Need recs? Send your kid to camp...

[catiebug]

I go up to Peru all the time and pass right by it - I've always wondered what it was and now I know!

Originally Posted by OtterXO

Hinsdale

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

I've heard Kanakuk in Missouri referred to as Camp Chi-O since there are always so many Chi Omega counselors. They hire 2,500 college-age counselors each summer!?! Big business.

http://www.kanakuk.com/christian-cam...rts-camps.aspx

I swear everyone from Arkansas goes to kankuk at least once.

It's mostly Pi Phi's that work there, from Arkansas in my experience.

[alum]

I loved my no-frills Berkshire camp: Camp Nawaka. It was a funny coincidence when we found out my D's Page School roomie was also a Nawaka alum.

My son's camp was shut down this year because nearly 20 scouts contracted e. coli bacteria.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk

I swear everyone from Arkansas goes to kankuk at least once.

It's mostly Pi Phi's that work there, from Arkansas in my experience.

The family who owns it can count a former Chi Omega National Officer among their family tree.

Since they've been in business since 1923, I'm thinking the Greek affiliation of the counselors has changed from time to time.

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk

I swear everyone from Arkansas goes to kankuk at least once.

It's mostly Pi Phi's that work there, from Arkansas in my experience.

My sister was a counselor at Kanakuk. She's a KKG.

[FSUZeta]

there are usually girls from samford from all 5 sororities who work at kanakuk.
they all love it.

[speedsters]

I went to (and worked at) a girl scout camp in new jersey, and that was my first introduction to greek life. My favourite counselor was an AOPi, and she either wore camp clothing or something with AOPi, and I didn't realize until I was on staff how many counselors were greek. It made me laugh when I found an old camp friend on facebook and saw that she is also a ZTA. But at all the camps I've worked at there have always been a bunch of different greeks!

[PeppyGPhiB]

I grew up going to Camp Sealth on Vashon Island (Washington), a Camp Fire camp. Very fitting that I'm a Gamma Phi Beta now and our national philanthropy is "camping for girls" and Camp Fire USA. I loved it there - PJ Breakfast, polar bear swims, canoe campouts, and "kidnapping" boys' cabins. We also practiced our table manners - if someone told you "table fairies!" during a meal it meant your elbows were on the table, and you NEVER divorce the salt & pepper!

ETA: So funny, I just saw that a girl from my chapter is a counselor at Greystone this summer.

[bekah.dickson]

Originally Posted by Lightning Bug!

I went to a neighboring NC camp...Greystone is a very fancy camp for very fancy girls...mountain lakes aren't good enough for them...they need Olympic-sized swimming pools! Honestly my camp was perfectly good enough for me...and it was one of the posher NC camps, but not a pansy camp. Apologies if you went to Greystone...just a little good natured camp rivalry from a nearby Brevard-area girls' camp!

You want a REALLY fancy camp? Anybody here go to Waldemar in Texas? My MIL went there...they had a chamber ensemble playing at dinner every night. NO JOKE.

I went to waldemar and it was amazing. Yes, we were fed full course meals EVERY meal (breakfast and lunch included) but it taught you so many things a girl would need to know which is probably why sororities like Waldemar/mystic girls. You have to live with ALL girls for a whole month. If it gets the job done, being fancy is just a plus

[DeltaBetaBaby]

This is an old thread, but I'm still fascinated by it. I went to camp for many, many years.

1) I assumed that Texas camps had A/C because they'd be unbearable otherwise. Then I found out that lots of Wisconsin camps (like the one I went to) have it as well. In fact, my camp now has a big air-conditioned building for some activities, though no A/C in the cabins.

2) Having been a counselor, I don't think my kids would have wanted to be there if there were no boys.

3) 2500 staff??? How many campers do they have each summer???

[pearlbubbles]

I've worked at a summer camp in the northeast for the past two years and I learned that if the staff isn't British, they're probably Greek.

Including myself (the only Tri Delta counselor, sadly), there were two ADPis, two Theta Chis, a Pi Phi, two ZTAs, a Sigma Chi, a Lamda Chi, three AOPis, a Tri Sigma, a DTD, an ASA, a Kappa, and two Phi Mus!

(ETA: For some reason I completely forgot that my friend who got me there in the first place is also a Sigma Nu.)

On the cost note, camps are insane! I went to Girl Scout camp as a child and it was pricy, but I died a little inside when I found out my camp cost as much as a semester of college tuition for one session (and that doesn't include the trips either)!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by pearlbubbles

On the cost note, camps are insane! I went to Girl Scout camp as a child and it was pricy, but I died a little inside when I found out my camp cost as much as a semester of college tuition for one session (and that doesn't include the trips either)!

I was a counselor this summer on a Pacific Northwest trip through my old camp. Five weeks of living in the woods for $5250. Then they recommend $450 in spending money. I would guess that most parents dropped another grand on gear (most of the kids were WAY over-outfitted), so 7G's for most parents.

That said, I would guess that many kids will remember the trip as one of the best experiences of their lives. They are freshmen in high school, and they way they changed in five weeks, well, if I planned to have kids one day, I would do what I could to send them, too.

(though I would send them with a couple of company-logo water bottles and a $7 poncho, not this camelback and North Face nonsense)

[pearlbubbles]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Then they recommend $450 in spending money. I would guess that most parents dropped another grand on gear (most of the kids were WAY over-outfitted), so 7G's for most parents.

Thankfully, my camp is in the podunks, so no need for spending money. But oh my goodness, the gear! I visited the website where it's all purchased from and it is crazy! And they all have like six of the same shirt!

I've been with the same age groups for two years now (but on the younger end of the spectrum) and it's so rewarding to see the same kids come back and how they mature during the summer and on into the next year. I will find some way to send my kids off to camp someday as well, but this is neither here nor there at the moment.

I actually just got re-hired for next summer today, so I'm kind of on a camp high right now, haha.

[ElieM]

i was re-looking at the Greystone website from the first page (they've obviously changed their font since then, lol) and wondering if there's a big competition between counselors about who gets to pick which bible verse is their favourite first... and if you get to carry the verse over from one year to the next, and could you bogart one of the 'best' verses by being there for many years.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

This is an old thread, but I'm still fascinated by it. I went to camp for many, many years.

1) I assumed that Texas camps had A/C because they'd be unbearable otherwise. Then I found out that lots of Wisconsin camps (like the one I went to) have it as well. In fact, my camp now has a big air-conditioned building for some activities, though no A/C in the cabins.

Nope! Most of the TX ones don't (Waldemar might?) but even some of the "fancier" TX ones (HoneyCreek, Mystic, Longhorn, La Junta, etc...) do not have A/C. However, they're either in the hill country or on a lake, so there's nice breezes and cooler at night.

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

2) Having been a counselor, I don't think my kids would have wanted to be there if there were no boys.

That was the great thing about going to an all-girls camp - when you were 16 and all you cared about was boys...NO BOYS! You could wake up, not worry about your hair and makeup and just be a kid for 4 weeks.