Making New Friends and Having Fun at Summer Camp?

Make lifelong or just summer-long friends while having a blast outdoors at overnight summer camp. Days are chock-full of amazing activities, from water-front adventures to challenging rope course events and exciting games, while nights offer ghost stories around the campfire, boisterous sing-alongs and hilarious skits.

Having Fun

From learning to swim to catching your first fish, stepping up for some line dancing or perfecting your tennis serve, camp is most of all a place to have fun. Sure, you’ll probably learn a lot about yourself and the natural world, but along the way you’ll be playing games, participating in goofy contests, acting in skits and just hanging with pals in your cabin.

In and on the water are two of the favorite spots to be at sleepaway camp, whether diving for pennies in the pool, exploring hidden coves by canoe or learning the fine art of sailing. Taking risks to achieve personal goals is exciting too, and part of the fun of camp is advancing in swimming levels, acquiring new boating skills and checking out thrilling new sports like water skiing. Trying new sports and activities in the company of friends and favorite counselors means you just might find that you actually are coordinated enough to maneuver on a wind-surfer, artistic enough to create an awesome skit backdrop and strong enough to get to the top of the climbing wall – using the hard route.

Making Friends

A cabin-centered camp structure means campers form a really tight bond, building their own little

community within the larger community of the camp. And don’t worry; you will indeed make friends, whether they last for one summer or your whole life. Even if you’re a little shy or scared of talking to new people, it’s so much easier to get to know other kids when you’re living, eating and playing together all day. And if that’s not enough, camp counselors are experts at easing the way socially for all campers. Just try introducing yourself to people around you; it may be easier and far more fun than you think, and you may find out you’re not as shy as you think. You’ll have a whole new band of friends in your cabin mates, talking, playing, laughing and sharing the super summer camp experience.

All this awesome socializing will also help you forget you’re missing your dog, your mom and dad or your neighborhood friends. It’s hard to stay homesick when you’re engaged in the fun-filled teamwork required for winning that game of Capture-the-Flag, learning a cool dance routine for a campfire skit or completing a challenging goal on the high ropes course.

Another friend you’ll get to know better at camp is yourself. Yes, away from mom and dad, teachers and the school friends, you may just find out a lot about your own character and values. Camp gives you a chance to take some healthy risks that help you learn more about who you are as a person and who you may become. At the end of an awesome summer, you’ll be healthier, fitter, more independent and more resilient, and you’ll carry this new, improved you off to school and then back to camp next summer. You’ll be a better friend to others and to yourself.