ERINS SUMMER CAMP EXPERIENCE

I have spent some of my time this fall calling camper families and reconnecting with them after the summer. I have gotten such positive and validating antidotes and memories of the summer from campers perspectives that I want to share them with the rest of the Stomping Ground community. So here starts a series of blog posts highlighting specific campers memories and experiences from the inaugural summer of Stomping Ground. Erin Schott was one of our founding campers this past summer. Erin has a unique relationship to camp. Erin is Jack’s (a Director at camp) niece. Erin is 13 and and lives in Philadelphia with her mom, dad and big golden retriever named Caspian. Erin loves to play sports, read books, is constantly on the quest to learn new things. Erin has taken part in  many summer camp programs including day camps, residential camps, art camps, sports camps, and wilderness tripping programs.

We valued her take on the Stomping Ground program partly because of her knowledge of what else is out there. Erin says that Stomping Ground was unlike any other camp that she has ever been to. She particularly loved some of the silly out of the box activities. For example the evening programs, especially the Winter Walkers game, during this game you must work with your fellow campers to capture fairies and return them to store in order to save the human race. All of the campers at camp banded together to capture the rogue fairies.

Erin also enjoyed the spontaneous camper vs. counselor sponge dodgeball war we had before lunch one day on the lower meadow. This is one of my favorite memories from the summer also! The campers were lead by counselor Darron and although we tried all of the maneuvers we could think of the staff was out numbered and outsmarted by the campers.

Erin says maybe her favorite memory from the week was performing a flash mob that her cabin had put together for the whole camp. It took place during one of the meals in the dining hall. The song Cinema came on randomly while everyone was eating the girls from Erin’s cabin jumped up and started dancing! It was a highlight of everyones week and a great memory maker. Erin hopes to find time in her busy schedule to make it back to camp next summer!

Laura