In a world where you can be anything, be kind!
-Jesmundo
On July 20th, 2021, The American Camp Association is proud to announce Camp Kindness Day, a day where camps will celebrate the acts of intentional kindness by incorporating it into their programming and daily schedules. Camps across the country teach youth and young adults all aspects of kindness throughout the summer months which continues to be carried throughout their lives. Camp Kindness Day will illustrate the dedication of these camps that instill the core values of compassion, empathy and humanity. Follow what camps will be doing for this special day on social media #CampKindnessDay.
Here are some ways that Camps are celebrating:
At Falcon, we talk about kindness all the time and make it a daily practice rather than having a special ‘kindness day’. However, in the spirit of the ACA Kindness Day we will be having each camper write a note to each of their cabin mates saying something kind or telling them of some act of kindness they will do for that person. That way, each camper can write some nice thoughts about their bunkmates and everyone gets extra mail that day (mail is always a favorite). We do practice kindness each day at camp and hope to create the habit pattern in all of us to be kind because it’s the right thing to do and not because someone asks you to.
At Camp Kennybrook, we strive to encourage and celebrate acts of kindness as often as possible. Our Counselors, Group Leaders, and Head Counselors are always on the lookout for random acts of kindness throughout the summer. These acts are recorded, and 3 outstanding members of our camp family are acknowledged weekly at the flagpole in front of their peers. We are committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for all, and what better way than publicly recognizing and thanking each person for going beyond expectations to make someone else’s day brighter.
At our weekly Campership Campfires, campers recognize each other for acts of kindness that embody our virtues of friendship, teamwork, creativity, independence, resilience, optimism & citizenship.
Our Camp Brother/Camp Sister program connects returning campers with brand new campers joining our family for their first summer. Their kind letters make help welcome our new campers and foster connections for many seasons to come. They truly feel a part of something bigger than just themselves.
Our summer motto is “Be your Best Self” where our campers are encouraged to be the best version of themselves; kindness to others being the most important aspect.
Tripp Lake Camp can’t wait to celebrate Camp Kindness Day! We plan to do the following activities – Kindness Wheel, where campers nominate friends who have been kind by submitting a brief write-up and putting their note in kindness boxes setup across camp. At each meal, we will randomly pull 2-3 notes and read them aloud for all of camp to hear. That camper then can come up and spin the Kindness Wheel to win a fun surprise! We will also be painting kindness/hope rocks and spreading them across camp, writing kindness letters to loved ones, and creating a kindness graffiti wall for campers to take pictures in front of. They will also be writing what kindness means to them and sticking that on the graffiti wall. We can’t wait for our campers to take part in all of this, to spread kindness within the Tripp Lake community!
Wekeela will be focusing our program on kindness and allow our campers to spend their activity period practicing gratitude:
For example, in creative arts campers will be creating “Kind Signs” for other bunks or their friends to encourage them, writing friendship and gratitude notes for others. In Landsports, Outdoor Adventure, Waterfront, etc. they will be learning about ways to do these activities with an added sense of kindness and balance of competition. Kindness is all about the language we use and how we choose to express ourselves, which is what we try to teach our campers every day.