2026 Theme: Crank Up the Thanks (Turn Up the Gratitude)

Our vision at GAC is to create a happier world, one camper at a time. Each summer, we focus on building positive habits and character traits for a thriving life while having fun, making friends, and growing. 

We also choose a specific character trait or skill that leads to a happier life. This summer, with our summer theme of “Crank Up the Thanks,” we’re focusing on building our gratitude!

Grateful People are Happier

“In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”
–Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier, Harvard Health

Over the past 14 years, we’ve covered a variety of character traits and social skills that lead to better well-being. We’ve focused on kindness, friendship, giving, resilience, positivity, and encouraging others. Choosing Kindness, Count on Me, Building Empathy, and Try Something New have been our most recent Summer Themes. 

Adults who are thankful for what they have are happier than those who are constantly in the entitled state of reaching for the ever-elusive “more.” According to Christine Carter, PhD, “Studies of adults and college students show positive outcomes from consciously practicing gratitude. My own experience with children has been that they become kinder, more appreciative, more enthusiastic and just generally happier.”

How we’ll Crank Up the Thanks this Summer

• Brainstorming gratitude practices we each want to work on.
• Noticing and acknowledging the “little things” that make life enjoyable and joyful: a cup of hot chocolate on a cool mountain morning, a spectacular sunset, a few deer roaming past Morning Assembly, glassy waters to water ski on, or a belly laugh because of a funny story or song.
• Writing and saying WOWs to thank our friends for how they’ve encouraged us, helped us, or made us feel happy. These can be put on the WOW board at camp (on the ramp when exiting the Dining Porch) or delivered verbally.
• Writing and saying WOWs to thank camp staff.
• Sharing “3 Good Things” at dinner, at our nightly campfire, or at bedtime.
• Writing gratitude postcards and letters to friends and family.
• Making friendship bracelets and other arts & crafts projects to thank people who make our lives better.
• Cleaning up our dining table and area to show our appreciation for our kitchen staff for making and preparing great food and washing 2000 dishes a day!
• Wiping down bathroom counters and keeping bathrooms clean to show our gratitude to our hard-working housekeeping staff. 
• Picking up trash and keeping camp and our cabin areas clean to show our gratitude for all the hard work that goes into getting camp set up and ready each session. 
• Doing gratitude walks/hikes.
• Making gratitude journals (an optional free time arts & crafts activity).
• Sharing about someone we’re grateful for during paired activities.
• “Warm Fuzzies” for all cabin mates and counselors at our final campfires (verbal and/or written).

Daily Family Sharing excerpt from Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults)

Want to start “cranking up the thanks” at home this spring?

Having a daily family sharing practice is a great tool for building connection. Sharing one (or more) things we’re grateful for not only makes for a positive conversation but also helps us each – individually – grow our gratitude. Sharing about what we’re grateful for can be at dinner, on the car ride to school, at bedtime, or whatever time works best with your family’s schedule.  

Some kind of positive daily sharing can improve your family’s positivity quotient. Martin Seligman did a remarkable study on the impact of a simple gratitude practice. He found that depressed patients improved their outlook significantly in just a few months by writing down three good things from their day. When I learned of the benefits of this simple practice, we switched our family’s nightly sharing from “Highs and Lows” of the day to “Three Good Things,” focusing our minds on the positive.

When your family members know that sharing three good things is a nightly ritual, they’ll start noticing more of the good things that are happening. Even a day that has had some bad stuff happen also has some good stuff. By having a time each day when you and your kids share one or more “highs” or good things from their day, your brains will eventually become more aware of the positive things.
–excerpt from Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults)

There are so many ways to build up our gratitude muscles, and helping our kids learn to be more grateful people can have a life-long positive impact.

Here’s to promoting an attitude of gratitude this summer and all year long!

Resources/Related:

Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults

Ep. 63: Growing Gratitude with Sara Kuljis | Sunshine Parenting

Ep. 101: Entitlemania with Richard Watts | Sunshine Parenting

Ep. 11: The Opposite of Spoiled with Ron Lieber | Sunshine Parenting