Wilderness Survival

Hut-building, making dinner on an open campfire, creek hikes and learning about plants and basic survival skills give campers a new appreciation for the great outdoors. Outdoor Living Skills (OLS) focuses on teaching environmental preservation/conservation.

Arriving at camp on the first day bring many exciting and new feelings and emotions for campers. Campers can be both happy and excited as well as nervous and apprehensive especially on the first day at camp. We understand these wide ranges of feelings that campers experience while at camp and try to make every effort to help every camper fit in and feel at home when they arrive. Campers at Camp are gradually acclimated to their small groups as well as the larger camp-wide group.

After checking-in on Friday afternoon, campers move their things into the cabin before taking a general orientation hike around the camp. During the orientation hike, the campers learn the locations of various facilities and discuss general rules for conduct and safety.

The first evening meal is an outdoor sack-supper taken with the individual cabin group. This gives the campers a chance to get to know their counselor and the other campers in their own cabin group and gives the counselor a chance to get to know each camper and to discuss cabin rules and procedures.

After supper, campers and counselors enjoy an evening of large group games and get-to-know-you activities on the athletic field. This gives the campers a chance to get to know the others in the large camp group.

Finally, the last thing we do on this first evening together is to meet and sign up for activities. Campers choose from a list of activities for their main activities schedule. The list of activities generally includes:  Archery, Arts&Crafts, Field Games and Sports (including Kickball, Softball, Soccer, Volleyball, Badminton and Capture the Flag), Basketball, Canoeing, Fishing, Hiking,  Nature Lore/Environmental Studies, Swimming, Volleyball, Wilderness Survival.

Saturday morning brings the start of activities with a 7:30AM wake-up call followed by breakfast. The daily morning devotional follows breakfast (the devotional consists of a short inspirational/motivational story or reading and is led on a rotating basis by the counselors and staff). After breakfast, campers return to their own tents for clean-up and preparation for the day's activities.

Our philosophy is that camp should combine both structured daily activities as well as providing time for small-group activities of a more relaxed and informal nature. We feel that children need the opportunity to master new skills in structured settings as well as the chance to learn to work and play together in harmony with one another while living in a community setting.

Activity periods last from 50-60 minutes with a 10-15 minute break between them. There are three morning activity periods before lunch and three activity periods in the afternoon. Lunch and rest time is from 12:30-2:00PM. Campers may rest quietly or write letters home during this time. Afternoon activities also include time for free swim and activities where the campers gets to enjoy the company of their own groups. This gives campers a chance to participate in special activities like:  building a camp-site (home in the woods), skit practice, singing songs, special games, scavenger hunts, special crafts, story-telling and much more.

After supper and mail call there is time for large camp-wide group activities which include: theme nights, skit nights, special night nature hike, sports night, capture-the-flag, international-folk-dance, camp-fire programs, and related types of activities.

After a day like this, most campers (and counselors too) are guaranteed an excellent night's sleep in the cool climate. Sleeping bags are recommended. Closing ceremony comes every week on Thursday morning.