Posts Tagged ‘summer camp’
By alohafoundation
Sunday, January 1st, 2012
As we ring in 2012, Aloha bids farewell to two people who, as much as anyone over the past quarter-century, have embodied The Aloha Foundation’s spirit and traditions. Deb and Andy Williams, who ran Hulbert Outdoor Center for two decades and Ohana Family Camp for the past six years — are retiring. They’ve introduced hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people to the Aloha experience during their time here, and broadened that experience to include people of all ages.
On a still-warm day in December, they sat in the sunroom of their Norwich, Vermont home and reflected on their own Aloha experience. Not surprisingly, they talked a lot about their work at Ohana, the family camp they helped build over the past decade.
“One has very few opportunities in a career to start something from scratch,” said Andy. (more…)
Tags: Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, fairlee, family camp, leadership, Ohana, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Camp News | 5 Comments »
By alohafoundation
Monday, December 12th, 2011
Imagine if Hogwarts had a day camp for aspiring young wizards. That thought wasn’t too far a stretch one afternoon this past summer at Horizons. It was “choice” period at Horizons, the only non-residential camp of The Aloha Foundation. On a broad grassy playing field, Chipmunks to Falcons — campers ranging in age from kindergarten graduates to nearly-out-of-middle-schoolers — were preparing for an important match. They wriggled into green or yellow pinneys and chose carefully among a pile of brightly colored swim noodles. Some of the children taped big letters — B, C, K — to their pinneys. At the ends of the playing field, three tall wooden stakes held hula hoops aloft — yellow, pale green, and, higher than the other two, pink. Together, the stakes and the upended hoops looked like enormous bubble wands — but were actually goals for the quaffle. The lettered pinneys stood for Bludgers, Chasers and Keepers. And the field was set for an all-out, campers against counselors, game of Quidditch. (more…)
Tags: Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Camp, camps, Childhood, Fun, Horizons, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Camp News, Child Development | No Comments »
By alohafoundation
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Each day at Hive is filled with adventures AND hugs
“Who sends a seven year-old to camp?”
I start with this question because I got it a lot when I made the decision to send my daughter for her Elfin summer — and I repeatedly asked it of myself when I was packing her trunk. “Who sends a seven year-old off to camp?”
But the decision to do it was actually very easy: my daughter has always had a daring spirit and when she heard that there were places for kids to go adventuring by themselves away from their families, she was thrilled. My husband and I could have said, “No, wait until you are older,” but we wanted to encourage her. We were frank with her about the challenges — yes, she would probably have moments of wanting to go home. That was normal. How was she going to handle it? we asked. She would talk to her counselor, she said, and find something to keep her busy. Good plan, we said. At worst, we told her, you’ll have ten days that were harder than you expected but you will come home proud that you tried something new.
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Tags: Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Aloha Hive, Camp, Child Development, empowerment, fairlee, girls, lake fairlee, self-confidence, self-esteem, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Camp Philosophy, Child Development, Success Counseling | 4 Comments »
By alohafoundation
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Director Downey watches Friday night's performance.
Anne Downey, Department Head of Aloha’s Performing Arts Department, had just called a short break from rehearsals for this year’s show, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and the Hale, Aloha’s music building was quiet and almost empty. In two days, families and friends would arrive for Show Weekend and the back-to-back musical performances that have become a much anticipated and grand Aloha tradition. Downey gave the confident, matter-of-fact sense that she’d been through this nervous period before and that this year’s cast would be just fine. Still, she was now counting the remaining preparation in hours.
Some girls shuffled off to the main building to refill water bottles. Others retreated to shade under trees or on the porch. A heat wave was cresting over New England, spreading even as far north as Fairlee. Every door in the building stood wide open to welcome small gusts coming off Lake Morey or slight forest breezes. Downey waved her copy of the script like a thick fan and explained that after the break, the cast would do a complete run-through of the show. “We want them to see what they can do,” Downey said. “We have girls on lights, backstage, on stage. This is big-girl camp. Every girl plays an important role.” (more…)
Tags: Aloha, Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Camp, girls, self-confidence, self-esteem, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Camp News, Camp Philosophy | No Comments »
By alohafoundation
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Beginners get one-on-one coaching on the Aloha crew dock
Aloha Camp was in full summer swing last week, one perfect day following another. On Tuesday afternoon, the sun beamed down full, adding sparkle to Lake Morey’s brilliant blue. Four campers walked down to the lake past the ARC (Aloha Rowing Club), where Aloha Crew counselors Emma and Arielle waited for them on a short dock.
Among the colorful beach towels draped over dock posts and the boisterous splashing of swimmers, the girls gathered around a sleek, gray, metal rowing machine. Harper settled into its sliding seat. The rowing machine, a Concept 2 ergometer, mimics the action of rowing. Olympic and collegiate crews train on Concept 2 ergometers year-round. While other campers watched, Arielle talked Harper through the sequence. Harper grasped a handle connected to a coiled chain inside the flywheel of the “erg” and pushed her hands away from her body — “as if they’re going across a little tabletop and then coming back underneath it,” said Arielle, impressing upon Harper the importance of keeping her hands level. “We don’t want any divots in the table.” Next Harper leaned her upper body forward, maintaining the extension of her arms. Finally, Arielle asked Harper to add legs to the sequence. The camper slid all the way to the front of her slide until her body was tightly compressed at what rowers call “the catch.” On Arielle’s command, Harper uncoiled in the reverse sequence, pushing down her legs, unfolding her back, and pulling her arms and the handle in above her waist. The flywheel whirred. (more…)
Tags: Aloha, Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Child Development, fairlee, girls, morey, self-confidence, self-esteem, Success Counseling, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Camp News, Child Development, Success Counseling | 3 Comments »
By alohafoundation
Monday, April 4th, 2011
Summer allows plenty of unstructured playtime for children.
In 2009, Vicky Abeles’ 13-year-old middle school daughter, Jamey, began to complain of stomach aches after school. A Bay-area lawyer and mother with three children, Abeles began to question whether the pace set by her children’s school schedules, homework, sports and extracurricular activities was a negative factor in Jamey’s health. Although not a filmmaker, Abeles ambitiously set off with a camera to explore the correlation between the health and happiness of today’s middle and high school students, and the competitive, success-driven curricula of America’s public schools. The result, Race to Nowhere, is a striking examination of America’s current public schools model, a standards-based curriculum promoting future successful members of the American workforce. Specifically, the film critiques the effect on teaching of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which mandates levels of achievement in order for states to be eligible for federal funding. In other words, there is a world of exciting knowledge out there, but teachers are expected to “teach to the test.” (more…)
Tags: Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Child Development, Childhood, education, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Child Development, Child Psychology, Success Counseling | 3 Comments »
By alohafoundation
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
Aloha's tradition of campcraft was already strong in 1921.
Any parent of a teenage daughter knows how rare it is to glimpse “behind the scenes” in an adolescent’s life. Teens often find it hard to articulate their emotions, especially when they’re stretching their sense of what is possible, or who they are. That’s why we’re grateful to share an extraordinary letter from fourth-year Aloha camper Sarah McGrath.
We wrote here earlier this year about Sarah’s attempt to build a one-log fire, one of the requirements for a Vagabond rank in campcraft. At the end of the summer, she left a note for campcraft head Sarah Sincerbeaux (“Sisterbear”). The counselor had asked the teenager to describe her reasons for attempting the Vagabond rank, the third highest of four campcraft ranks, and what she learned from the experience.
Sincerbeaux shared the note with us at The Aloha Foundation. With Sarah McGrath’s permission, we now share it with you.
(more…)
Tags: Aloha, Aloha Camps, girls, self-confidence, self-esteem, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Child Development | No Comments »
By alohafoundation
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
Children at Vermont's Aloha Camps thrive on summer days unplugged from cell phones, iPods and computers.
Parents of today’s ‘tweens and teens consistently wrestle with the omnipresence of technology in their child’s life. As a force for both productivity and time-wasting, parents too struggle with increased dependence on smart phones, laptops, and MP3 players, simul-taneously attempting to set reasonable limits for their children. High school students, who log on to access homework and study guides posted by teachers on class websites, are quickly tempted to move on to Facebook, YouTube or other popular online sites instead of delving into classwork. Even adults, raised without electronic distractions, find them- selves struggling to set limits on their own web browsing at work when they find it competing with professional obligations.
In Sunday’s New York Times, Matt Richtel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and an expert on the effects of today’s technology on developing brains, reports on teens’ increasing inability to remain focused on a task in the face of persistent digital interruptions. As one of the high school students acknowledges, “’I know I can read a book, but then I’m up and checking Facebook,’ he says, adding: ‘Facebook is amazing because it feels like you’re doing something and you’re not doing anything. It’s the absence of doing something, but you feel gratified anyway.’
He concludes: ‘My attention span is getting worse.’” (more…)
Tags: Aloha, Aloha Camps, Aloha Hive, Child Development, Lanakila, summer camp, Technology, Vermont
Posted in Camp Philosophy, Child Development, Children and Social Media | 1 Comment »
By alohafoundation
Friday, October 8th, 2010
A tree house is the location for magical overnights for girls at Hive.
Autumn in Fairlee, Vermont brings a different mood to the summer camp properties of Aloha, Hive and Lanakila. The long, hot days of July and August have become cool and bright, with frosty mornings and vividly-colored leaves. The hillsides and waterfronts are mostly quiet. The summer of 2010 is now a memory for hundreds of campers, but the summer of 2011 is already a gleam in all of our collective eyes. Although the canvas tents have been carefully folded and stored, the canoes, sailboats and kayaks moved indoors and special summer buildings buttoned up against the forthcoming winter, the magic of a summer at The Aloha Camps is still in the air. More significantly, the magic of summer camp for girls and boys continues in their imaginations as they settle into the rhythm of the school year, with its busy days of classes, athletic practices, music lessons and weekend extracurricular obligations. (more…)
Tags: Aloha, Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Aloha Hive, Childhood, girls, Lanakila, magic, summer camp, Vermont
Posted in Camp Philosophy | No Comments »
By alohafoundation
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Olivia during Show Weekend at the end of Session I.
In the summer of 2009, Mary Anne Vaughn was trying to decide whether to send her oldest daughter, Olivia, to camp the following year. It wasn’t the first time she and husband Peter had wondered whether sleep-away camp would be a good experience for their oldest daughter. The year before, when Olivia was 10 years old, the family had visited a sleep-away camp in Maine, but they’d decided that it wasn’t the right time.
The Vaughns were facing a question familiar to thousands of parents: Should my child go to camp? Answering that single question means answering other, interlocking questions about the child, the family, and the camp. Both the questions and the answers vary for individual children and families.
Mary Anne and Peter Vaughn wanted a good fit between their daughter and a camp, but also between a camp and their family values. Peter had gone away to summer camp as a child; Mary Anne had not. They had already built strong family traditions that included spending two weeks together at a rustic cabin on an island in Maine. Mary Anne needed to be sure that if Olivia went away to camp, she’d get something beyond what their family was already providing. (more…)
Tags: Aloha, Aloha Camps, Aloha Foundation, Aloha Hive, empowerment, girls, Success Counseling, summer camp
Posted in Camp Philosophy, Child Development, Success Counseling | No Comments »
As we ring in 2012, Aloha bids farewell to two people who, as much as anyone over the past quarter-century, have embodied The Aloha Foundation’s spirit and traditions. Deb and Andy Williams, who ran Hulbert Outdoor Center for two decades and Ohana Family Camp for the past six years — are retiring. They’ve introduced hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people to the Aloha experience during their time here, and broadened that experience to include people of all ages.
