Carnival
Today was carnival day at GAC! Ring toss, cotton candy, splash zone, nachos! As always, this afternoon was a blast for all campers and staff!
Crazy Cranium Day
Friday was Crazy Cranium Day, and we had some wild headgear, wacky hairdos and all-around crazy craniums! See some pictures and the video below for a look at the fun!
Rainy Day Fun
For the first time since June 17, campers got to pull out their panchos for some afternoon rain on Thursday! Much fun was had in the afternoon rain shower!
Specialty Week Video & Photo Highlights
Video Highlights
Slideshow
Filling Buckets: Our 2019 Theme
This year’s summer theme, chosen to help guide campers to be the best versions of themselves, is “Filling Buckets.”
Our first summer theme was in 2012 when we chose the theme of gratitude. We followed that theme with kindness (Cool 2B Kind), relationship building (Creating Connections), helpfulness (Give a Hand), grit (Growing Grit), positivity (The Energy Bus), and 2018’s focus on friendship (Find-a-Friend).
One thing that makes life at camp special is that we live in a community where our shared experience is full of face-to-face, positive interactions with each other. At camp, we are shielded from input and news from life outside of GAC and we take a break from the pressures of social media. This unique setting provides us the privilege and responsibility of maintaining our own positive and encouraging atmosphere.
Every interaction we have with another person is an opportunity to have a positive, negative, or neutral impact. It is easy to be too self-focused and worry about our own agenda and needs. Encouraging others and actively seeking opportunities to have a positive impact are noble challenges we are excited to embrace in our community.
Tom Rath and Donald Clifton of Gallup Strengthsfinders introduced “The Theory of the Bucket and the Dipper” in their bestselling 2004 book, How Full is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life.
Carol McCloud’s 2015 children’s book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? presents Rath and Clifton’s concept in a simplified version and is our inspiration for this year’s theme.
Here are some of the 2019 GAC staff reading Have You Filled a Bucket Today?:
We’re thrilled to make our GAC community stronger by helping campers understand that encouragement makes others feel valued. Together, we will experience the joy that comes from making others our focus.There are many opportunities at camp to fill other people’s buckets through kindness and encouragement. Filling Buckets means using our words and actions to show how much we care:
- Sharing a heartfelt smile
- Greeting each other by name
- Helping others without being asked
- Giving sincere compliments
- Recognizing others for bravery and achievements
- Encouraging others when they succeed and also when they’re struggling
- Elevating the needs of others above our own
- Seeking opportunities to have a positive impact on others
Filling Buckets builds on the work we’ve done in the areas of positivity, friendship, and kindness. The friendships we forge at camp are special for many reasons, and we know that keeping the focus on lifting each other up will add depth and richness to our connections. It is our sincere hope that 2019’s GAC campers will take this theme home and continue to make positive changes in their communities by being kind and encouraging with everyone they encounter. Everyone deserves a full bucket!
Resources/Related
How Full is Your Bucket, Tom Rath & Donald Clifton
Have You Filled a Bucket Today? Carol McCloud
The Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket
Join us for a Summer Adventure! Hiring Rock Climbing, Ropes Course & Backpacking Instructors
Rock Climbing & Ropes Course
Still Hiring Nurses, Doctors, & Office Staff!
Join our team for a summer of adventure and fun in California’s High Sierra!
We’re still looking to fill some positions on our 2019 team! We need wonderful people to help us provide life changing experiences to our campers and help them have fun, make friends, and grow.
Camp Nurse (RN)
Join our Wellness Center team and help take care of our campers and staff members’ health needs! Currently, we have one nurse position open for Session 1 (June 22-July 6) and for Session 2 (July 6-20). Openings are for either the first week of the session or both weeks.
June 16-22
Office Administrator
This is an opportunity to join the administrative team at one of California’s premier summer sleep-away camps. You will be working with our office team to provide world-class customer service to the parents of our campers, who come from around the world. The primary job duties include answering parent phone calls and helping to answer their questions as well as clerical work (attaching HR files to staff records, recording reports from counselors about campers etc.), and working in our camp store.
Unplugged, Rustic Bliss by Nina Adams
This summer, Nina Adams will be returning to join our staff for the first time as an Activity Counselor on our sailing dock. Nina spent 5 Sierra summers at GAC as a camper and wrote the following article about camp for the Larchmont Chronicle.
This summer, I will finally be returning home to Gold Arrow Camp, this time as a counselor. I am looking forward to reuniting with my friends from several summers ago and reliving my camp childhood memories.
-Nina Adams
Longtime camper, Nina Adams, wrote an article for the Larchmont Chronicle titled “Unplugged, Rustic Bliss: Camping in the High Sierra.”
As summer approaches, every kid has an activity he or she looks forward to most. For some it might be video games; for others, it is traveling with family; for me, it was always Gold Arrow Camp.
Gold Arrow is a sleepaway camp located on Lake Huntington in the High Sierra for kids ages six to 15. The camp is a traditional summer camp in the truest sense, offering campers an unplugged (as in no electronic devices!), rustic outdoor experience. Campers live in cabins for two weeks, and they participate in daily activities including horseback riding, hiking, water skiing, backpacking and rock climbing.
When I left for sleepaway camp at age 10, I had tears in my eyes and an unmatched anxiety. Would I make friends? Would I get homesick? I was beyond nervous concerning the two weeks I was about to have away from home. After my long, five-hour bus ride to the High Sierra, my feelings instantly changed. No one could have prepared me for the thrill and excitement I would feel when I stepped off the bus onto the campgrounds on Lake Huntington.
April!
Episode 40.
The GAC POG-Cast is over the hill! We’re also over the moon that April joined us to talk about her role as a photographer at camp last summer. She also had great insight on how to deal with the fear that coming to camp sometimes creates in campers. Soy is back to playing guitar and telling Dad jokes and there’s a GACspiration too!
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Frames
Episode 38.
On this episode, former camper (and current Head Counselor) Frames joined Soy. They had a great chat about why being a camp counselor is better than taking an internship and what she was most nervous about when she came to camp for the first time at eight years old. There’s also a great oceanic Joke of the Cast and we learn all about Frames’ dog’s name, which Soy enjoys more than he should.
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