D
2013 Camp Dates
Camp families,
I hope all is well and life is getting back to normal if you were effected by the hurricane! Because of the storm and a lot of school districts ending later this year, we have decided to push camp back 1 week. The new dates are:
- Session 1: Sunday June 30 – Saturday July 20
- Session 2: Sunday July 21 – Saturday August 10
If you have any questions please call the camp office at 866-283-5943. You can re-enroll online anytime to take advantage of our early enrollment discount.
Best,
Brian
The End Of Another Great Camp Season
I hope that all BSC campers/staff/parents had a great labor day weekend. Its hard to believe that summer is over. Looking back, both camp sessions were a huge success and with today’s technology (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) we have outlets to talk about camp all year long. If you go to our YouTube page, you can view the final sports banquet slideshow from session 1&2. Believe it or not, we already have home visits scheduled for families interested in 2013. Please call the camp office if you would like to set something up and have a great start to the school year!
Koop
