This week's 5-year camper spotlight is on Henry B.! Henry has such a great attitude about everything and is so friendly. This summer, Henry's counselors said of him, "Henry is a great listener and is extremely insightful. He connects well with others." We are so lucky to have a camper like Henry as part of our community. Check out this video of Henry receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!
Here at GAC, we've long believed that one of the things we empower our campers to do is to make positive changes in the world. We've spent a long time working with campers so that they can go back to their communities and share the kindness, friendship skills, and love of nature that they developed at camp. Now we want to help campers change the world in other ways. That's why we've launched what we're calling GACtivism! Get it? GAC + Activism = GACtivism. Before he was a Camp Director, Soy was a high school government teacher for 14 years. In that time, he helped thousands of students write and send letters to their elected officials about important issues in their communities. Now he's asking you to do the same: [embed]https://youtu.be/fDHSJMBzo3Y[/embed] To summarize the video, we know that we can operate camp responsibly in a world with COVID. We just need the state of California to give us guidelines for how they would like us to do it. We've been preparing on our own using the American Camp Association's Field Guide for camps. However, we don't yet know what California will require, and how it will align with the Field Guide. Whatever the state asks us to do to prevent the spread of COVID at camp, we'll do, and we need to know what those requirements are now so that we can start planning for camp. We need your help to remind elected officials that camps like us need to ... Read more
This summer a small work crew took the opportunity to replace the floor and foundation in Cabin 7. The cabin, which is one of the oldest buildings in camp was due for significant repairs, which involved lifting the building up so that a new modern foundation could be poured.
To start the process, the floor needed to be removed from Cabin 7. In the course of this work our long-time construction guru Stan "Doc" Engle realized that the floorboards didn't look like they had ever been replaced since the cabin was built. In fact, on closer inspection, he realized that they had probably been milled at GAC by Manny Vezie and his crew when they originally built the cabins that are now known as the Quad.
We couldn't just throw history like that away, so the boards were removed as carefully as possible and set aside. Buzz was commissioned to design a GAC specific piece of art that features the famous John Muir quote; "The mountains are calling and I must go."
Now we're thrilled to share the final project, which is carved and painted on a piece of Cabin 7 floorboard by Soy.
You can find this sign, as well as other great GAC-themed gifts at our online store: https://gold-arrow-camp.square.site/
This week's 5-year camper spotlight is on Aiden D! Aiden is a wonderful camper and a great cabinmate. This summer, Aiden's GALA's counselors said of him, "Aiden is not afraid to speak his mind when a discussion topic resonates with him. He brings great perspectives to the table." We are so lucky to have a camper like Aiden as part of our community. Check out this video of Aiden receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!