1.    Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) was offered as a brand new activity.  It proved to be incredibly popular with the campers of all ages and the staff too.  No doubt we’ll be adding more SUP boards and paddles next summer.   The possibilities are endless – think  SUP trips on the Mississippi River ☺.

2.     Mad Science was another popular addition to Kamaji’s instructional program. The brainchild of Rebecca Langsam, (a Kamaji Junior Counselor) attracted over 200 campers between first and second sessions.  Whether they were making gloop or disappearing ink or nail polish or exploding volcanoes(!), every class was filled to capacity.

3.    We added a brand new canoe trip to our Wilderness Trip Program.  Campers going into the 7th grade spent three days canoeing the very beginnings of the Mississippi River.  It’s a beautiful unspoiled part of the river.  We hope the campers enjoyed their adventure.

4.    The drama program was strengthened by the addition of “KamaGlee”.  Each week campers had the opportunity to learn and perform a different song.  From  “What is this Feeling?” from Wicked to “True Colors” it was hard to know who enjoyed the performances more — the singers or the audience.  Seriously, the campers were great.

5.    The swim program offered a “junior” Lifeguarding class.  Participating campers participated in a shortened version  of the same course our counselors take to earn their Red Cross Lifeguard certification.

6.     During second session, some of the Pine Manor campers asked if they could choreograph and then teach a dance routine in the regularly scheduled dance class.  They did just that during the past week and will be performing their dance for the rest of camp on Wednesday.

7.     Basketball was offered as an instructional activity.  While this wasn’t exactly the first time basketball was taught, it was the first time this century.  Welcome back!

8.    Although not exactly a “first”, 2011 ranks number 1 in the percentage of cabin counselors who are former Kamaji campers: 41 out of 57.  That’s over 70 percent!  We are flattered that so many Kamaji alum have returned to “give back” to current campers.  And if you throw in the counselors who weren’t campers, but who have worked here before, that percentage jumps to almost 80%.

Wow!  Kamaji may be 98 years old, but every June it is reborn.  Just wait until our 99th camping season.

More Kamaji News
Here are some program highlights of the past few days.  Our regular instructional activities have been carrying on since the last Adventure Day and will continue through tomorrow afternoon.  Last Thursday’s evening program was the 4th of August Kamaji Goofy Field Relays.  The truth is that we usually have these races on the 4th of July, however, a thunderstorm that evening  forced their cancellation. We have now proclaimed the 4th of August a new holiday at camp.  (Look for pictures on Smugmug.)  On Friday night, campers and counselors gathered in the Lodge to hear Mike give a Kamaji history lesson.  The campers seemed to enjoy hearing about the “good ‘ol days” of no flush toilets and pine needle skiing.  Saturday we were treated by the drama program to a wonderful performance of “The Wizard of Oz”.  (Pictures on Smugmug.)  Last night’s evening program was a real favorite — All-Camp Capture the Flag.  (Pictures on Smugmug.) This afternoon we are hosted about 30 Camp Chippewa campers (they are boys) who are competing with Kamaji campers in tennis, archery, sailing and swimming meets.  Tonight’s evening program is the last Council Fire of the session.  Tomorrow’s evening program will be the big Staff Show, a real camper favorite.  Wednesday morning is “Packing Time”.  Remember the day before your daughter left for camp.  Imagine packing 145 campers (and 14 CITs) all at the same time.  Whew!  Anyway, Wednesday afternoon will feature Kamaji’s Variety Show followed by Final Banquet and Candlelight O’Naug She Nodin.  Thursday is the day you’ve had circled on your calendar since your daughter left for camp.

Travel Information for August 11, 2011
August 11th will be a long day for campers traveling home!  We’ll have a 6:00 a.m. wake-up bell with the buses leaving camp bout 7:45 a.m. for the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport.  We are sending campers to 20 different cities around the country.  We’ve already sent you a travel schedule, but it would probably be a good idea to check with your daughter’s airline to see if there are any last minute changes.  If you have any questions about your daughter’s travel home, just write or call.

If you are meeting your daughter at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, you should pick her up at the Transit Center of the Lindbergh Terminal between noon and 12:30 p.m.  Your daughter and her luggage will be there.

If you are picking up your daughter at camp, you MUST be here at 8:00 am.  Your daughter and her luggage will be waiting for you.

If your daughter is flying on DL 789 to St. Louis or DL 2207 to Chicago O’Hare she will be escorted by a Kamaji parent.  You should plan on meeting your daughter outside the secure area of the concourse where she arrives or at baggage claim. You may want to ask a Delta ticket agent if you can have a security pass so you can meet the flight at the gate, however, don’t be surprised if the ticket agent says “No.”  The parent escort will bring the campers out of the concourse and to baggage claim and remain with them until all parents arrive.

If your daughter is on a flight other than the ones mentioned above and is flying home as an “Unaccompanied Minor” you should be able to obtain a security pass from the airline which will allow you to meet your daughter at her arrival gate.  Plan on arriving at the airport in plenty of time to obtain your security pass.

Again, if you have any questions about travel, just ask.

End of Season Information
Here are some final details about the end of your daughter’s stay at Kamaji:
1.    If your daughter is missing clothing or equipment items, please notify us as soon as possible.
2.     Your daughter’s store account refund or bill will be sent to you in the next two weeks.
3.     Information about Kamaji’s 2012 camping season will be sent to you next week.
4.     We’ll be sending a link to an on-line evaluation form in a few days.  We hope you’ll take a couple of minutes and complete it.  Thanks in advance.

Some Thoughts About The Session From Ye Directors
(Ed. Note: This section of the letter may sound familiar to many of you.  The concepts are not new, but we’ve freshened it up a bit.)

Be prepared!  In a few days your daughter will be hanging out with you.  The second session of Kamaji’s 98th season will be history.  We want to warn you that your daughter may, at any time during her first few days at home, fall into the “Kamaji Zone”.  You will immediately notice a change in her behavior.  Don’t worry as these changes will only last a short time.  Right after your daughter eats breakfast don’t, we repeat don’t, panic if your daughter suddenly jumps on the kitchen chair and sings at the top of her lungs.  That’s what we do at meals.  And after breakfast, YOU had better sit down.  We don’t want you to faint if your daughter runs to her room to make her bed and straighten up her closet.  Don’t worry.  We are confident that THIS behavior won’t last more than a few days.  If you are sitting at the dinner table and you would like her to get something from the kitchen, just tell her that it’s her turn to be “hopper”.  And if you go out to dinner at a nice restaurant, please remind her NOT to put her chair on the table when you leave.  And be prepared.  Your daughter will expect you to have 4 or 5 different activities planned for her each day.  (How about paddleboarding, horseback riding, Mad Science and sailing —  just to start.)  There may be certain words missing from her vocabulary — words like “TV”, “texting”, “facebook”, “download” and even “hair dryer”.   Don’t worry.  Most girls will pick up these terms quickly.  There are other behaviors — too numerous to mention — that you may observe during the first few days your daughter is home.  If you cannot interpret any of them, feel free to call the “Kamaji Kommand and Kontro Center”.  Trained camp personnel will be on duty 24 hours a day to answer your call.

Another way to ease your daughter’s transition into the “other” world is to show her the “Smugmug” pictures.  She hasn’t seen any of them and what a great way to re-live the past few weeks.  We suggest that you go through the pictures with her.  We don’t want you to miss the chuckles.

We’ve written over the past weeks how enthusiastic the campers are about every aspect of camp. Some of the most memorable events of the past season seem to be times when the campers break out in spontaneous “joy”.  (Just ask your daughter about “Little Sally Walker”.)

This season just zoomed by thanks to the campers. Why is camp better than ever?  Well, just think about your daughter’s life here at camp.  No matter what the campers do here, they do it with other people who can hear, see, and touch.  We eat together, sing together, learn how to do new things together.  We know each other’s names.  We laugh together, swim with “buddies”, sail with a crew, set tables with our tribe, clean cabins together and sort laundry with our porchmates.  We have a shared language (Metigs, Za, Za 2, O’Naug, keylog, gooey rolls), a shared history (“We were here in ‘2011, ‘2011…”), our own rituals (Boy, oh boy, what a day it’s been!), and most of all, shared experiences (remember our canoe trip, Tribe Day, Adventure Day).  In simple terms we are a “community” where each camper is connected to her porchmates, her counselors, her tribemates, her “Kami Sister”.  We touch, see and hear each other a million times every day.  Yup, Kamaji campers seem to have more invested in camp than ever before!  Maybe they have figured out that sleeping in a bed right next to your best friend is a whole lot better than being a “friend” on Facebook.

One Last Favor . . .
We were thrilled to welcome 71 new Kamaji campers this summer.  Wow!  That’s a lot.  Most new Kamaji families hear about camp from friends or relatives so the large number of new campers is thanks to the support of many of you.  Looking ahead to 2012, if you know families who might be interested in hearing about Kamaji, please let us know.  Referrals can be friends of yours, friends of your daughter’s, relatives from another city or business contacts.  We’re never get tired of talking about camp, so please send the names and contact information for anyone who may want to hear Kamaji’s story.   Thanks in advance for your help.

A Final Note of THANKS
Lastly, thanks to you for trusting us with your daughter.  We know what a leap of faith putting your daughter on that plane represents.  We promised you that we would treat your daughter as if she were our own.  We hoped we lived up to that promise.

We can only imagine how excited you will be to have your daughter back home. We wish your family the very best for the rest of the summer and the upcoming fall.  We hope that your daughter enjoyed herself as much as we enjoyed having her here.  We equally hope she’ll return for Kamaji’s 99th camping season.  “Boy, Oh Boy, What a Summer It’s Been!”

Campingly yours,

Mike, Kathy and Kat

Kamaji’s Tribe Day was scheduled for Saturday. That’s a really big deal. Tribe Day is pretty wild. Campers spend the whole day dressed from head-to-toe in their tribe colors. They participate in all kinds of wonderfully fun noncompetitive activities and continuously cheer and sing tribe songs. When we went to bed on Friday we checked the weather forecast for Saturday. Not good. Rain on and off all day with the chance of severe weather in the afternoon. Not exactly good news for Tribe Day. We woke up early Saturday morning and checked again. Same forecast. It wasn’t raining yet, so our first thought was “wait and see”, but that really wasn’t an option. You see, Tribe Day has a special menu. Foot long hotdogs for lunch and the “Tribe Banquet” for dinner. And, don’t forget that Tribe Day also means spitting watermelon seeds in the lake after lunch. By 7:00 am, Marjena and the kitchen staff had to know if Tribe Day was “on”. Either they would start preparing the Tribe Day menu or get started on other meals. One more check of the weather. Rain and thunderstorms on Saturday and clear skies for Sunday. Tribe Day would have to wait one more day.

So what ended up happening? Well, despite the forecast, Saturday’s morning clouds gave way to afternoon sunshine. Regular activities continued all day as you can see by the Smugmug pictures. Saturday’s new menu meant an outdoor steak BBQ dinner which came off without a hitch. And the weather was wonderful for Saturday’s Council Fire. In other words, even the Weather Channel can’t compete with the Great Spirit when it comes to making sure Kamaji’s program goes off without a hitch.

Today is Sunday . . . and Kamaji’s bell just rang. Gotta get to breakfast where Tribe Day will be announced by the Tribe Leaders who will do so in some creative clever way.

Oh and the forecast: Another sunny, warm and dry day on tap.

By the end of the day we’ll have a few hundred pictures on Smugmug.

Got to go.

More later . . .

Mike, Kathy and Kat

AREA CAMPS PROVIDE YOUNGSTERS SUMMER ADVENTURE

Every Tuesday, Kamaji takes a break from its typical day schedule.  On Adventure Day campers spend the entire day with their porch mates and cabin counselors.  From a major cabin clean-up to sorting through a week’s worth of laundry to send out to the laundromat to picnic-ing at lunchtime, Tuesdays mornings through lunch are somewhat routine.  The afternoon is when the fun begins as cabin and porch groups plan and participate in  activities of their own making that are, in a word, adventuresome.

Following is a video produced and edited by Cabin 2, Porch 2 recapping their July 27th Adventure Day antics.  We think it best describes ‘a-typical’ Kamaji Adventure Day activity far better than we could ever put in words!!

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,

Thank you for the priceless gift you gave me this summer – the gift of summer camp!!

Thank you for the glamour . . . and the mystique of summer camp.

Thank you for a place where I could create a new world on a blank slate. . . to invent my best self . . . and make first new impressions.

Thank you for placing me in a unique setting that allowed me to feel a sense of connectedness, belonging and safety . . . and an acceptance of and appreciation for me.

Thank you for turning me loose to play freely – and, in so doing, I have acquired a sense of playfulness that hopefully will survive well beyond my youth.

Thank you for sending me to camp – a child-centered environment where the hurry, stress and demands of life away from camp were almost totally eliminated.

Thank you for providing me with a place where I could make my own fun and most importantly, make my own choices.

Thank you for allowing camp to teach me what positive things to say and do when I made mistakes and faced challenges – without feeling bad about or unsure of myself.
Thank you for giving me the chance to choose my own activities instead of doing what was expected.

Thank you for sending me to a place where I could make new friends, enjoy the outdoors, short-sheet my counselors’ beds and try and try and sneak candy into my cabin.

Thank you for staying “connected” with me this summer through your handwritten letters.

Thank you for indirectly teaching me an important life lesson that  will surely stay with me through adulthood: even though at first it was a scary experience  being away from you, I know now that I can take care of myself.

Thank you for letting me go which I know is not always easy for a parent to do.

Thank you for the fond, fuzzy memories of a summer where I lived with camp friends in bunk-filled cabins in the woods.

Thank you for the opportunity to take canoe trips down remote stretches of river and help pitch tents, collect firewood,  prep and cook some of my own meals. Thank you letting me sleep underneath the stars.  These experiences have given me a kind of self-confidence I am not sure I could have gotten any other way.

Thank you for sending me to camp where I learned that I was competent in ways I never dreamed possible.

Thanks for not coming to get me when I begged to come home.  As a result I learned that you have faith in my abilities to adjust to whatever comes my way.

Thank you for the opportunity to live in a cramped small living space with a group of girls – many of whom I did not know until camp – who are now some of my best friends . . . and surely will be for the rest of my life.

Thank you for the lessons about responsibility, teamwork and leadership – skills that I can now take back to home and school . . . and beyond . . .

Thank you for the chance to learn that requiring all kids to do everything equally well is a mistake – and that, instead, my individual talents and interests – found, tapped, nurtured and applauded at camp – set me apart in all ways good.

Thank you for providing me a place where I could develop my independence and grow in confidence.

Thank you (I think??) for allowing camp to make me clean the cabin, hop and clear at meals, sort and fold my own clothes.

Thank you for the opportunity to live with girls whom I didn’t always get along with but with whom I learned to deal with our differences in a productive positive way.

Thank you for putting me into a situation where I could really test my limits . . . and expand my horizons.

Thank you for allowing me to develop resiliency – by learning, when I sometimes fall short, how to bounce back from everyday challenges.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make my own decisions . . .  discover my own strengths . . .

Thank you for allowing my cabin counselor to do her best to help me get through it when I was homesick, upset or sad.

Thank you for the opportunity to be embraced by unique and special traditions and customs  – the “secret codes” of my camp.

Thank you for a chance to experience new adventures.

Thank you for the ability to surprise even myself when I found that I could achieve results in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Thank you for providing me with an experience that will surely reap benefits for a lifetime.

Thank your for allowing me to step out of my comfort zone, to spread my wings and learn to fly.

Thank you for the gift of camp.

Love,
Your Happy Camper

Not a whole lot has changed since 1980:  we still don’t have electricity in the cabins, we don’t have bathrooms in the cabins (although we now have hot-water washhouses with “flushies” and showers), we don’t have a fancy ski-boat or a waterslide . . . And, although Ye Directors do use computers in the Office, we avoid them as much as possible during the summer months.   Truth is, a lot of those  things that we don’t have at camp —  simply don’t matter — at least to Kamaji campers!

What we do have are GIRLS!  After nearly thirty summers at Kamaji, I’ve come to truly appreciate the fact that our campers are girls.  (No bias against boys or anything — after all I’m mom to two sons!)  However, I’ve found that camp can “teach” girls far more  things that the so-called real world does not — lessons that go beyond horseback riding, sailing, swimming, theater, etc.  I’ve even come away with a few lessons myself — lessons I didn’t knowingly go in search of.   What I’ve learned is that a girls’ camp allows girls the freedom to simply be themselves.  They are not judged by any standard —  not clothes, not appearance, not popularity, not athleticism, not talents, not where they come from, not what they own, not what their parents do for a living.  Instead they are judged simply by their own behavior — behavior that is positive, non-judgmental, non-critical . . . They don’t have to look a certain way, dress a certain way or worry about impressing anyone.  They don’t need to compete, to outdo, to be better than . . .

Instead Kamaji‘s campers (and staff too) are judged simply by how they act towards and treat others.  Kindness, consideration, thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and friendliness are adjectives that best describe what matters most at Kamaji! And while behaving in such a positive way, campers can also have fun, learn new things and develop heaps of life-long friendships.

Having learned that, it is my hope that the “real” lessons girls learn at camp are ones they can bring back to their off-season (real?) world.  Imagine the impact those kind of lessons could have on those not connected with camp!

One last bit of advice then to our Kamaji campers:  Be who you are, not what you think others think you should be!  The so-called real world would be such a better place if all its folks were really “real.”

Did you know that summer camp is an American invention – with camps becoming more and more widespread 90 to 100 years ago??  As discussed in a 2002 article written by Kay S. Hymowitz titled Notes on Camp, “Back then forward-thinking youth leaders worried about the influence of corrupt city life on the young and mourned the loss of small-town childhood where children could breathe fresh air and explore the woods and lakes.  And they questioned what city kids would do during the two-or-three-month summer school vacation that was designed to allow non-city kids to help families harvest crops and herd cows?”

Fast forward 100 years . . . and you’d be forgiven for wondering how this tradition of vigorous summer living can go over in 2009 where kids are wired, plugged-in, connected . . . where playtime has moved indoors and where children are steadily becoming a generation of “muscular thumbs.”

A January 2006 Miami Herald newspaper article reads:

“The street is empty. Even on a balmy winter weekend, exquisite in the way only South Florida days can be at this time of year, the children are nowhere to be seen.  There are no bikes, no scooters, no skates, no balls and gloves and pads . . .

“Tree climbing? Who does that anymore? Hide-and- seek? I can’t remember the last time I saw children play what was an all-time favorite game for me when all the cousins got together. Hopscotch, jump rope and stickball — I suppose these have gone the way of eight-tracks and black-and-white TV shows.

“U.S. factory sales of consumer electronics rose to$125.9 billion. . . and, while this figure includes much more than stuff for children,     it remains a good indication of where we’re headed.  Hours in front of the screen mean less time     in social interaction. Pushing buttons on a control translates into fewer push-ups and exercises.

“Toys reflect the culture, and we are a juiced-up society that can’t unplug itself. We’ve forgotten how  to be quiet. We don’t know what it’s like to be bored. We hate to be away from the constant stimulus that promises to keep us connected 24-7.”

While I find myself caught somewhere between completely buying into what the reporter wrote and vehemently disagreeing, I wonder to myself “Has the person who authored the Miami Herald piece ever been to summer camp?”  More specifically, has this person ever been to a Kamaji-like camp??  Where campers have no air-conditioning, no cable TV with 200+ channels, no VCRs, no DVDs, no I-Pods,  no arcade games, no computer access, no on-line chats, no instant messaging, no blogs, no cell phones, no e-mails, no  DISCMAN, no MTV, no channel surfing, no mini-disc players, no GameBoys, no PCPs.  Too, there are no shopping sprees at malls, no meals-made-your-way,  no electricity in the cabins, (heck there are no bathrooms in the cabins!!), no exhausted multi-tasked kids, no hefty list of extra-curricular-activities, no-tech experiences, no over-scheduled lives, no cyberspace, no celebrity-and-designer-crazed culture, no fumes, no boys!!

What you will find instead are . . .

. . . campers canoeing, campers roasting marshmallows, campers tirelessly singing songs, campers playing Capture the Flag, campers captivated by story-telling counselors, campers swimming and sailing in the waters of a crystal clear lake, campers playing tennis and horseback riding, campers surrounded and nourished by the beauty and immensity of nature . . .

. . . and steamy bowls of oatmeal, stars glittering above the lake, camp-like pleasures including brain-teasers and head-to-head intimate conversations, morning flag,  bunk beds, chipmunks, campfires, insect bites, shared experiences and shared memories, a climbing wall, great friends, cabin inspections . . .

. . . campers connecting with people in a way they never have before, where there is a calmness to life, a lack of urgency and worry, where if the day’s tennis instruction or swimming lesson does not get done the sun will still rise in the morning and no one will be any less for it, where everyone knows your name . . .

. . . where Native American words – Ishkaday, Waubun, Mundahmin, Metig, Geshig, Nanahtahga –  have special meaning, where daily rituals are steeped in decades of nostalgic  tradition, where mistakes are ok and perfection is rare . . .

. . . where it is ok to make friends and share friends, where a camper can discover herself, where responsibility, independence, mutual respect, friendship, leadership and cheerfulness are reinforced . . .

. . . where an atmosphere of trust that nurtures fond memories and deep, often lifelong, friendships and a lifetime of experiences await all, where campers feel as if they’re in a place that doesn’t change . . .  where time and technology don’t reach . . .

. . .and where that’s all okay!!

Is it a surprise, then, that it is still possible to take kids who are gadget-mesmerized, techno-driven and plugged-in. . . and entice them with the magic of camp?  It shouldn’t be.  Kids can be as fine as a culture asks them to be.

WRONG!  Ye Directors know for a fact there are many  heroines at Kamaji.  They are not written up in the news-papers; they are not given ticker-tape parades; they don’t get paid whopping salaries; they might not be glamorous; they’re likely not full-grown yet; heck they probably don’t even realize they are heroines.  They might not recognize that what they do or say does impact another Kamajian’s life.  They certainly may not realize how many lives they actually touch . . . what a difference they make . . . how important they are . . . what a role model, an idol, a star they’re perceived to be . . . that they are truly heroines in our self-contained summer world called Kamaji.

This heroine may come in the form of a Kamaji counselor –  maybe a swim instructor who helped a camper overcome her fear of the lake; perhaps a riding instructor who gently encouraged a camper to get back on a horse after a fall; could be a drama instructor who convinced a camper  she had what it takes to get up on stage and sing for the first time; or the cabin counselor who offered advice on how to resolve a problem with a cabin mate.  Maybe the heroine is a tribe leader who assured a member that she had not let her tribe down on Tribe Day or who patiently taught a new camper all the words to all the tribe  songs.    Maybe the heroine is a Kami Sister who forgoes the companionship of her camp friends on the bus trip to camp just so she can sit with her new Kami Sister and make her feel welcomed and special.  The heroine could even be  another camper who takes the time to go out of her way to make a not-so-sure-of-herself camper feel included in the cabin group.

Yes –  heroines come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all walks of  life.  A Kamaji heroine will probably never be featured in a tabloid, she won’t make the cover of Vogue magazine, she won’t go down in history . . . but she will be no less important and, in all likelihood, she will be far more loved, more emulated and long remembered after the so-called “real life heroes” of today are forgotten.

Seriously – when was the last time the corners of your mouth turned up . . . and you found yourself smiling . . . giving way to a giggle . . . and then letting loose with a belly-aching, side-splitting, tears-streaming-down-your-face laugh-out-loud laugh?  Just when was the last time you found yourself on a laughter high??!!

Seriously – do you know that a child laughs 400 times a day on the average, while an adult laughs only 15 times each day?  Lord knows we weren’t born serious!!  While I may be chronologically challenged, I remember being a child – a time in my life when most everything seemed funny!  My mom would gum her lips together and pretend to be toothless as she innocently asked if anyone had seen her teeth.  My uncle would burp after a holiday meal and say “My compliments to the chef.”  (When not relentlessly teasing me as only older brothers can!) My older brother could simply make a face and say something that was not even remotely funny but in its delivery would send me into a fit of laughter.

Seriously – when did we adults stop laughing??  Why did my mother’s “toothless” banter become insensitive?  My uncle’s belch not proper etiquette?  My brother’s jokes and goofy faces – in a word – juvenile?  When did I  – along with all those other grown-ups who have neglected their birthright to gut-wrenching laughter – become so serious??

During the Great Depression of the 1930s it is estimated that people laughed approximately 16–18 minutes each day; in 2009, grown-ups (on the average) laugh but six, out of a total 1440, minutes each day.  We adults have become much-too-much terminally too serious!!

Why are we so serious when no one can deny that laughter is good . . . laughter is healthy . . . indeed, laughter begets laughter??!!

Case-in-point: Just last week I was having lunch in one of my favorite local “haunts” with me-myself-and-I when, over the hustle-and-bustle of typical customer and service noise, the sound of an infant caught my attention.  I don’t know what the baby’s mom said or did that prompted what first sounded like a meow . . . which chorused into a baby’s giggle . . . which crashendoed into a gasping-for-air-legs-and-arms-flailing kind of laugh as only a baby can laugh.  What I do know is that the baby’s laughter became infectious as it sent up a chain reaction from those within ear-shot.  Seriously there wasn’t a person who did not stop and listen to the magical sound of laughter as it literally tsunami-ed across the restaurant.  Within moments there was not a down-turned mouth to be seen – not a serious face in the crowd – as patron after patron succumbed to the domino-effect of a child’s laugh.

What’s that expression about “out of the mouth of babes”?  As proven to me last week, one of the sweetest sounds in the world is the laughter of a child.  Clearly spending time with kids is a guaranteed, sure fire, funny bone tickling way to add humor and laughter to our daily lives — to help us take ourselves far less seriously — to enjoy the funny side of life.  How fortunate I am to spend every single summer day — all day for eight weeks straight — at Camp Kamaji in the company of kids . . .  the true “experts” on playing and taking life lightly all the while laughing.

Seriously – steal some time with kids each day and you’ll be surprised at the laughter that effortlessly bubbles forth from them . . . and from you!

Seriously – let’s all get serious – about laughing!!

To help you get started click here to get high on laughter.

For better or worse, for most campers – regardless of where they go to camp –  the academic school year is stretched over 9+ months; summer camp is, at best, anywhere from a week to 8 weeks. And yet so much learning takes place at camp . . . maybe not in “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic” but – in my opinion – an equally invaluable education as that which takes place in a desk-ordered, teacher-led, textbook-driven classroom.

Okay, Okay – I’ll admit my description of a school classroom may be a bit harsh but imagine my dismay when I read the following article – How to Spend a Productive Summer – written for high school students and offering advice on preparing for college admissions.

SUMMER DON’TS *
• Camp:
Unless you are a focused athlete and you are attending a sports camp, sleepaway camp and camping trips should end before the summer preceding ninth grade. The only exception to this rule is if a student has the opportunity to take on a leadership role such as a CIT (counselor in training), and even then, the summer before ninth grade should be the last year at camp. Colleges are not looking for experts in the arts of s’more-making and spin the bottle!

Obviously whoever wrote that “sage” advice never went to camp. . .or on a Pine Manor Canadian Canoe Trip!!  “The art of s’more- making and spin the bottle”?? How can someone who clearly has never realized the gift of camp generalize and trivialize the value – the educational value – of summer camp??!!

In search of expert opinion to support my case for the educational value of summer camp, I came across an article entitled Why Camp?.  Authored  by Andy Pritikin (owner and director of Liberty Lake Day Camp in Columbus, NJ and board member of the American Camp Association of which Camp Kamaji is a member)  I took the liberty of liberally excerpting, paraphrasing and repurposing Why Camp? and offer the following:

1.    In today’s world, kids often struggle in a clock-driven, “made over,” adult-oriented world where they are “fast tracked” to adulthood . . . where they are pre-programmed from sunrise to sundown.   Think about it: between the hours spent in school and extracurricular activities, participating in sports and attending to homework, studying and research projects, our children put in a longer “work” day than most American adults!!

Childhood should not be a dress rehearsal for adulthood.  Whatever happened to letting kids be kids?   Where is the time to simply “hang out” with friends or even family?  Truth-be-told, society makes it challenging for (a lot of over-stressed, over-programmed) kids to become the kind of well-adjusted adults we really want them to become.  Camp can be is an oasis by providing a safe, relaxing, playful environment for children free from pressures they have during the school year.  Camp can be is a place where kids can forget about the worries of everyday life and live simple, uncomplicated, child-friendly, child-centered lives that make more sense than their over-scheduled ones at home and school.

2.    Summer camp offers creative and athletic activities which keep the brain and body working at peak performance.   The group setting and activities of camp provide a real-life, hands-on, experiential classroom where kids and young adults learn the skills of developing relationships and making friends, negotiation, compromise, conflict resolution, cooperation, self-advocacy, group teamwork and decision-making.  Kids explore and learn new activities.  Supervised by trained staff within a safe, structured, positive, child-centered and fun(!) environment, kids at camp are respected, trusted, encouraged, praised and loved, valued and inspired.

3.    Camp is real . . . and it’s magical.  It is a place where children are inspired to believe that anything is possible and that their potential is limitless.

4.    Camp provides a safe environment for children to attempt risks, fail, try again, and succeed!! All without the fear of a failing grade or embarrassment or “academically imposed tracking”.

5.    At home  parents (with only the best of intentions) micromanage their kids from getting them up in the morning to making their beds, from cooking and cleaning up after them to chauffeuring  them from place-to-place, from helping them with their homework to running interference when things don’t go their way.  At camp, where  mom and dad are not around to act as a safety net,  kids are empowered to make their own decisions – decisions that directly impact them, that have consequences. . .  Kids love camp – because they get to feel like grown-ups.  And campers actually do grow up  –  little-by-little, day-by-day.

6.    At camp everyone has the same stuff:  a T-shirt, a pair of tennis shoes, a bathing suit, a flashlight, a sleeping bag . . . and little else.  (Okay maybe Kamaji campers pack a little more!!)  Judged solely by their behavior rather than by things of superficial value, kids learn things of real value – personal responsibility, independence, self-confidence, respect, social awareness, and cheerfulness:  skills  sought after by both fine colleges and future employers – life skills needed to become a happy, successful adult.

7.    Camp not only brings out the best in a person, it brings out the “real” person.  It peels back all the layers that everyday life adds and reveals a camper’s true identity.

Okay, I could go on . . . and on (as well those of you who know me know I can!!) but I’ll get off my soapbox now.  However, before I do I would ask the author of the list of  Summer Don’ts for College-Bound High School Students:  Have you ever met anyone who has gone to summer camp?  Ever listen to them go on and on about that amazing counselor, or their close “camp friends” that they still speak to years later? Ever read an essay by a Kamaji Pine Manor camper who has canoed into the horizon of a dawning sun, lugged canoes and backpacks across portages with mud-up-to-her-hips and laughed about it, set up tents in a whirlwind of  flapping nylon in the advent of a summer thunderstorm and then curled up in a sleeping bag as the lightening flashes white-and-orange over Canadian lakes?

Have you ever felt so alive, so empowered, so together with campers – friends and peers – and counselors and trip leader – mentors and role models –  forming a bond of unified strength, courage and love. Have you ever instilled in those who undertook the challenge of a lifetime at 15 years of age (as rising high school sophomores) “the inspiration and confidence to chase down their dreams and ride them out?”

For you without this experience, it must sound quite strange – as obviously you think “camp” is just a bunch of kids and counselors running around playing games (like Spin the Bottle) and making s’mores?  But if you talk to any camper, camp parent, camp counselor, camp director, you’ll be told endless stories filled with memories and life-altering experiences.    Truly camp is one of those things in life that, unless you’ve lived  it, you cannot even begin to appreciate its impact.

That said, I respectfully urge you – author of the Summer Don’ts –  DO GO TO CAMP!!