Dear Parents & Friends,

Thank you for a great ending to our D Session today. We’ve had a wonderful time with your children and thanks for sharing them with us.  Soon you will receive a link to an evaluation that we are hoping you will participate in.   We are collaborating with Clemson University to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of our camp programs and to better understand your perspectives as parents.  In addition to learning about your child’s camp experience, we also want to gain greater insight into how parents today are making decisions for their children.  We hope that this information will help us continually improve our camp programs and services. Your feedback is important. We appreciate you taking the time to help us keep Gwynn Valley an outstanding program.

I was reading an article this morning before breakfast about “being grateful”.  Last year, a Harris Polls survey was conducted to determine those things for which Americans are most grateful.  Ranking at the top was health of family & family relationships.  I’d like to think in some ways that camp can contribute to these top choices.  Even though your child may come home pretty tired, their cup runneth over from a healthy lifestyle at camp including: good food, plenty of exercise, good role models, learning to live and work together, becoming more independent, gaining resilience and so much more.  I feel it’s good to leave the nest and venture out from under the wings of parents to grow those flight feathers and confidence to an appropriate level.  It is also good for us as parents when they leave and come back tired but fulfilled.  We miss them and love them even more.  In two weeks I’m sending my youngest off to college and I will feel as you did when you dropped them off at the beginning of the session.  It’s sometimes hard to let go.  We can see the value of a good camp experience and how it bolsters the life of the child and has positive effects on the whole family.   Relationship building is the other part mentioned in the article.  Building relationships is the essence of what camp is about.  Getting along with one another and quickly learning that we’re not the center of the universe.  If your child left siblings behind at home, I’m sure they were missed on both ends and they appreciate them even more when they see them again.  A camp experience helps to round out the whole child and provides what we can’t always provide at home by introducing a whole new set of friends and folks from all over the world.

For those of you that have arrived home we hope that your child’s experience has captured all the magic of what camp can be. We know you will hear stories and songs as the weeks go by and that the camp experience will become a great memory. Placed in the hands of a mature staff a camper really gains from “playing outside which produces growing inside”.  From all of us, thanks again for a great session.  Wonderful children, great staff and the Simple Joys of Childhood at Gwynn Valley!  Hope to see you next year!

Dear Parents & Friends,

Tajar Ball has come to an end here at GV and it was total fun had by all involved.  Of course this day starts as we celebrate the Tajar’s birthday and of course he has to make his presence known by creating organized chaos on the Green and in the Dining Room this morning.  Debbie was on the roof, two SIT’s were asleep in kayaks on the lake, the dining room was toilet papered and assorted boats, targets, cups, kayaks and other camp paraphernalia were scattered hither and thither.  He must stay up all night to do this and I’m sure sleeps in late while everyone else is marveling at his wacky creations. This friends, is just the beginning to a grand birthday ball that begins just before our dinner hour.  More on the ball later!

After breakfast this morning we went right over to morning sign-ups to jump right into program after going back to cabins, brushing teeth, and getting ready for the day.  There were some wonderful activities going on this morning.  Several hikes were leaving downtown GV to go to the Rock and to Connestee Falls.  Both of these hikes are about 20 to 30 minute hikes here on our property.  There are lots of trails on camp, some more pronounced than others.  Some you could classify as game trails and others were created many years ago for access to the upper reaches of our land.  You don’t see too much game in the summer because of our numbers and it’s hard to hike anywhere in silence.  After the campers leave in late summer our critters start to come back as things settle down for them. Usually during the winter we see lots of deer, fox, turkey, and the occasional bear and bobcat and assorted small critters like rackity coons, opossum, and lots of rabbits.  We hear, but don’t see coyotes in the winter.  They are very shy.  There’s even an old small gauge railroad bed that’s near the top of the property.  I’m sure it was put in for logging way back in the 20’s and most of it has disappeared and overgrown.

Of course on any hot day the waterfront is buzzing and everyone wants to stay cool and that goes for the pool also.  Our pool is one of few camp pools in Western NC and it was built back in the 40’s.  One of our first projects after buying camp was to upgrade the pool and it’s so nice to have on days when you need to separate boaters and swimmers in two different locations.  There are times when the pool is very busy like opening and closing day.  Tomorrow everyone on Main Camp will make a visit to the pool for pillowcase day.  There’s hardly any camper that hasn’t tried the zip line over the lake and the traverse line.  The zip is pretty straight forward and that’s where it ends.  The traverse line is very difficult and we’ve only had two campers make it all the way across this whole summer.  Ask your campers about it on closing day.   That’s only two days away!  Can we keep them another week?  It’s been a great group!

So.. Tajar Ball started tonight with everyone in costume and of course no one knows who the Tajar is, because he is in costume too.  There’s a giant cookout with all the burgers and hot dogs you can eat plus lettuce, tomato, onions, homemade relish, potato chips, watermelon, cole slaw, and lemonade.  That’s just dinner and once the Ball starts there’s cookies, snow cones, popcorn (grown here at camp), and of course everyone’s favorite – ice cream and a multitude of flavors made at the Mill (no store bought ice cream at GV).  Along with food there was the Strongman Ring the Bell Challenge, Tin Can Toss, Guess the number of M&M’s in the water bottle, Football Thrown, Soccer Shootout, Cup and Ping Pong Ball Trickery, Face Painting, Balloon Critters, and more, plus the Giant Water Slide.  Cold water, but fun and exhilarating.  The Ball lasts for over an hour and everyone’s usually full of food and tuckered out by the time we end things about 8:20.  After a full day of activities it’s a good way to end our last regular day of camp.  Tomorrow morning we have morning sign-ups and then packing and pillowcase day in the PM.

As we wind down the session I want to let you parents know about a survey you will receive in the next couple of weeks.  It’s an evaluation sent to you by the camp and Clemson University.  We’re participating in a summer outcomes study that will provide valuable information and meaning to the work we do.  I’m on the North Carolina Youth Camps Board (NCYCA) and we’re an organization that has performed an economic impact study here in our region as well as lobbyed hard to keep our summers for camp and mostly to keep up to date on legislation that affects our industry.  I sincerely hope you will take the time to respond to this valuable tool.  This provides us with feedback to help make our program better.  We appreciate you taking the time to help us keep Gwynn Valley an outstanding program.  It’s been a great session and a great group of children.  Stay tuned for there is more ahead!

Dear Parents & Friends,

It’s been a great day at camp and that’s not unusual.  You know staff really make camp what it is and we’ve got a great staff this year.  You’d probably rather know what’s going on at camp with your children but I thought it noteworthy to talk a little bit about a few staff in particular.  For the first time that I can remember, we’ve got three staff members who are or were involved in arm services from three different countries.  I recently did interviews with all three to find out more about their duty and service and see how camp was different and similar in some ways.

Stacey who is a cabin counselor in Peter Pan is active and on leave from the New Zealand Army.  We have her all summer and she’s doing a great job.  Stacey said, “Camp is certainly more laid back than the army, but safety and risk management is #1 in both settings”. The Value of Acceptance, which is one of camp’s values, is also emphasized in her service.  The service is very competitive unlike camp where games end in a GV tie.  Stacey has signed on for 20 years and at this point has the rank of a Corporal.  She was the first woman in her family to join the service, but her great grandfather and grandfather served in WWI and WWII respectively.   She joined in 2008 and presently is serving as a dental assistant on her base.  Stacey grew up in Hastings, near Hawkes Bay close to the ocean.  It’s on the North Island and is very close to the sea.  She’s presently stationed in Linton which houses about 3000 troops and 25% of those are women.  Over the next few years she could be posted to an Air Force base or a Navy base with her skills.  She’s been surprised by the recognition our military service gets over here.  She’ll be heading back to the base when the new year begins and has really enjoyed her time at camp.

Tom has been with camp for two years and served for 7 years in Australian Army.  He’s multi-talented and has a lot of experience in the outdoors.  He works with our Riverside campers.  His love of the outdoors started with being a Scout in his home country.  When he was a young scout he had a chance to meet Bear Grylls who now is famous for his outdoor survival life and reality show.  He loved learning all the outdoor skills from being a scout and years later took that to the next level in joining the military.  He focused on infantry even though his CO recommended other areas and thought he was too smart to be just an infantryman.  Tom served 14 months in Afghanistan.  After service there and his honorable discharge he went to South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia to work in anti-poaching situations carrying his bush skills with him and creating a safe environment for many African animals.  In Kenya when not on patrol he was a “camp counselor for baby elephants who had lost their mothers to poaching”.  Nurturing baby elephants is akin to making sure Riversider’s needs are met some days.   “When you live in a small group like Riverside, you quickly learn what each person’s strengths and weaknesses are.  Teaching weapons training is quite similar to teaching canoe strokes, starting with foundational basics and going over the information several times to help implant those skills in the campers. The prep work that you do at camp goes right out into field with you and teachable moments are everywhere.”  Bonding with fellow soldiers (campers and staff) and processing the day happens in both environments.  Tom recognizes the difference between talent and hard work.  One of his favorite things is to wake the campers at 4 AM and drive them up to over 6000’ on the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch the sunrise.  Tom was very close to the patrols he worked with in the service and he feels the same about fellow staff and campers than he’s mentored the past couple of years.

Biggest Austin as we call him, is in our youngest boys cabin, Echo.  Austin comes from Holland, Michigan and his family met our Andy (assistant director), many years ago when Andy was an exchange student in the US.  Austin’s family and Andy have remained close through the years and Andy invited Austin to work here this summer.  Austin was involved in the Marine Corp Reserve and spent several years in the reserve while working and going to school.  His boot camp training took him to San Diego, later to Camp Lejeune and to Morocco for more training.  He spent about 5-7 weeks a year devoted to the Corp.  He grew up in a household with strong faith and when back home is involved in working with the youth at his church.  Austin stated his faith grew a great deal while in basic training.  “While military life is so different than camp, listening skills are important in both environs.”  At camp we include in that ability to listen, engagement, eyes and ears perked on what we call the “zone of awareness” when around campers.  “You make sure everyone is safe around you at camp and in your group and making sure that they are maintaining themselves.” There’s not much nurturing or gentleness in the Corp and here it’s all about that.  There’s a time to be firm and a time to relax and have fun.”  Austin will continue his education and work back in Michigan at the end of summer.  This ex- Marine is doing a great job with our youngest boys who have loved being in his cabin.

I thought you might be interested in these folks.  Our staff have many stories to tell and live very interesting lives in all parts of the globe.  I wish we had more time to have you meet more of them.  As stated above staff like these and others make us who we are.  They are partnering with you to be good parents here at camp.

We finally got some rain today and only during rest hour.  Our lightening detector went off about 2:30 and by 3:30 it gave the all clear signal.  It rained buckets and we need it.  This has been a very dry summer.  Bikers and paddlers made it back before the rain hit this afternoon.  Mountain Bikers went to Dupont and Kayakers went to the French Broad Wilson Rd. section.  There’s a great small rapid there for teaching the basics of ferrying, peelouts and generally controlling your boat in current.  Climbers are headed out early tomorrow morning to beat the rain.  Hopefully the rock will be dry when they arrive.  Tomorrow is New Zealand Day!  Stay tuned!

Dear Families & Friends,

Good evening from Gwynn Valley! Main Camp just finished playing a game that has everyone pursuing colors of the rainbow and the pot of gold at the end.  Six colors have to be gathered from the counselors wearing those colors. When a camper tags a designated ‘color of the rainbow’ that counselor has to paint a dab of paint on each cabin member’s arm. Sounds easy, right? But it’s not because the SITs are also running around in tye dye shirts and if they tag any member of your cabin the SITs will erase one of your colors and give you another in exchange.  And then there are the erasers, wearing white, who take all of your colors if they tag you!  There’s a whole lot of running around but you must stay with your cabin group and counselors.  For all their hard work there has to be a reward, so yes there is a pot of gold waiting at the end! RB, the Tajar Times editor, also happens to be a magician with a 30 minutes repertoire. The campers all gathered in the lodge after running around for a magic show that included all sorts of fun tricks making farm animals appear and disappear and objects move without being touched… The peals of laughter could be heard from across the green!

Earlier today we had some special visitors in camp. Gwynn Valley is filming a new promotional video due to release in the fall, and we have had a professional team come in throughout the summer to capture the essence of Gwynn Valley. Today we filmed some great action shots with kayakers, paddler boarders, and water mat players at the lake; archers shooting their arrows; campers playing with piglets at the farm; tadpole hunters with Web of Life; and Mountianside campers on the high ropes course. With so many fun things going on at camp every day, the good material is endless!! We had a slightly overcast day which was perfect for filming and everyone appreciated the slight drop in temperature.

As part of the filming, we also did a number of 1-on-1 interviews with campers ranging from 1st timers in Echo all the way up to SITs who have been here at GV for over a decade of summers. It was incredible to hear them describe their experiences at Gwynn Valley. Certain themes kept coming up which seem to be near to the heart of our mission. Almost everyone described the sense of community and belonging they feel here at camp. Many discussed the importance of distancing themselves from electronics and finding other ways to entertain themselves by DOING and CREATING. Of course, some of these admitted that they miss their iPads and game consoles, but they also agreed that time away was a good thing. A surprising number talked about Gwynn Valley was the place where they make their first real from of the opposite gender, which surprised me given that so many of our campers attend co-ed schools. Of course we also heard about the daily mantra of ‘doing something difficult everyday’ which Miss Mary embraced fully from day 1! We love seeing campers stretch their comfort zones and experience growth by doing new things while at GV.

Speaking of doing something difficult everyday, we were very glad to have our Riverside campers back from 4 days of climbing at Foster Falls. The group had a great time and campers told us all about their adventures in the woods. The biggest challenge for many was the 150 foot rappel, which is right next to a beautiful waterfall. Every RS camper successfully made it through, despite a few who are pretty nervous about heights. Their campers were proud of themselves and glad that they had pushed past their fears.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about more adventures!

Dear Camper Families and Friends,

We had a beautiful and hot summer day here at Gwynn Valley! In the morning temperatures stayed temperate as campers enjoyed their second A day of Morning Discoveries. In the afternoon, it was perfect weather for swimming and the waterfront was a popular spot for afternoon sign ups. Campers were out having fun on the water mat, the zipline, the traverse line, sit on top kayaks, stand up paddle boards and just goofing around in the swimming area. The sunshine has been bountiful and we all basked in it’s summer glory today.

Our kitchen hit home runs at every meal today. As Grant likes to say, “You can’t buy food like this!” For breakfast we had homemade-whole wheat cranberry & orange scones, bacon, fruit, OJ, water, milk and cereal. At lunch we had fresh green salad, chicken, grilled eggplant and squash, pitas, olives, feta, homemade tzatziki sauce and fruit. Some people made gyros and others enjoyed a nice greek salad. Snack was a refreshing fruit and yogurt smoothie which really hit the spot when temperatures were high after rest hour. For dinner we had roasted chicken (raised at GV) with rice, gravy, homemade-whole wheat challah bread, green salad, local butter, and beet salad. Many campers at my table tried beets for the first time, and I think we may have a few converted beet lovers! At Gwynn Valley, we know that food nourishes not only the body but also the soul. We really emphasize the importance of slowing down to eat, conversing with those around you, and knowing where your food comes from. Our table groups sit together for one week at a time, and each group includes a mix of campers and staff, boys and girls, Main Camp and Mountainside. We have had a few days with our D session table groups and as you look around the dining hall you can tell by all the laughter and the noise level that groups have really gotten comfortable with one another.

The dining hall was very spacious this evening as nearly half of our cabin groups were on camp outs. Nine Main Camp cabins and two Mountainside cabins picked up food orders from the cookout kitchen and made dinner over an open fire at one of our many established campsites on camp property. Cabin camp outs are wonderful opportunity for cabin bonding and up close contact with natural wonders of Western North Carolina. Most sites have a shelter with a roof and three walls, which opens to the surrounding environment on the fourth side. There is also a fire ring and plenty of space to play in the surrounding woods or fields. Our closest shelter is Hidden Stall; it only takes 5 minutes to walk there from Downtown GV, but you really feel like you’re in the middle of the woods when you arrive. Our furthest campsites are over on the Hunt Farm and they are about a 15 or 20 minute walk from Downtown GV. Our younger cabins go to the closer sites while our older groups have a bit of a further or harder walk to the more distant sites. Every cabin camps out at least once during the session, so if a cabin group did not go tonight, they will be going at some point over the next few days.

Our Mountainside campers enjoyed their 2nd Mini Adventures today. During the first week of camp, each camper will try mountain biking, rock climbing, canoeing and pioneering. After today, everyone has tried two of the four adventure options. At the end of the week we will collect adventure preferences and sort them into adventure groups for further training before the big trip. After Mini Adventures today, half of mountainside went out for cabin camp outs while the other half ate dinner as normal in the dining hall and then went down to the farm. At the farm, MS3 campers set a record potato harvest, collecting over 400 lbs of potatoes! After working hard in the garden, our farm workers enjoyed some play time with the baby goats and the piglets. The piglets were freshly bathed and adorable as always.

Back in Main Camp, the remaining cabins enjoyed an evening of Twilight play. For those of you who are new to camp, Twilight play is an extended after supper activity period. Tonight campers went down to the stables for horses; swung like Tarzan and Jane on the tower swing; played a massive game of capture the flag all over Downtown GV; popped GV grown corn at the Mill; made bath bombs and hacky sacks with our crafty ladies Daisy and Kelly; went on scavenger hunt for Debbie; tried their hand at wheel throwing with Hannah; or played camouflage with our OLS / WEB team.

After a full day of playing in the sun, all our campers are now sleeping peacefully in cabins and camp out shelters. We’re excited to hear about camp out adventures over breakfast tomorrow when all our table groups will be complete once again. Until then… we’ll all have to dream of the adventures that tomorrow will hold.