Going to get into camp traditions in a sec. But first, three things
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Ok, on with the show
When you join a camp family, there’s a lot that comes with it. DUH.
Some I see coming. Budget stuff (ugh). Maintenance issues (oh sweet, the water heater broke, and then so did another one). Parent questions about screen time policies (no phones people!)
And some get brought up when you meet a group of alumni from the early 2000s who start grilling you about whether you’re going to change all the cool stuff they love and remember about their camp.
That happened to me a few weeks ago at a camp 2006 mini-reunion-get-together-thing.
These (very awesome) women are in their 30s now. Oldest kids are five, and they’re getting close to sending their kids to camp.
And their biggest concern? Camp traditions are going to go away with new faces around.
“If Scott isn’t here, what happens to X? If Phyllis isn’t there how will Y happen? If Jacki isn’t there, how will the Z tradition keep going…”
They love this place. They wanted to know the soul of camp would survive with me in charge.
Fair worry and harder than you would think to ease their concerns.
Don’t change my camp for the worse!
Peanut Pal. Shield of Honor. Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Opening Campfire. Mess Ugly. Opening Campfire.
If you don’t go to camp, you have no idea what these mean.
If you do go to camp, these mean everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) to you.
Camp traditions are either
A: Completely meaningless or
B: The most important thing in the world.
There’s not much middle ground.
Sitting with these alums, I realized they were asking if things would survive because those things felt tied to specific people. Which happens a lot with camp.
How do you separate what makes camp special from the individuals who’ve been holding it?
Phyllis and Jacki and Scott made these moments for years. AND they are awesome. They kept them going. Passed them along.
But they can’t be dependent on any single person.
Not Phyllis. Not Jacki. Not Scott. Not me.
The traditions make the whole place. The people are the stewards.
The goal of these traditions is to highlight the soul. At our camp, that soul is friendship and family and community and being yourself and being able to not have to wear makeup and spending weeks with people who end up a lot like your cousins.
Every tradition exists because it creates a moment where one of those things gets lived, not just talked about.
Peanut Pals isn’t about matching older and younger campers. It’s about a 7-year-old realizing an actual real-life older kid thinks they’re worth looking out for.
Opening Campfire isn’t about gathering and singing songs. It’s the first time all summer everyone is in one place. Where we FEEL together.
Our friends at Campminder have the Campanion app helped me learn a whole camp's worth of faces
Pull up photos, match names to bunks, actually remember conversations.
Payment plans, medical forms, emergency contacts. Parents do it themselves through the portal. Check out Campminder!
Check out Campminder!
The bridge to build
Camp is all about the people. And it’s also not.
Our job is to keep the traditions that make camp. Not reinvent the wheel.
What I’m trying to do: bridge the divide between the nostalgia of the past and the possibility of the future.
Camp can’t be static.
We’re entering into a more and more AI world. The world was different in 2006. Libraries had books, cars had no lane assist, Bad Day was the top song, THE NEWSFEED HADN'T BEEN INVENTED. The world is different. Camps need to be different.
At the same time, we as camps need to be able to adjust to the times. Support kids and staff without losing the soul of what camp actually is.
We can’t radically adjust to the whims of what’s cool. We need to see the throughline.
Meeting the needs of today while holding on to the power and legacy of the past.
Camp holds onto this time warp. I feel like I am constantly trying to recreate a 90s childhood. No phones, skinned knees, but still love.
Our job is to steward the soul of each tradition of camp, because the people do make camp, but the people change.