So this year we have put a great deal of effort into using social media to help connect to participants, parents, alumni and volunteers. We started using Twitter (www.twitter.com/campkanata) this summer as a way to stay connected to parents during the week. It is a micro blogging site that lets us put updates (less than 140 characters) and pictures so people can see and hear what is happening at camp.
Sometimes new technology can be scary to work with, but we looked at it as a great opportunity to use this technology to let parents know what their children are doing at camp. We hope you like the service (its free) and maybe you will become addicted to it like me and start finding other people to follow.
Just so you know we are are having a great time at camp and hope to see you soon.
Your Camp Director,
Dave
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
If you haven't been here in a while...
We have a few new additions here at camp. Check 'em out!
Full Court Basketball -- With adjustable goals!
Sand Volleyball!
New Stage on our New Field!
If you haven't been here in a while...come and see us!
Full Court Basketball -- With adjustable goals!
Sand Volleyball!
New Stage on our New Field!
If you haven't been here in a while...come and see us!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Summer 2009 has officially begun!
So we got off to a great start yesterday for the 2009 summer season at Kanata. The first cars started lining up around 11:30 a.m. for a 2:00 p.m. check in. Luckily families were prepared to take part in our first ever "Tailgate Check In". We had live music provided by the "Dancing Elephants", families brought picnic lunches, some grilled out, families were hiking around the lake and playing basketball and volleyball at the new program center near the pool.
I could spend a great amount of time going through every activity, but I think the main thing to know is that we (campers and staff) are having a great time and are so thankful that the summer finally arrived. We will spend the next week making friends, learning new skills, becoming better citizens, singing crazy songs, laughing at skits and getting a chance to meet "Captain KP" in the dining hall. Don't worry about us and we will see you on Saturday!
Your Camp Director,
Dave
I could spend a great amount of time going through every activity, but I think the main thing to know is that we (campers and staff) are having a great time and are so thankful that the summer finally arrived. We will spend the next week making friends, learning new skills, becoming better citizens, singing crazy songs, laughing at skits and getting a chance to meet "Captain KP" in the dining hall. Don't worry about us and we will see you on Saturday!
Your Camp Director,
Dave
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Tradition Continues
Greetings once again from the best place on earth!
Our week of staff training is coming to a close and it will be nice to relax a bit and rest up before the staff come back and the kids arrive on Sunday. This week I've had the pleasure of watching the staff get to know one another and connect to form the Spartan, Daisy, Ranger, Butterfly, Knight and Angel units. I've gotten to meet and get to know counselors from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel and Ethiopia. I've been able to reconnect with old friends and create new friendships as the weeks gone on.
Staff week would have been much less without the wonderful contributions of Jim Cain. His opening games and exercises and the challenges he gave our staff will make a lasting impression on this summer and many summers to come. If you get to play "WAH!" this summer you have Jim to thank.
As I was getting ready to leave today, I happened to check my Facebook messages and this is what I found:
Ryan-
Every time I read your status and see it's about camp/staff week I get a knot in my stomach. Those are the most precious days and I hope you bask and soak in them for every second they last. I just told Abby Hoover [one of our staff this summer] that every year when the girls get together for a Daisy Reunion we all agree camp days are the most golden of our memories. Through graduations, boyfriends, marriages and children and all of the things that make life grand, camp is definitely at the top. So when it's hot and the kids are whiny and you're too tired because you chose to chat with friends instead of go to sleep, just remember: These days are golden and nothing will ever replace them in your heart. Even the sticky, pouty days are better than most when you're in the real world.
I hope you have the most delightful summer ever. I hope staff week and all of the following weeks flow smooth like a river. And remember, there are decades of people who love you and wish they could be out there with you. Good Luck and do your best everyday!!
Much, much love,
Rikki
It was an honor to respond to Rikki, who I remember as a counselor and head female counselor from my days as a camper. When I'm in the moment and running around trying to make sure that trainings and work detail are going well, it's easy to forget the legacy and tradition I get to carry on as a member of the Kanata staff team. As I told Rikki in my response, I am truly honored to continue the tradition this summer.
As I begin my 15th summer here at Kanata I wish you the best. May you have time to relax, reconnect with old friends and make some new ones. May you have time to slow down and enjoy the heat by the lake or the pool. May you be refreshed and renewed over the weeks to come. I hope that you get a chance to visit this summer. There's always space in the dining hall!
See you real soon!
Much, much love,
Ryan
Our week of staff training is coming to a close and it will be nice to relax a bit and rest up before the staff come back and the kids arrive on Sunday. This week I've had the pleasure of watching the staff get to know one another and connect to form the Spartan, Daisy, Ranger, Butterfly, Knight and Angel units. I've gotten to meet and get to know counselors from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel and Ethiopia. I've been able to reconnect with old friends and create new friendships as the weeks gone on.
Staff week would have been much less without the wonderful contributions of Jim Cain. His opening games and exercises and the challenges he gave our staff will make a lasting impression on this summer and many summers to come. If you get to play "WAH!" this summer you have Jim to thank.
As I was getting ready to leave today, I happened to check my Facebook messages and this is what I found:
Ryan-
Every time I read your status and see it's about camp/staff week I get a knot in my stomach. Those are the most precious days and I hope you bask and soak in them for every second they last. I just told Abby Hoover [one of our staff this summer] that every year when the girls get together for a Daisy Reunion we all agree camp days are the most golden of our memories. Through graduations, boyfriends, marriages and children and all of the things that make life grand, camp is definitely at the top. So when it's hot and the kids are whiny and you're too tired because you chose to chat with friends instead of go to sleep, just remember: These days are golden and nothing will ever replace them in your heart. Even the sticky, pouty days are better than most when you're in the real world.
I hope you have the most delightful summer ever. I hope staff week and all of the following weeks flow smooth like a river. And remember, there are decades of people who love you and wish they could be out there with you. Good Luck and do your best everyday!!
Much, much love,
Rikki
It was an honor to respond to Rikki, who I remember as a counselor and head female counselor from my days as a camper. When I'm in the moment and running around trying to make sure that trainings and work detail are going well, it's easy to forget the legacy and tradition I get to carry on as a member of the Kanata staff team. As I told Rikki in my response, I am truly honored to continue the tradition this summer.
As I begin my 15th summer here at Kanata I wish you the best. May you have time to relax, reconnect with old friends and make some new ones. May you have time to slow down and enjoy the heat by the lake or the pool. May you be refreshed and renewed over the weeks to come. I hope that you get a chance to visit this summer. There's always space in the dining hall!
See you real soon!
Much, much love,
Ryan
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Staff Week @ Camp Kanata
So I have been part of the Kanata staff since 2003 and during this time I have gone through 7 staff weeks. It is very similar every year, the old staff show up on day one of staff training and they are hugging anyone in sight and yelling about how excited they are to be back at camp. The new staff walk in not exactly sure of what they have signed up for, but are eager to "fit in" and be part of what seems like a great place to work.
What is magical about staff week at Kanata, and I'm sure at similar camps across the country, is that we are able to transfer the culture of camp in only one weeks time. We cover daily schedule, first aid, songs, emergency action plans, cheers, discipline, age group characteristics, activity time, devotions, but the most important thing we cover during staff week is Kanata culture. We talk on a daily basis about what it means to be part of camp, how the most important thing we deliver at camp is friendship building. We talk about how we connect with the parents on check in day and make sure that we connect with that camper and then make a point to teaching him or her how to make friends with someone else in the cabin.
I know that corporations and businesses across the country pay large sums of money for consultants to come in and tell them how to fix the culture, but all they need to do is spend one week at Kanata staff week. They would then understand what it means to dig down to what is the most important thing at camp (the people) and then spend as much time as possible focusing on that.
We hire great people, but then we go the extra mile to invest in them and give them the tools necessary to deliver the best camp experience for the child, the family and the fellow staff members. We are excited that the campers will arrive on Sunday and can't wait to start sharing our "Kanata culture" with the campers and their families!
See you this summer.
Your Camp Director,
Dave
What is magical about staff week at Kanata, and I'm sure at similar camps across the country, is that we are able to transfer the culture of camp in only one weeks time. We cover daily schedule, first aid, songs, emergency action plans, cheers, discipline, age group characteristics, activity time, devotions, but the most important thing we cover during staff week is Kanata culture. We talk on a daily basis about what it means to be part of camp, how the most important thing we deliver at camp is friendship building. We talk about how we connect with the parents on check in day and make sure that we connect with that camper and then make a point to teaching him or her how to make friends with someone else in the cabin.
I know that corporations and businesses across the country pay large sums of money for consultants to come in and tell them how to fix the culture, but all they need to do is spend one week at Kanata staff week. They would then understand what it means to dig down to what is the most important thing at camp (the people) and then spend as much time as possible focusing on that.
We hire great people, but then we go the extra mile to invest in them and give them the tools necessary to deliver the best camp experience for the child, the family and the fellow staff members. We are excited that the campers will arrive on Sunday and can't wait to start sharing our "Kanata culture" with the campers and their families!
See you this summer.
Your Camp Director,
Dave
Friday, June 5, 2009
Everything I Learned In Life, I Learned At Summer Camp...
My life has changed pretty drastically in the past couple of weeks. I had to pack up and move to Kanata, I now eat the majority of my meals in the dining hall, and I have spent the past week spending the majority of each day with the Kanata Ad Staff. For most people, that would be a lot of changes to get used to in such a small span of time. However, for me, all of these changes just mean that I am that much closer to the beginning of summer at Camp. I am so excited for campers to arrive and for the fun to begin!
I recently found this article and I thought it was appropriate. I think the lines that are the most appropriate are, "...Camp people find comfort in knowing that throughout the whole year, no matter what goes wrong, everything will be ok once you get to camp. Camp people know that when you look your worst, it means you've done your best. But above all, camp people know that regardless if you've spent one summer at camp or fifty, a part of you will be changed forever." I hope for those of you that consider yourself "camp people," or for those of you that will soon be joining me at Camp Kanata, that rings just as true for you as it does for me.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the article and I can't wait to share my summer with you! I hope to see you all at Camp this summer!
I recently found this article and I thought it was appropriate. I think the lines that are the most appropriate are, "...Camp people find comfort in knowing that throughout the whole year, no matter what goes wrong, everything will be ok once you get to camp. Camp people know that when you look your worst, it means you've done your best. But above all, camp people know that regardless if you've spent one summer at camp or fifty, a part of you will be changed forever." I hope for those of you that consider yourself "camp people," or for those of you that will soon be joining me at Camp Kanata, that rings just as true for you as it does for me.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the article and I can't wait to share my summer with you! I hope to see you all at Camp this summer!
Everything I Learned in Life, I Learned From Camp
I've done the math. So far, over the course of my life I have spent 3,150 days in a classroom learning. I've dissected frogs, read Shakespeare, memorized the first five lines in the constitution, and studied my times tables. But if you ask me what I've really learned from my twenty years of life so far, I'd answer you with the following: ketchup could be classified as its own food group, Kings is as competitive a sport as football, and "rock-paper-scissors" is the greatest form of diplomatic resolution.
This coming summer will be my eighteenth "camp" summer. While most of my friends will be working at the mall, taking stubs at the local movie theater, or selling hot dogs at the beach, I will find myself working eleven, twelve, or sometimes thirteen-hour days making sure that "Carnival Day" is run without a glitch, "Color-War" is as memorable for the winning team as it is for the team that comes in last, and that the "Bus Decorating" contest is judged fairly.
The only thing more amazing than how much of an impact camp has had on my life, is that it took me eighteen years to figure that out! It was not until my second summer as a counselor that my director made me realize that I wanted to turn my thirty-nine-day summer experiences into a life long career. But why would I want it any other way? I've been in and seen Broadway comparable productions of Grease and Peter Pan, learned how to hit homeruns like Babe Ruth, and soared through the woods like Tarzan. I've performed as many songs as the Beatles in front of hundreds of people, learned to build a fire in the pouring rain, and made enough lanyard key-chains to get myself into the Guinness Book of World Records. Not too many people I know have accomplished as much in their lifetimes as I have in eighteen summers.
As marvelous as I consider my accomplishments to be, there's one problem with it all. Trying to explain your camp life to an "outsider" is harder than trying to reason with a two-year-old. The truth is people who never went to summer camp simply cannot appreciate how grand it really is. There are some people for whom camp becomes a life-line. It gets into their blood, seeps into their cells, and refuses to leave. These people get misty-eyed whenever they smell campfire smoke in the air. They take a certain pride in their voices being hoarse and in not having showered for four days. Ketchup stains on T-shirts are considered battle scars, instead of just dirt.
Camp people know that being able to drink bug juice without getting a bright red mustache is a right of passage. No matter how many years have passed, a camp person can still remember the exact words the camp director said to them when they were chosen to lead a Color War team. Camp people love construction paper and puff paint, lanyard, and scrap books. To a camp person, Homerun Derby, Four Square, and Kings are not games, they're a way of life. Camp people get hungry, not for lavish meals, but for under-cooked hamburgers and burnt hotdogs cooked over a ten-year-old charcoal grill in the pouring rain. In the winter, they dream not of a sunny beach and the scent of coconut oil, but of chilly July mornings with dew drained grass. Camp people know all the words to "The Littlest Worm" and know that the worm will always wind up in the same person's bed. Camp people have back-up plans for rainy days, even though it never rains. Camp people are comforted by the sound of a child running the bases, the sight of a child climbing the rock-wall, and the smell of the locker rooms.
Camp people understand that school is ten months out of the year in order to make the two months spent at camp more special. Camp people know that hitting a bull's-eye in archery is properly done in silence but must be while surrounded with a group of friends. Camp people usually can't remember what they're laughing about anymore by the time they finally stop. Camp people know that life is just easier when you shout, "YES!!! I made a mistake!" Camp people know the contentment of everyone in sight wearing the same staff shirt. Camp people find comfort in knowing that throughout the whole year, no matter what goes wrong, everything will be ok once you get to camp. Camp people know that when you look your worst, it means you've done your best. But above all, camp people know that regardless if you've spent one summer at camp or fifty, a part of you will be changed forever.
Eighteen months stand between me graduating and hopefully working at a camp full time. Who knows how many more term papers, finals, and presentations I have ahead of me. I can't tell you how many more "all-nighters" I'll have to pull or how many more cups of coffee I'll buy at the library. But, I know this: twenty years from now when I am a camp director, my recollection of Freud's impact on psychopathology will be minimal to say the least, and I probably won't be able to recite the first five lines of the constitution, but if you ask me why I return to camp, summer after summer, year after year, I'll simply smile and say, "Everything I learned in life, I learned from camp!"
Originally published in the 2006 July/August issue of Camping Magazine.
Family Camp rocks at Camp Kanata
So this past weekend I had the great privilege to spend the weekend at Camp Kanata. I had just come off of a week long tent camping trip with my wife on the Outerbanks of North Carolina, but I was excited about meeting some great families.
We assigned a "Kanata Host" to every family so they would have someone to eat dinner with, ask questions and just have a friendly face around if they ever needed some ideas on what to do next. On the first night at dinner I happened to sit down with the McGee family. I got to meet John (dad), Taylor (8 year old Kanata camper) and Cole (5 year old first timer). It was great to talk with them about what they wanted to do over the course of the weekend and I realized quickly they would not be getting much sleep the first night.
Over the course of the weekend I got to observe families trying out the "Giant Swing" for the first time, parents getting in a canoe with their child, kids hitting a bullseye at archery, a large group taking a hike around the lake and even time for making animal tracks on the dining hall porch.
At the closing lunch I was sitting across from Cole McGee (age 5) and as we were sitting there he looked up at his dad and said, "Dad, I don't ever want to leave Camp Kanata!" I couldn't ask for a better endorsement of a camp experience. We are having family camp again next year and you and your family need to be here with us. What a great way to spend a weekend!
See you this summer.
Your Camp Director,
Dave
We assigned a "Kanata Host" to every family so they would have someone to eat dinner with, ask questions and just have a friendly face around if they ever needed some ideas on what to do next. On the first night at dinner I happened to sit down with the McGee family. I got to meet John (dad), Taylor (8 year old Kanata camper) and Cole (5 year old first timer). It was great to talk with them about what they wanted to do over the course of the weekend and I realized quickly they would not be getting much sleep the first night.
Over the course of the weekend I got to observe families trying out the "Giant Swing" for the first time, parents getting in a canoe with their child, kids hitting a bullseye at archery, a large group taking a hike around the lake and even time for making animal tracks on the dining hall porch.
At the closing lunch I was sitting across from Cole McGee (age 5) and as we were sitting there he looked up at his dad and said, "Dad, I don't ever want to leave Camp Kanata!" I couldn't ask for a better endorsement of a camp experience. We are having family camp again next year and you and your family need to be here with us. What a great way to spend a weekend!
See you this summer.
Your Camp Director,
Dave
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