Making History: Opening Day Session 5

Today was an exciting mile marker for the history of Camp Huawni. Not only are we celebrating 54 summers, but we also kicked off our 8th week of the summer. As many of you may or may not know, due to high demand of our Starter Camp (one-week), we needed to add another one-week option. When we opened up Starter 2 Camp last year, we weren’t 100% sure what the response would be to opening another session. We had many families who had asked about a later one-week session due to school ending dates, and we have had a growing waiting list for Starter 1 Camp, but this was uncharted ground for Huawni. Needless to say, we are already so encouraged by Starter 2 Camp! The faces and excitement today was really neat to be a part of. So, welcome to all our Session 5 families…we are so glad you are here and your Huawni Staff is fired up to make this week the best in history.

Fried Chicken

Opening Day at Huawni would not be what it is without Ms. Ada’s famous, famous, MOST FAMOUS Fried Chicken!! This has been a staple for decades as Ms. Ada is celebrating nearly 30 years at Huawni. We have had several requests for a Huawni Cookbook, and if we ever do one Ms. Ada and her fried chicken will likely make the cover. Another fun tradition that is happened tonight is the Dark Side where we will play Eddie and the Cruisers and bang our chairs to the upbeat. It’s a silly but timeless tradition that we love here at Camp!

Capture the Flag (CTF) & Opening Night Show (ONS)

Tonight is all about making your children feel at home as we kicked things off with a good old fashion game of CTF Huawni style. This includes Huawni Counselors dressing up in crazy costumes. I still remember the first time this wrinkle in Capture the Flag was started circa 1996 or so. John Kirkley dressed up as the Puma, and ever since this tradition has lived on. Laughter is a big part making kids feel comfortable, and between laughing at counselors in their zany outfits and laughing at Opening Night Show, your children will feel right at home. ONS is a long-standing Huawni Tradition where our Counselors perform various skits for campers. Be sure and follow our Instagram and Facebook pages and you’ll likely see some of these. ONS is truly a throwback and simple night that kids love. We have a few extra wrinkles planned for tonight!

Cabin Time

Also tonight after Campers clean up Counselors will host the first cabin time in each cabin. This is an opportunity to go over Camp guidelines, for Campers to learn more about each other, and for cabins to create their cabin bucket lists. I was talking to one of our parents today about how we really want to do a great job at loving our Campers and model what that actually looked like. We try our show kids what real love is, hence our mission to love the kids (LTK). Here’s a blog I recently wrote about our beliefs on love and how we try and do things here at Camp.

The bucket list is a fun Huawni tradition where cabins write out things they’d love to do over the next week. Popular bucket list items may include night swimming with their cabin, star tripping, cabin sing song, or movie night. Bucket lists are also a great incentive for kids to love and respect one another. When this doesn’t happen, we use this as a teachable moment and may hold off on a bucket list item. It’s a very fun thing that we can also use as a reward for loving folks at Camp.

Homesick & Happy

For many of you, it was your first time to drop your child off at overnight camp. This can understandably be a very nerve racking and emotional event. As hard as it is, we believe that homesickness is great opportunity for growth. Why is this so? I encourage you to read these two blogs I’ve written based upon the book Homesick & Happy by Michael Thompson.

Homesick & Happy Intro
Homesick & Happy Chapter 1 – Off They Go

I have spoken with a few of you parents this session on homesickness. I am so very proud of each of you for giving your son and/or daughter this opportunity to grow in ways they can only do away from home. We truly have some inspiring stories of campers who overcame the challenge and ended up thriving at overnight camp, and I’m hoping for more of the same this session.

Staying in touch with your camper and camp pics

We highly encourage you to utilize letter writing as well as sending your Camper emails through your CampInTouch login. Also, be sure to log into your CampInTouch account to see the photos we will be posting daily. And finally, be sure and subscribe to our blog page by going here and clicking on the subscribe via email blue button.

Parent Book Club

One of the biggest benefits to camp for your campers is unplugging from the busyness of life and growing in ways they’ve never had the opportunity to grow before. Again this summer for our Huawni Parent Book Club I will be blogging on the the book Unschooling Rules. Although the title of this book hints at being about education, it also gives an insightful look at how our kids learn and grow. It’s very relatable to the Camp experience, and you can check out our first Summer Parent Book Club post here.

We are amped to invest in and have crazy amounts of fun with your kiddos over the next week. It’s pretty wild how a session at Huawni is the equivalent of about 2 months in the real world. So sit back and enjoy the ride as we will be keeping you updated along the way. Ultimately, our desire is that your child (and our staff) would leave our gates knowing their true significance and purpose. Our hope is that you will tangibly see this while during the session (through letters, pictures, blogs, etc.) and when you pick them up on Closing Day. Here we go!!

Parents, tell us your experience with dropping your child off today! Comment below!