June Specialty campers have been enjoying their week on our Shaver Island outpost. The week has been full of fun under the sun, with campers taking advantage of amazing weather to knee-board, waterski, wakeboard, and wakeskate! Evenings have been fun of laughs around the campfire (and s'mores!) as well as sleeping on the beach under the stars. Enjoy these photo highlights from the week so far! [gallery columns="4" size="large" ids="4572,4590,4592,4593,4594"]
Author and internationally recognized speaker Signe Whitson (Parenting the Challenging Child) spent the day yesterday training GAC staff on helping campers through anxious situations, identifying and preventing bullying, and understanding how to respond when campers are having strong emotions.
Signe, who took on her own camp name of "Ginger", is a certified school social worker with 20 years of experience working with children, teens, and families. She presents customized training workshops for professionals, parents, and students on topics related to understanding and ending bullying, managing anger in children, and intervening effectively in crisis situations in schools and treatment organizations. She is an expert on child psychology, bullying (and bullying prevention) and managing anger and anxiety in children. She is also the author of 7 books.
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Sunshine & Signe Whitson, holding each other's books.[/caption]
Signe trained GAC staff to help them understand the challenges that young people face, and they can best respond to children who are in distress of any kind.
If you'd like to read more about Signe or look at her books, more information is available on her website.
You can also listen to Signe's interview with Sunshine on the Sunshine Parenting podcast: Ep. 66: Is it Rude, Is it Mean, or is it Bullying?
Signe's Psychology Today article: Is it Rude, Is it Mean, ... Read more
Group Counselors received Mental Health First Aid training from former staff member and 2016 Coach's Award winner, Kettle!
We recognize the need to prepare our counselors to intervene when campers are in emotional distress. To that end, we brought Kettle, who is currently a certified Mental, Emotional, and Social Health First Aid Instructor, back to camp to train our counselors, so that they could better respond to children who need emotional help at camp.
Kettle was able to use the training and her experience at camp to make the training very practical for our counselors. She was also able, outside of her training, to speak with staff about what she did that was effective when she was a counselor at GAC.
You can read more about Kettle here, or listen to her on the GAC POG-Cast here.
Here's more information about Mental Health First Aid.
Today, more than 150 counselors from around the world are joining us to start our 10-day staff training. From our 35-year veteran staff members to counselors who are seeing camp for the first time, the entire staff will go through training. They'll learn from amazing guest speakers like Signe Whitson and Christine Carter, along with our experienced camp director team. they'll also (just like campers!) have opportunities to have fun, make friends, and grow, all while detoxing from their electronics before campers arrive. Among the counselors arriving today, we have... 40 former campers 42 international staff 42 who have spent 5 or more summers at GAC Let the adventure begin!