P: Play!

PLAY! If you spend a little time with us, you’ll quickly find that Champ Camp is passionate about play. Not in the hokey we’re so laid back and fun so sign up now sense, but from the the this stuff is golden, and more of it needs to be shared with your kids ASAP perspective. In fact, the benefits of play are so paramount that, if we weren't passionate about it, I would personally advise you to take your business elsewhere. Play is the bedrock of our organization, and the guiding light for all that we do.

Infusing our kids with many of the big picture ideas that we all hope to acquire on our journey through life, play is the greatest form of informal education. Tinkering with seemingly unlike objects to design new things introduces us to problem solving, out-of-the-box thinking, and the value of patience. Play is restorative, affording our brains the opportunity to recharge from the more structured parts of our lives. Dreaming up a world of robots and castles amidst a pile of Big Blue Blocks in the sand sparks imagination and fires up creativity. Perhaps more importantly, hearing another’s completely different ideas about what they think is possible to create or invent opens the doors to collaboration, empathy, and teamwork. Any way you spin it, play teaches our kids heavy hitting life lessons while simultaneously providing their minds with meaningful engagement.

In a world of constant stimulation, many of us have developed the tendency to look outwards for fulfillment and entertainment, passively waiting for those things to arrive by way of an app, text, or news update. While it might feel exciting for a second, any perceived benefit of this sort is fleeting. Play, on the other hand, encourages contented absorption into whatever is available at a given time and space. Purely, play is full engagement with the moment, without comparison to how things ought to be, or the worry of needing to reach a destination. Perhaps not so coincidentally, those are precisely the things that most of us could use more of in our day-to-day...

Let the games begin!

-Trevor

M: Movement!

MOVEMENT. In its early days when Champ Camp was just an idea floating in space, the very general notion was to create a kids’ program that made moving around outside with your buddies a more intriguing option than time on the iPad. While it’s evolved and transformed in unimaginable ways since that initial Aha moment, movement of various types remains at the heart of everything we do.

As a self-proclaimed “activities-based kids’ program,” let’s begin by acknowledging the most obvious elephant in the room; Champ Campers move their bodies A LOT! In its crudest form, our approach to championing physical movement looks something like this: let’s think of as many engaging and innovative activities as possible and encourage our kids to give some of them a try. Then, hopefully, a handful of our activities strike an internal chord and campers choose to play Sharks & Minnows more often than Angry Birds going forward. Since the value of consistently moving one’s body through space cannot be overstated, it follows that discovering a movement practice that brings us joy is one of the most important to-do items that exists-- our lives depend on it!

Like you’ve probably guessed, bodies aren’t the only things moving at Champ Camp. Carefully woven into the fabric of our program are countless opportunities for our campers to move their minds. Given the autonomy available at Champ Camp, our kids are constantly required to consider their own interests and desires, and then make a choice accordingly. Not only does this process give our campers a dose of self-awareness, but considering one’s options and choosing accordingly is also very empowering. Moreover, the creative endeavors that we expose our kids to is a bottomless source of mind movement. Whether we’re playing a gripping game of charades, or building a larger than life fortress with our world famous Big Blue Blocks, Champ Campers can’t help but move their minds and look at the world in new ways.

We believe that the benefits of body and mind movement are necessary keys for getting the ball rolling down the path towards our kids developing into exceptional individuals. But, those benefits don’t fully account for what we’re getting at:

Champ Camp IS a movement.

The culture we’ve created makes it cool to think freely, talk differences out with each other, and let your thoughts be heard. More specifically, Champ Camp’s on a mission to do its part to help develop kind kids with confidence who care about each other and are ready to change the world.

Join the Movement!

-Trevor

A: Autonomy!

AUTONOMY. From early September until mid June, a kid’s every single move is predetermined. Wake up. Wear this. Eat breakfast. Sit straight. Play now. No talking. Read that. Play more (hopefully). Line up. Do homework. Eat dinner. Shower up. Bed time.

Obviously, kids need a considerable amount of governance to establish a sense of accountability, develop a routine, and set boundaries, i.e. when it’s time to work and when it’s time to play. But, arguably more vital than those traits is the development of the kid’s voice. Enter, Champ Camp…

Our weeks begin by empowering campers with the notion that they literally get to do whatever they want. After throwing options out to them, we sit back and let the kids paint their day. Now, for a camper who’s spent the previous ten months (or perhaps ten years) following a relatively stringent itinerary, what happens when she’s given the keys to her own city? Let us save you the research-- what we see is the enchanting merger of freedom and authenticity, which leads our campers to the realization that they each have a voice that matters.

It’s an odd and often fleeting notion that kids are just soon-to-be adults with less birthdays under their belts. As adults, we’re required to craft our weeks, months, and lives with some sense of foresighted acuity. However, if things are mostly pre-arranged for our kids until they finish high school, and maybe even college, how can we expect them to successfully navigate the ambiguity of life thereafter? Newsflash: we can’t. But, by peppering autonomy into the foundation of our program, we begin to awaken our campers to the existence of their voices, and embolden them to speak up and start to make some decisions for themselves on the regs.

-Trevor

H: Happiness!

HAPPINESS. So, given 80+ kids whose birthdays span a decade (ages 4-14), you might be curious as to how we trigger and maintain all that happiness. Well, you’d think it might be our activities, right? We work tirelessly to dream up and search for all sorts of unique and innovative things to do at our weeklong party on the sand. Or, could it be that we give our campers a timely reprieve-- a chance to decompress after a seemingly endless, stressful school year?

As it turns out, while the above helps to keep our kids’ smile levels in the optimal range, it all means diddly-squat without the following intention: We set out to convey to our campers that, whatever “happiness” means to them, Champ Camp exists to support and promote that thing. That is, we are a place for kids to embrace each other, and themselves. Given our intention, what ensues is that campers of differing interests, ages, and temperaments learn, grow, and thrive in the exact same environment. Fascinating, isn’t it?!

Similar to most things in life, our why is far more crucial than our how. By starting from a place of total acceptance and encouragement, we position ourselves to help each of our kids feel heard, empowered, and happy-- the deets just sort of fill in from there. Now, if that’s not what it’s all about, I don’t know what is.

Cheeese,

-Trevor

C: Community!

COMMUNITY. Our new kids might not realize it as their en route to camp on Monday morning, but they’re about to be immersed in a living, breathing community for at least the following five days. Heck, hopeful coaches don’t fully grasp the significance of the job they’re applying for, but the reality of this community is undeniable once one enters into it.

The word “community” gets tossed around abundantly nowadays, so what exactly do we mean by it? Our community is comprised of encouragement, inclusiveness, and togetherness. From the most seasoned camp coach down to the newest young camper, maintaining such an atmosphere is a requisite for Champ Camp to exist. We play together, we eat together, we teach each other new things, we cheer each other on, and we constantly remind one another why we’re there in the first place: to have lots and lots of meaningful fun. Devoid of this environment, we wouldn’t be us.

But wait, there’s more!.. Because this idea is so inseparable from who we are as an organization, something incredible follows: Champ Camp’s community ambience is self-regulatory. From the second our smiling coaches set the “we’re all friends” tone on the first day of camp, our kids start to buy into the idea that being warm, welcoming, and kind to one another is actually cool. Then, in the event that someone’s being less than encouraging or inclusive, the Champ Camp Community points out the discrepancy, and ninety-nine percent of the time, all is fixed and forgiven in that moment. Watching a four year old tell an eight year old that they need to “make better choices” is an inspiring sight to see-- self confidence, anyone?

Simply, Champ Camp could not exist without Community as one of its cornerstones. From afar, we might look like we’re just frolicking around in the sun all summer. While we’re definitely doing that, there’s an ever-growing community that serves as the foundation for our frolics.

-Trevor

The Champ Camp Cornerstones

C.H.A.M.P... Distilling everything that makes Champ Camp Champ Camp into just five words seems like an overwhelming task. But as it turns out, when you sit down and flush out all the little things going on, they begin to add up to a couple of critically significant big things. Those big things are our Champ Camp Cornerstones, and what will follow in the coming days is a breakdown of what each one means to us, and why you you can’t spell “CHAMP” if one of them’s missing.

-Trevor