Bears’ Adventure – Session 4
A highlight of the two-week session for our youngest campers (grades K-3), and their version of “backpacking,” is Bears’ Adventure. This one-night trip allows campers to experience sleeping outdoors under the stars and cooking over a campfire. Campers’ luggage is taken for them to the campsite, so they are not technically “backpacking,” because they have no pack to carry. With just their water bottle and their positive attitudes, they set out from camp singing and talking on their hike.
The best part of Bears’ Adventure is the free time kids get to play and explore the area. For many campers, the longer sticks provide the perfect start to a fort. Others enjoy laying on their sleeping bags talking with friends or silently watching clouds move overhead. Some participate in crafts and games while enjoying being outdoors. For many of these kids, Bears’ Adventure is their first experience “roughing it,” and they absolutely love it.
When they hike back into camp the morning after their Adventure, our Bears’ campers stand a little taller. And their dirty, smiling faces are the best indication that they have experienced the awe of nature.
Video & Photo Highlights from Session 3 Bears Adventure
Session 3 Highlights Video & Slideshow
Enjoy these memories from Session 3!
Bears’ Adventure – Session 3
A highlight of the two-week session for our youngest campers (grades K-3), and their version of “backpacking,” is Bears’ Adventure. This one-night trip allows campers to experience sleeping outdoors under the stars and cooking over a campfire. Campers’ luggage is taken for them to the campsite, so they are not technically “backpacking,” because they have no pack to carry. With just their water bottle and their positive attitudes, they set out from camp singing and talking on their hike.
The best part of Bears’ Adventure is the free time kids get to play and explore the area. For many campers, the longer sticks provide the perfect start to a fort. Others enjoy laying on their sleeping bags talking with friends or silently watching clouds move overhead. Some participate in crafts and games while enjoying being outdoors. For many of these kids, Bears’ Adventure is their first experience “roughing it,” and they absolutely love it.
When they hike back into camp the morning after their Adventure, our Bears’ campers stand a little taller. And their dirty, smiling faces are the best indication that they have experienced the awe of nature.
Win a FREE COPY of Sunshine’s Book, HAPPY CAMPERS!
With summer coming to a close, and another challenging school year ahead for our kids (and for us parents), we want to remind you about a resource Audrey “Sunshine” Monke created to help parents bring home some of the happiness, connection, and character growth of GAC: Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults.
Happy Campers is now available from Audible!
Listen to or read a free sample from Happy Campers:
Download the audio of Camp Secret #1: Connection Comes First
Download the print version of Camp Secret #1: Connection Comes First
Join Sunshine to chat about coaching your kids to improved social skills and better friendships:
Tuesday, August 31 (12-1pm PT) discussion of Camp Secret #9 (from Happy Campers): Coach Kids to Better Friendships.
We’ll talk about the skills kids need to make and keep friends AND how you can coach your child to better friendships and relationships.
Register for the lunch chat by August 21, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for one of five FREE AUDIO OR PRINT COPIES (your choice) of my book HAPPY CAMPERS! Register here.
Audrey “Sunshine” Monke, MA, has been the owner of Gold Arrow Camp since 1989 and currently serves as the Chief Visionary Officer. In addition to her vision-casting and mentoring at GAC, Sunshine is an author (Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults), podcast host, speaker and coach on the topics of parenting, social skills, and happiness. Find out more at her website, Sunshine Parenting.
Visit Sunshine Parenting for more social skills, parenting & summer camp resources.
Session 2 Video Highlights & Slideshow
We have so many great memories from Session 2. Here are a few highlights as recorded by our awesome media team (AKA the “GACarazzi”):
Camp Kindness Day
GAC is excited to be joining camps across the country in celebrating Camp Kindness Day! For our summer theme, Better Together, we’ve been talking about ways we can be better together. After a year of being separated from loved ones and friends, it’s more important than ever to remember to be kind to one another and find ways in which we are better together.
Here’s what the American Camp Association has to say about Camp Kindness Day:
On July 20, the camp community will participate in Camp Kindness Day – an event highlighting the practice of intentional kindness that happens every day at American camps. This is an opportunity to raise awareness of the the great work that camps are doing to teach kindness in engaging, simple, repeatable, and high impact ways that live on in the daily lives of campers and staff members when they return home.
Focusing on our youth and young adults, Camp Kindness Day will help showcase the commitment of the camp community to fostering the core values of kindness, compassion, generosity and care, and integrating those values more fully into every aspect of our society. These values are already part of the fabric of the camp experience. We share the mission for our youth to be nurtured, taught, supported, and inspired to grow into our new generation of kind, compassionate, socially-minded, community-oriented citizens.
Camp Kindness Day will allow camps to incorporate into their July 20 programming fun theme-based activities and cooperative games, cool projects, and memorable moments which will celebrate the value and impact of kindness.
Session 1 Video Highlights & Slideshow
GAC is excited to be joining camps across the country in celebrating Camp Kindness Day! For our summer theme, Better Together, we’ve been talking about ways we can be better together. After a year of being separated from loved ones and friends, it’s more important than ever to remember to be kind to one another and find ways in which we are better together.
Here’s what the American Camp Association has to say about Camp Kindness Day:
On July 20, the camp community will participate in Camp Kindness Day – an event highlighting the practice of intentional kindness that happens every day at American camps. This is an opportunity to raise awareness of the the great work that camps are doing to teach kindness in engaging, simple, repeatable, and high impact ways that live on in the daily lives of campers and staff members when they return home.
Focusing on our youth and young adults, Camp Kindness Day will help showcase the commitment of the camp community to fostering the core values of kindness, compassion, generosity and care, and integrating those values more fully into every aspect of our society. These values are already part of the fabric of the camp experience. We share the mission for our youth to be nurtured, taught, supported, and inspired to grow into our new generation of kind, compassionate, socially-minded, community-oriented citizens.
Camp Kindness Day will allow camps to incorporate into their July 20 programming fun theme-based activities and cooperative games, cool projects, and memorable moments which will celebrate the value and impact of kindness.
Session 1 has already come and gone and we miss everyone so much already! We hope you enjoy these memories and we cannot wait to see you next year!
Session 1 Graduating Campers
Gold Arrow campers who have completed the 9th or 10th grade take part in a special celebration at the end of their camp session. These campers and their counselor gather around a magical campfire created just for them when the rest of camp is settling into their sleeping bags. This is a milestone and tradition that campers both look forward to and have feelings of trepidation about because it signals the beginning of something new and the end of their time as a carefree camper. Each camper receives a paddle inscribed with their name and a special word selected by their counselor. Notches on the wood represent the years spent at GAC. For our graduating campers, this paddle is more than wood and inscriptions, it’s the hope of what lies ahead after the many lessons learned as a camper.
Session 1’s 3 and 5 Year Campers
Congrats to our 3 and 5 year campers! Since the early days of camp, founder Manny Vezie began a tradition – campers and staff who attend Gold Arrow Camp for five summers are presented with a blanket to commemorate this achievement. Every summer at camp 5-year campers are wrapped in their blankets at Appreciation Campfire along with 3-year campers who receive their banner on the final night of their session.
Session 1 Bears’ Adventure
A highlight of the two-week session for our youngest campers (grades K-3), and their version of backpacking, is Bears’ Adventure. This one-night trip allows campers to experience sleeping outdoors under the stars and cooking over a campfire. Campers’ luggage is taken for them to the campsite, so they are not technically “backpacking,” because they have no pack to carry. With just their water bottle and their positive attitude, they set out from camp singing and talking on their hike.
The best part of Bears’ Adventure is the free time kids get to play and explore the area. For many campers, the longer sticks provide the perfect start to a fort. Others enjoy laying on their sleeping bags talking with friends or silently watching clouds move overhead. Some participate in crafts and games while enjoying being outdoors. For many of these kids, Bears’ Adventure is their first experience “roughing it,” and they absolutely love it.
When they hike back into camp the morning after their adventure, our Bears campers stand a little taller. And their dirty, smiling faces are the best indication that they have experienced the awe of nature.