Day of Service

I am writing this on Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service and it got me thinking about the impact of volunteers.  What better way to give then to give of your most valuable commodity, your time.  This year we had hundreds of individuals come to Kanata and invest their time to complete work that never would have been accomplished without their help.  This past year volunteers painted every cabin, the arts & crafts hut, the bathouse and the lodge.  Volunteers built benches for our campers to sit on while waiting for archery, they built picnic tables with checker boards on top so our campers could interact with friends over a game.  Volunteers came and planted a vegetable garden, cleared areas of the woods for hiking trails and they built trash cans to place around camp.  

These many things were accomplished through the work of volunteers and we at Kanata can never thank them enough.  Because of the impact of volunteers on Kanata and our staff Zach Friesen, our Operations Director, planned for our staff to do a Habitat for Humanity work day.  It was a small way for us to give back to our community and to say thank you to the volunteers that helped us.  

This year, look for an opportunity to give back.  Getting your family, church group or work group is a great teambuilding opportunity.  If you are interested in volunteering at Camp Kanata this year please let us know.  Give us a call in the office (919.556.2661) and we will find a project for your group.

Thanks for being part of the Kanata family.

Your Camp Director,

Dave

On the road for Kanata

I am at the Y Guides & Princesses Winter Inning today and I have a Kanata information table set up as a way to promote our summer programs. Almost all of the dads and their kids I see today have been to Kanata for there kick off campfire every year. As I stand beside my table and the camp dvd plays in the background I run into two types of children. The first type are the kids who have never been to Kanata before and they are in a trance watching all the fun things we do at camp as the dvd plays. The second type are the kids who have been to Kanata in the summer and they love the fun things we do, but they don't care about the dvd they want to talk about their counselor and their friends and see if they are coming back.

Kanata is a great place with some great activities, but what makes it magical and impactful are the friendships. We hope to see you at Kanata this summer and I bet you come home with some great new friends. See you this summer.

Your Camp Director,

Dave

Professional Development

Every year about this time for the past 8 years (I'm getting old) I have headed to Black Mountain, NC to YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly for the YMCA Campfire Conference. This conference brings YMCA camping professionals from all over the country together for a week of training and energizing as we prepare for the coming summer. I must admit that this conference is one of the highlights of my year for a few reasons:

1. Some of my best friends are here. I have met some great fellow camp directors over the years and this conference is a time for us to get together and talk about our camps.
2. It gets me excited about the coming summer. I know that when I come back from this conference it is officially time to start planning for the summer.
3. I always learn something. It never fails I always come home with something that I know I am going to implement in the coming summer.
   

I often say that I have the best job in the entire world, and the opportunity to attend trainings like this are part of what make it special. Our goal every year is to make Kanata a little better than it was the year before and things I learned this week will help make that possible. See you this summer!

Your Camp Director,

Dave

Come meet us on the road!

This time of year at Kanata is when we start to get kind of busy. I see less and less of our staff because we end up going in many directions as we begin to recruit campers and staff. Tomorrow is our first official recruiting event of the year, and we will be at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh from 12:00 noon till 3:00 p.m. reconnecting with old campers and sharing our camp program with "yet to be" Kanata campers. We will do several more shows like this in places like Raleigh, Wilmington and Charlottesville, Va. We also do "Camp Nights" in the homes of some of our campers. They open their house up, invite a bunch of friends over and our staff show up and tell about the great things going on at Kanata. I hope to see many of you on the road at a camp fair or a camp night at your house.

Not only are we recruiting campers, but Ryan Eves, assistant summer camp director, will be busy the next few months visiting a number of colleges along the east coast trying to find the best staff to be counselors this summer. We are very lucky because the majority of our staff have been campers with us and they know exactly what Kanata is supposed to feel like in the summer.

We hope to see many you on the road this year, but more importantly we want to see you at Kanata this summer.

If you love Kanata be sure to tell a friend!

Your Camp Director,

Dave

Some things I would like to see at camp this summer...

One of the great parts about my job is the fact that I get to dream alot.  I get to spend a good part of the year thinking about what would be a great thing to add at Kanata for the upcoming summer.  Here are some things that I have been dreaming about recently:

• a beach volleyball court beside the pool - how great would it be to have a full size beach volleyball court for our volleyball classes and for things to do as a cabin or during swim time
• a pontoon boat for the lake - wouldn't it be great for your cabin to be able to take the pontoon boat out for a spin on unit night during the summer for a "Kanata Dinner Cruise"
• a disc golf course - I have been playing disc golf like crazy for the past month and we have talked about adding a course at camp for the last couple of years.  I think it would be a great addition to our program and facility

These are just a few of the things I would love to see us have at Kanata, but what are things you would like to see?  If you get a chance send me some things you would love to see at Kanata.

See you this summer.

Your Camp Director

Dave Bell

Happy Holidays from Camp Kanata

It's almost Christmas and I'm sitting in a Panera Bread location on Capital Blvd. thinking back over the past year at Kanata. We had an incredible year! We made some great new friends and were able to reconnect with some old ones. If it was your first year with us at Camp Kanata we want to get to know you better. It can be difficult to get to know someone when they are at camp for just one or two weeks a year and that is why we have many opportunities for you to stay connected. Whether it is a volunteer opportunity for your church group or you individually, a team-building program for your corporate group or you individually volunteering in or giving to our annual scholarship campaign we want to get to know you better. We truly believe that Kanata is a great place to invest your resources because each and every day we are helping to produce campers and futures leaders with the character traits of honesty, respect, responsibilty and caring.

Thanks for your support of Camp Kanata this year. We are truly blessed to be in the work of strengthening children, families and communities. Have a Merry Christmas!

Your Camp Director,

Dave Bell

Connecting...that's what it's all about

When I think about what makes Kanata special to so many people I realize it is the time we spend connecting with them.  Maybe you first connected with Kanata at a Y-Guides & Princesses Fall Outing or you connected at a Mini-Camp and it was your first overnight away from home.  You might have met us at a Camp Fair or a friend told you about Kanata and you decided to give it a try.

Whatever way you were first introduced to us we are glad it happened and now we are always looking for better ways to connect with our present campers, our staff, our alumni and our parents.  Because of this we are actively using new and different methods to stay in contact with present Kanata family members and looking at new ways to reach out to those we haven’t connected with yet.

A great resource we are using to stay connected with staff and alumni is Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) .  This website allows us to find former staff and campers and keep them updated on what is going on at camp and to give them opportunities to reconnect through alumni events throughout the year.  Just search for Camp Kanata.  The fun doesn’t stop there!  We recently started a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/campkanata) where we are able to upload videos of things going on at camp.  It is a simple way to introduce a new staff member, highlight changes at camp and just do some fun stuff to make ourselves (and hopefully you) laugh.  We have also gone to an email newsletter format.  This allows us to quickly and efficiently send out updates without the cost of paper and postage and to be better stewards of our natural resources.  We fully understand that we are in the people business and we just happen to run a camp.  Because of this we want to get to know you better and we want you to know us better.  Please take time to catch up with us through Facebook, YouTube, email or drop by and see us sometime. 

 

Thank you for choosing Kanata for your summer camp experience!  We can’t wait to see you next summer!

 

Your Camp Director,

 

Dave Bell