Psychologist Signe Whitson Trains Our Staff
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.
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, or is it Bullying?
Other Books by Signe Whitson:
The 8 Keys to End Bullying ACTIVITY BOOK for Kids & Tweens (and companion guide)
8 Keys to End Bullying: Strategies for Parents & Schools
Friendship & Other Weapons: Group Activities to Help Young Girls Ages 5-11 to Cope with Bullying
How to Be Angry: An Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids and Teens
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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REX and the OLC
Episode 37.
On the 37th episode of the Gold Arrow Camp POG-Cast, we’re chatting with a camper who had his life changed by the Outdoor Leadership Course. REX, who has also completed our Junior Counselor program, sat down with Soy to talk about what made the OLC special and how the lessons he learned on the trail have impacted him at school and beyond.
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2019 Theme: Filling Buckets
by Alison “Bean” Moeschberger
Every summer at Gold Arrow Camp, we choose a theme to guide our efforts in helping campers become the best versions of themselves. This practice started in the summer of 2012 when the staff selected “gratitude” as the guiding theme. We followed that 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 derived solely from our interactions with each other. At camp, we exist in a perfect bubble, shielded from input and news from life outside of GAC. This 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.
In keeping with our core value of equipping campers to bring positive changes to the world, we’re proud to announce our 2019 summer theme: Filling Buckets!
Carol McCloud’s children’s book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? is our inspiration. McCloud tells the story of a young boy and the impact his kindness and encouragement have on his community. Every person carries an invisible bucket. When someone does something kind, encourages another, or helps in some way, it fills another person’s bucket. Conversely, negative interactions empty people’s buckets. In the story, the boy discovers an important truth about kindness. He realizes that when he encourages others, his own bucket is filled. 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!
Enjoy this video of Monkey and Soy announcing the theme on our Facebook page.
Moana
Episode 35.
On Episode 35 of the GAC POG-Cast, Soy was joined by Moana. Moana came to camp only knowing one person, and had a great summer. Her insights into how to get the most out of camp when you’re pretty new to the culture and community of GAC were outstanding for new campers and first year staff as well.
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Bugz
Episode 33
On Episode 33 of the Gold Arrow Camp POG-Cast, we’re joined by Bugz, who spent most of her childhood being a camper, OLC hiker, and Junior Counselor before joining us as a Group Counselor this year. Soy plays and sings this week, Sunshine shares words of wisdom about sunbeams and there’s an oceanic Joke of the Cast!
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Avo
Episode 32.
On this episode of the as-yet-unacclaimed GAC POG-Cast Soy and Avo sat down and chatted about what it’s like to come to camp as a new person and why she enjoyed teaching watersports last summer. Soy plays guitar, there’s a GACspiration, and a Dad Joke of the Cast.
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