Camp place + camp people > camp programming
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We ran a mini-camp in the winter this weekend.
It’s called, drumroll please….. Winter Weekend.
Not the whole camp. Just the seniors (13, 14, 15 years old) at K&E this summer. It’s a long-standing tradition here, and honestly, it’s such a culture builder.
It’s fresh on my mind (just ended about 24 hours ago, total whirlwind), but also a great winter reminder about why camps (camps everywhere) kick so much ass.
Let’s go old school-Bill Simmons, running diary-style through this thing so you can see what I mean.
And I promise there’s an all-camp takeaway at the end.
Friday 11:00am - Meet the NYC bus with Violet. Cold happy kids. Remind them to tell their parents they love them!
5:00pm - Buses arrive. Cold as hell. Some worry about snowstorms and windchills. But I knew we were running it kinda no matter what.
6:15pm - Dinner in the bottom of Cypress, which is normally the dance studio. Kind of a funky little spot. Only a handful of places at camp are winterized so we make it work.
7:00pm - Sledding in the Hollow. All your best friends just go to a sledding hill and you’re messing around. Everyone’s dressed like a marshmallow because you’re out in the snow.
No one cares about falling because you’re falling into fluffy snow in a marshmallow costume.
Yeah the teens are flirting a little with each other, but how serious can it get when everyone’s dressed like the kid in A Christmas Story who can’t put his arm down. Can barely tell who you’re even talking to.
8:15pm - Bingo in Cyprus. The game works because it’s like an excuse to talk to each other over a thing happening in the background. They’re just hanging out, playing bingo, winning a few prizes.
9:00pm - Somewhere around here Hut 6 and Juniper start figuring out how to be leaders. Hut 6 gathered everybody organically and tried to play Simon Says. Then they did this little rap battle thing. The rule was everybody has to be nice to each other, and in their own way, this is where leadership starts.
10:00pm - Back to bunks. Teenagers love having staff around, but only to a certain extent. They want to talk to counselors and directors, but they also want their own space. They stay up late catching up, reliving camp.
Saturday, 8:30am - Wake up.
9:00am - Breakfast in Cypress.
10:00am - Options here and there. Sledding in the Hollow. Sledding at JBF. Broomball on the pond. Kids going back and forth between them. It’s cold enough for fires on the lake.
10:30am - Pickleball opens. It’s indoors in the unheated dining hall, which is kind of cool.
12:30pm - Pizza lunch.
12:45pm - Giveaways and group photo.
1:30pm - We ran a “What do you want from this summer?”-session. Sat down with the kids to ask them their opinions on programs, traditions, stuff they want to ditch, stuff they want to come back.
2:15pm - S’mores by the fire on a frozen lake it pretty sweet.
3:00pm - Tackle football in the Hollow. This might be the best thing we do all weekend. Coed tackle. Everybody in their jumpsuits. You can’t move that fast. It’s just so fun and silly. Kids don’t get to play pickup tackle football almost anywhere anymore.
4:00pm - Sleigh or Nay which is a winter version of Yacht or Not (Sled Edition) where kids make sleds and then ride them. It’s very low stakes and totally silly.
6:00pm - Dinner.
6:30pm - Outdoor sledding in the Hollow in the dark with the big lights turned on.
7:00pm - DIY ice cream in Cypress.
7:30pm - Fireworks on the beach. So special to be at camp and there’s fireworks, and it’s freezing, but you’re out watching them.
8:00pm - Blacklight party in Hemlock. They’re bundled up because it’s not a heated building, but then it warms up because they’re all in there. First social as seniors for a bunch of them.
9:00pm - Chillin in Cypress. But also somewhere in here Scott played guitar upstairs. Totally optional. He’s like “I’m gonna go play guitar upstairs if anybody wants to come sing some songs.”
And the kids did. It was awesome.
Sunday, 7:15am - Pack up.
8:00am - Breakfast.
9:00am - Board buses. Kids hugging goodbye. Some crying a little bit. Parents asking if we’re doing this again next year.
So….
My big takeaways from Winter Weekend?
It’s two things.
1 →
The K&E team here is awesome. They absolutely crushed it. It’s a ton of planning work with logistics and requires planning and then a 48 hour sprint of 110% energy. You need full buy-in to do this stuff.
2 →
Place + people > programming.
This is my second time seeing Winter Weekend, and I’m so appreciative that Scott and the team had this as a yearly tradition already.
Look at what we actually did.
Sledding. Bingo. S’mores on a frozen lake. Tackle football in the snow. None of this is insanely complicated programming. We’re not running elaborate adventure courses or hiring performers or creating some massive production.
It’s just making the snow and camp work with just enough to do to keep the kids moving. Fire on the ice. Pickleball in an unheated dining hall. Snacks. Scott playing guitar.
Not every camp can do this exact thing.
But I bet a lot of camps could do some version of it. Reunions. Hockey tournaments in New York. Rent a camp with winterized buildings. Promise meals, some stuff to do, maybe break even money-wise (which is what it is for us).
The activities are mostly just excuses to be together. Bingo gives you something to talk over. Football gives you a reason to be outside, falling into snow. The blacklight party gives you a place to dance and be goofy.
Now they’re going back to school carrying camp with them. They’re texting about it. They’re already planning for summer.
And when summer starts, they’re not starting from zero. They’re continuing something that never really stopped.
You got this,
Jack
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Get my newsletter every week.
It’s all about kids today
Jack Schott
Summer Camp Evangelist