Amongst our leadership team, the jokes that camp is creeping up on us here in April are abundant. This is always the time of year where the season starts to feel ‘real’ and we can finally see the efforts of each season’s preparation come to fruition.

At this time of year, we’re still busy with some final enrollments while also putting everything in place for the summer – Tim is prepping our physical spaces, we’re mapping out program and hiring our last few staff members, putting together cabin lists – amongst so many other things.

And, at the same time, the Venn-diagram of 2023 and 2024 is starting to form and overlap as we meet new faces looking at Runoia for future summers and inviting them to visit us to see camp ‘in action’ this summer.

There is no ‘wrong’ timeline for choosing and getting ready for camp, but it’s always great to see families planning ahead and being able to tour with us in the summer prior. Tours are so valuable to new families to be able to see a day in action during the summer, visualize the camp their child will spend 3+ weeks at, watch our programs run, and for campers to build excitement, feel more comfortable and confident about camp, ask their own questions, and meet other campers in the process. Our campers and staff always love to welcome new faces as they pass by on their summer tours!

But the benefits of touring don’t stop there. Touring also helps our new families create a lasting connection with our director team and start a relationship that will continue for years. After a tour, we stay in contact with families and are able to guide them through enrollment earlier on and the likelihood of saving one of our limited spaces for the next summer is even greater. Spaces are typically even more limited in our older age groups, so touring for a rising 6th grader and beyond is an amazing way to get penciled in for any available spaces for next summer.

We also welcome return visitors and love seeing friendly, familiar faces whenever possible – alumni and current campers have a tendency to stop by all throughout the year to say hi, show their families around, and see their favorite place again. Amaya stopped by recently and had an amazing time with her mom seeing camp in the snow – we can’t wait to have her back for summer #2 this year!

So stop on by for a visiting or reach out to schedule a tour for 2024 – we can’t wait to see you on Great Pond either way!