Purposes of YMCA Resident Camping
We believe that youth should be taught lifelong recreational skills.
- Basic acquaintances with an aquatic environment, including learning to swim.
- Advanced swimming skills including diving and life saving.
- Proper use of boats, including canoes, sailboats, and rowboats.
- Beginning and advanced archery in a graded program.
- The care and use of firearms—including hunter safety.
- Basic tennis strokes, including competition at skill level.
We believe that camping is a unique experience. Therefore, camp stresses unique activities such as:
- Camp crafts.
- Progressive hiking experiences related to age and experience of camper.
- Campfires and story telling, highlighted with fun and adventure.
- Emphasis on pride in good health and physical fitness, including the value of prompt medical attention.
- Stress on individual excellence as noted in track and field program, etc.
We believe that each camper is a distinct individual with his own interests and abilities. Therefore, camp:
- Attempts to determine the interests of each camper.
- Checks daily on the participation of the individual in his camp life, including leaders coming together to discuss and help the individual camper in his experiences and adjustments to camp life.
- Provides, under mature guidance, of choice in activities for each camper.
We believe that the first experience of a child at camp has a direct relationship with his future enjoyment of outdoor life. Therefore, camp:
- Is alert to the needs of a first year camper, giving him an appreciation of outdoor life - of camping - with its special traditions, its fun, and camaraderie.
- Provides suitable areas where campers may take part in a camping experience with those of like age, interest, and ability.
- Provides a feeling of life, warmth, and belonging.
We believe in the cultural development of children. Therefore, camp provides:
- Creative crafts that use natural materials and require imagination.
- Crafts that aid in the development of hand-mind dexterity.
- Music, singing, and dramatics.
- Experience in painting and drawing.
- Woodcraft in the tradition of naturalist Earnest Thompson Seton.
We believe in the spiritual development of children. Therefore, camp has:
- Grace at meals and traditional Native American prayer at Woodcraft.
- Camp service projects at Woodcraft.
- A staff that sets high standards of personal conduct and concern for campers.
- Chapel and vespers services.
- Guidance of mature leaders in matters of spiritual importance.
We believe that camping should be fun and spirited. Therefore, camp has:
- Campers who have fun in the context of safe and diverse activities supervised by fun-loving leaders.
- A staff that creates an atmosphere conducive to participation and learning.
- Instruction and adventurous participation in a wide range of athletics.
- A camp spirit that is lived, nurtured, and discussed.
- Pride in fellow campers and leaders, and in the way each conducts himself.
We believe that direct contact with God's natural world should be part of the growth of each camper. Therefore camp:
- Provides a beautiful natural setting in which to live.
- A program of maximum outdoor activity.
- Leaders who are capable of interpreting, through instruction, the beauty and fascination of the natural world.
- A program of environmental conservation.
We believe in a democratic way of life and the need for providing a child with practical, recognizable experiences in democratic living. Therefore, camp provides:
- Daily experiences in group living, punctuated by group decision making.
- Participation in cabin leadership commensurate with each boy's maturity.
- Enriched pride in our country, including past and present traditionally American ways of living.
- Opportunity for leadership development and promotion within the staff.
We believe that leadership skills are identifiable and teachable, and that opportunities should be provided for those campers who would like to become leaders. Therefore camp provides:
- An atmosphere in which campers who have grown into leadership are respected and admired.
- Opportunities for campers to show leadership appropriate for their age.
- A leadership training program that is recognizable to all campers and parents and into which ample resources and time are put to ensure continued success.
- An honor system whereby campers who set a good for others are recognized.
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