How and why is post camp bittersweet? It’s too quiet around here. I miss the giggles at night time, the splashes in the water, the sound of doors slamming and the laughter rippling or roaring out of a shack. Yet, there’s something about completing a camp season that feeds the soul. There are memories tucked away. There is the growth in campers you can measure, see and experience. There are the notes and emails and excitement about next year.

So, we get busy. We plan and strategize and take feedback from campers, families, staff and administrators and we make things happen. This fall, we are building an addition on our health cabin. This will expand the h

ousing we have for nurses and create two more beds and a new storage and organizing room for nurses.

Additionally, shacks 1- 7 are getting a face lift – well, a floor lift, really.  All the buildings will be raised and new posts and pads will be replacing the old and, wait for it… the floors will be sanded and finished. Say goodbye to splinters!

This is the mundane stuff we camp people get excited about. Yeah, sure, we are planning program and continual improvement, staff training and connecting with staff about re-hiring, we are interviewing excited but nervous new families and still running fall tours as we visit people in their homes. That’s super exciting, too.

But creating spaces and places in camp is the kind of warm and fuzzy we often feel in the fall when we dream about next summer.

Just next week, we’ll be meeting with 150 other Maine camp directors for the Maine Summer Camp Directors’ fall gathering. A time where we share and confer, brainstorm and collaborate to make Maine camps the best camps in the world. So, there’s lots going on for us as you focus on back to school but the bottom line is we can’t wait till next summer already. For now, we’ll take it a week at a time!

Until next week,

Aionur