STAYING IN TOUCH CAMP

Hermann Sons Life App

Parents will need to download the Hermann Sons Life App in order to keep in touch with Camp during their child’s week at Camp.

The Camp staff will be posting lots of photos as the week goes by on the App. The App is also where parents will go to access the one-way email system.

We also use the App to communicate with parents during the week. For example, if for some reason we must close Camp, we will send a push notification on the App that will go to all parents. You will receive a code for downloading the App when you register your child for Camp (it’s also provided below).

Through the Hermann Sons Life App parents will be able to:

• EMAIL – Parents can send a one-way email to their child during their stay.

• PHOTOS – Parents can view and download photos taken at Camp.

• CONTACT – Parents can send direct email messages to Camp staff and to the Camp Director and much more.

Please Follow These Steps To Download The App

Go to your phone’s App STORE.

Download the Hermann Sons Life App

Create an account (free). Use the required access code: HSLC20.

Emailing Your Child

Parents can email their camper through the contact page in the App. One-way emails sent by parents on the App will be distributed to campers daily, typically at dinner time.

• Emails are printed daily at 1 p.m.

• Emails received after 1 p.m. will be delivered to your child the following day.

When sending emails, it is important to be positive and encouraging. If your child receives an email stating “the dog misses you,” “we went to your favorite restaurant last night” or “I miss you terribly,” while well intentioned, it may cause your child to feel sad or have guilty feelings that they are having a good time without you.

TIPS: Ask them about their new friends • Ask them about their activities • Tell them how proud you are they are enjoying themselves without you • Remind them to help clean their area! Brush their teeth! Shower! • Tell them everything is fine at home, nothing new going on.

These messages will help reinforce their positivity at camp, reinforce their growing confidence and reinforce their independence.

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TO ENSURE EMAILS EMAILS ARE PUNCTUALLY DISTRIBUTED AND THERE ARE NO DELAYS: THE SUBJECT LINE SHOULD READ:

• CAMP (Riverside-Girls or Hilltop-Boys) DORM NAME and CAMPER’s NAME IN THIS ORDER.

• For example: Subject Line: Hilltop – White Tail – Ian Brassett

CAMPER MAIL & PACKAGES

If you wish to have your child receive mail (other than an email) or a care package during the week, it is best to bring it with you when you drop off your child. There will be staff member prepared to collect these items from you at the designated time. This mail will be delivered after lunch during the relaxation period. CLEARLY label the camper’s name and day you wish it to be delivered.

Mailing Address For The Campers

It is great for a camper to get a positive/encouraging letter from home. To make sure it arrives in time, you may want to mail it a week ahead. The address is:

Camper’s Name

Hermann Sons Life Camp - Riverside (Girls)

Hermann Sons Life Camp - Hilltop (Boys)

DORM NAME – This will be emailed one week ahead of your child’s camp session.

P.O. Box 629

Comfort, TX 78013

TIP

If you’d like your child to write to you, please give them stamped, pre-addressed envelopes. Many letters do not get mailed or will be lost in the post office system when they are not addressed correctly and completely.

This would also apply to extended family and friends. Have them drop the pre-addressed stamped envelopes to your camper before they leave home! Back to Table of Contents

Be curious, not judgmental

The HERMANN SONS LIFE CAMP mission is to provide a quality, safe and caring summer camp program that develops healthy friendships and enriches the lives of both campers and staff by fostering self-esteem and independence through exposure to new experiences, group living and play.

Camp Is A Family Tradition

At Hermann Sons Life is not unusual to greet a camper whose parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles have all spent time at Hermann Sons Life Camp! It is one of the strengths of our program.

Hermann Sons Life Camp is a family. While many members of the team are former campers who have grown through the Counselor-in-Training and Junior Staff programs, like most Texans (especially those in the Hill Country), we all love a camp that fosters renewing old friendships and MAKING NEW FRIENDS. New campers and staff allow the Camp to grow with exciting new ideas and energy.

Whether your child is a first-time camper or is returning for the sixth summer, we are excited to welcome them this summer.

Riverside And Hilltop Camps

Our camps are single gender camps, know traditionally in camping circles as a brother–sister camp. Riverside is home of the original camp (1954) and currently home to our girls’ camp. Hilltop opened in 1991 and is home to the boys’ camp. Geographically, between the two camps is the Hermann Sons Life Retirement Home.

The two camps coordinate and help each other out with staffing activities (Challenge, lifeguarding, transportation, CIT programming, etc.) along with Staff Development.

Camp Traditions

Much like Hermann pictured here hanging out at the entrance to Riverside, Camp has many beloved traditions. Many of them your child will learn as we go along this summer. Here’s a few things to mention.

We Sing

On Riverside especially, singing camp songs throughout the day is a fantastic part of the tradition that is Hermann Sons Life Camp. On our YouTube Channel you will find videos of our Camp songs so first-time campers and those returning to Camp can learn the songs. I highly recommend you learn a few. They are great!

Click here to go to our YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRhtPPY88bAaXmk1OjI2KCg

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WE DANCE (and eat cookies!)

The campers and staff love to dance. Our weekly dance is held on Riverside on Thursday night and brings together the Riverside (girls) and Hilltop (boys) camps.

We have put together tutorials (with the help of many of our returning staff members) on some of the more popular line dances for both our NEW and RETURNING CAMPERS. Learn them in the comfort and privacy of your home before you trip the light fantastic at Camp!

The link for the line dances is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRhtPPY88bAaXmk1OjI2KCg

During the dance, our campers and staff have a blast! I highly recommend you check out our YouTube Channel and subscribe.

On Hilltop, one way we teach our campers the dances is by playing the songs during our meal times. Often counselors will get up and dance and the campers will join in.

Still, many of our campers believe that the best part of the dance are the cookies.

Beads

For every year of attendance, both campers and staff receive a new colored bead. The beads will tell your Hermann Sons Life Camp story. Camper beads are plastic. Staff beads are wooden.

Clean For Ice Cream

Campers and counselors are asked to do their part to keep the cabins clean. This is where Clean For Ice Cream comes in. A few examples of the chores that campers and staff should expect to perform daily are sweeping, making their bed, taking out the trash, etc.

ICE CREAM SANDWICHES WILL BE GIVEN TO THE CLEANEST CABINS AT LUNCH ON FRIDAY!

Flagpole

Like many (if not most) camps in the United States, we gather around the flagpole in the morning and afternoon to raise and lower the American flag. At Hermann Sons Life we also raise and lower the Texas state flag and the Hermann Sons Life flag.

We repeat the Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas Pledge every morning. While they are not required to say the pledge, we do expect all campers and staff to be respectful during the flag raising and lowering by standing quietly facing the flag and taking off their hats!

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Taps

Each night, at the end of the evening activity, each camp gathers and performs Taps. It’s an awesome way of calming the campers down before heading back to the dorms for the friendship circles, showers and bed. At the end of Taps, the Lord’s Prayer is said. Much like the Pledge of Allegiance, campers are not required to sing Taps or say the Lord’s Prayer, however, they are expected to be respectful of those who do.

GRATEFUL (FRIENDSHIP) CIRCLES / LIGHTS-OUT

After Taps campers head back to the dorms. Before entering the dorm, they gather in a circle (or small circles) and say one thing they are grateful for from the day.

Camp Life

All campers are scheduled 3 specialized activity periods each half day with the remaining half day for the campers’ elective activities. The activities assigned will be determined by the camper’s activity choices. The lesson plans have been rewritten this year with the sole focus of improving the camper’s enjoyment of the activity. PLAY and FUN have been integrated into all the lesson plans.

Please keep in mind that there will be no FINALS in our activities this summer, instead we are introducing a brand new special event.

Camper Of The Day

Every day we will be announcing the “Camper(s) of the Day” for each dorm. We are looking for the most deserving, most helpful, friendliest camper who embodies all aspects of Camp. This camper will be acknowledged at one of the meals.

Camper Of The Week

Each week we will be announcing a “Camper(s) of the Week” for each dorm. We are looking for the most deserving, the friendliest campers, the most helpful, kindest, etc. This camper will be acknowledged at the Saturday Showcase and awarded a special orange bead.

COUNSELOR FREE-DINNER / SURVEYS

We truly care about what our campers think about their experience at Camp. We will survey them twice each week. Each week Executive Camp Director Ian Brassett reports the results of these surveys to the Vice President of Member Benefits. Ian reads every comment. We evaluate the surveys closely for trends.

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Be curious, not judgmental

To operate Camp in 2023 we will always follow the regulations established by the state of Texas and consider the guidelines set forth by the American Camp Association. This Well Camp Policy is designed to allay the concerns of campers, parents and staff. Hermann Sons Life Camp staff will continue to review state regulations and ACA guidelines throughout the spring and implement changes as needed.

WELL CAMP POLICIES & PROCEDURES

Hermann Sons Life Camp’s primary concern is the health and safety of all campers and staff members who live and work at Camp. The Well Camp Policies have been developed to create a culture of healthy living and to develop policies and procedures which will foster good practices and habits amongst both staff and campers.

Illness and contagion will never be completely eradicated from schools and camps. Enforcing and implementing a culture where good healthy practices exist will help in reducing the spread of sickness, and is an essential part of running a top-rated summer camp program.

Camps and schools are traditional breeding grounds for the spread of germs. Hermann Sons Life Camp is the summer home for campers from all over Texas as well as a number of staff from across the world. In this COVID-19 environment, keeping a healthy camp environment will be even more critical. While we cannot guarantee that an outbreak of COVID-19 will not occur, we will be implementing procedures to reduce the likelihood of spread.

In 2023, Hermann Sons Life Camp will have a fully staffed clinic on both Hilltop and Riverside camps.

HERMANN SONS LIFE CAMP’S COMMUNICATION POLICY

• Parents must be informed before their child is seen by a doctor for illness or injury. This call will be made by the Camp nurse referring the camper.

• Whenever a camper puts his/her head on a pillow in the Clinic, the parent is to be called even if the stay is less than four hours.

• If it is after 9 p.m. and the child is admitted into the Clinic for a non-emergent condition, the call can be made between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. the next morning. No later! Back

Be curious, not judgmental