SUMMER
2 0 1 5 GENEVA
NEWS FROM GENEVA CAM P & RE TR EAT
CEN T
ER
Keeping the Camp Experience Fresh Last summer, nearly 4,200 kids had a GENEVA camp experience—a record number of campers for a nine week summer season. It would be easy to assume that GENEVA has figured out the formula for a successful summer and should just keep doing what we have been doing. Our leadership staff believes that as we look ahead to the next year of camp, we always have to keep the camp experience new and fresh, so this summer, there are a number of innovative programs and new equipment at GENEVA. One of the unique program features at Pines is Challenge Island. The challenge equipment components have a life span and must be inspected regularly, and this year, GENEVA has replaced the tower with a new, triangle-shaped design that will allow eight climbers at a time rather than two. There are also three different climbs with varying degrees of difficulty on the new tower, including one that incorporates elements for which a camper has to work with a partner. Every Pines camper will spend time on the climbing tower with their cabin group over their week, with the option of additional free time activity. There were two new special-themed weeks offered on Pines for 2015. The first was Creativity Week (in June), a regular week of camp with an added array of experiences available in the visual arts. Leading this special week was Tori Pelz, director at Culture Works Institute for Creative Arts (cultureworksica.com), who worked with GENEVA summer staff to incorporate the theme into interest group activities, cabin times, and songs and skits. Since 2011, GENEVA has offered Imagination Week for Shores and Day Camp, with special guests Joel Schoon Tanis and Steve Carigon. Creativity Week offered a similar experience for Pines campers with a special interest in the arts. Creativity Week tied in especially well with our camp-wide theme for 2015: “Create: Made & Remade.” The second new week is Beach Week at Pines, coming in August. The focus during Beach Week is lifeguarding and water sports. Pines campers will participate in surf sports such as paddle boarding and surfing, while learning water safety skills. Special guest Greg Fields, director of the ARC project (www.arcsurf.org), will work with GENEVA staff to incorporate these special water activities into the camp experience.
Pines campers enjoying the new climbing tower
A small group of high school students spent a week in late June as Sidekicks, a new program that tied in with CONNECT Week, a day camp for middle and high school boys with Asperger’s Syndrome or High Functioning Autism. The Sidekicks, who had participated in the CIT program in past years and who have a strong interest in working with kids with special needs, spent the day with the CONNECT campers. In the evenings they had their own community time, Bible study, and also received some special training, learning about behaviors and abilities of kids like those participating in the CONNECT Week. In our last issue of the Beachfire, we featured the day camp weeks being held in Kalamazoo this summer, including a Spanish Language & Culture week, as well as a week of “normal” day camp, held offsite. The success of the Kalamazoo program may lead GENEVA to expand the offsite offerings in future years to places like Muskegon, from which we draw a significant number of overnight campers, but do not attract day campers because of the distance. (continued on page 3)