This week’s 5-year camper spotlight is on Ethan H.! Ethan is a friendly camper and pushes himself to reach his goals. This summer, Ethan’s counselors said of him, “Ethan has great communication skills. He really embraces cabin time and makes it more fun!” We are so lucky to have a camper like Ethan as part of our community.
Check out this video of Ethan receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!
This week’s 5-year camper spotlight is on Ethan H.! Ethan is such a joyous camper and always sees the positive. This summer, Ethan’s counselors said of him, “Ethan has an outgoing and confident personality. This helps him connect more with his cabinmates.” We are so lucky to have a camper like Ethan as part of our community.
Check out this video of Ethan receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!
This week’s 5-year camper spotlight is on Henry B.! Henry has such a great attitude about everything and is so friendly. This summer, Henry’s counselors said of him, “Henry is a great listener and is extremely insightful. He connects well with others.” We are so lucky to have a camper like Henry as part of our community.
Check out this video of Henry receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!
Here at GAC, we’ve long believed that one of the things we empower our campers to do is to make positive changes in the world. We’ve spent a long time working with campers so that they can go back to their communities and share the kindness, friendship skills, and love of nature that they developed at camp.
Now we want to help campers change the world in other ways. That’s why we’ve launched what we’re calling GACtivism! Get it? GAC + Activism = GACtivism. Before he was a Camp Director, Soy was a high school government teacher for 14 years. In that time, he helped thousands of students write and send letters to their elected officials about important issues in their communities. Now he’s asking you to do the same:
To summarize the video, we know that we can operate camp responsibly in a world with COVID. We just need the state of California to give us guidelines for how they would like us to do it. We’ve been preparing on our own using the American Camp Association’s Field Guide for camps. However, we don’t yet know what California will require, and how it will align with the Field Guide. Whatever the state asks us to do to prevent the spread of COVID at camp, we’ll do, and we need to know what those requirements are now so that we can start planning for camp. We need your help to remind elected officials that camps like us need to know what the requirements for 2021 will be now–not right before the summer starts.
What can you do?
Go to savenextsummer.com, click on California, and follow the simple steps to send a letter to your elected officials. It might seem hard or scary, but it isn’t. You just have to let them know how important GAC is to you and how important it is that they help us get guidance for next summer.
We appreciate your help!
This summer a small work crew took the opportunity to replace the floor and foundation in Cabin 7. The cabin, which is one of the oldest buildings in camp was due for significant repairs, which involved lifting the building up so that a new modern foundation could be poured.
To start the process, the floor needed to be removed from Cabin 7. In the course of this work our long-time construction guru Stan “Doc” Engle realized that the floorboards didn’t look like they had ever been replaced since the cabin was built. In fact, on closer inspection, he realized that they had probably been milled at GAC by Manny Vezie and his crew when they originally built the cabins that are now known as the Quad.
We couldn’t just throw history like that away, so the boards were removed as carefully as possible and set aside. Buzz was commissioned to design a GAC specific piece of art that features the famous John Muir quote; “The mountains are calling and I must go.”
Now we’re thrilled to share the final project, which is carved and painted on a piece of Cabin 7 floorboard by Soy.
You can find this sign, as well as other great GAC-themed gifts at our online store: https://gold-arrow-camp.square.site/
This week’s 5-year camper spotlight is on Aiden D! Aiden is a wonderful camper and a great cabinmate. This summer, Aiden’s GALA’s counselors said of him, “Aiden is not afraid to speak his mind when a discussion topic resonates with him. He brings great perspectives to the table.” We are so lucky to have a camper like Aiden as part of our community.
Check out this video of Aiden receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!
This week’s 5-year camper spotlight is on Evan G.! Evan is an incredibly honest camper and a great addition to whichever group he is a part of. This summer, Evan’s counselors said of him, “Evan is a great communicator. He loves to get to know everyone around him.” We are so lucky to have a camper like Evan as part of our community.
Check out this video of Evan receiving his surprise 5-Year Blanket!
As you may have read, GAC was on the road this summer to surprise our 5-year campers who participated in the GALA Program with their 5-year blanket. We’re excited to spotlight each of the amazing campers we visited.
This week’s 5-year camper spotlight is on Millie K.! Millie is a sweet camper with an extremely kind heart. This summer, Millie’s counselors said of her, “Millie is a great active listener. She is super respectful and she’s always able to build off of what other people say.” We are so lucky to have a camper like Millie as part of our community.
Check out this video of Millie receiving her surprise 5-Year Blanket!
Join us in celebrating WORLD KINDNESS DAY!
Hi Camp Families & Staff,
Since we have more time to spend together (virtually) and with our families at home during this pandemic, it’s a great chance for us to focus on small acts of kindness we can do to bring positive changes to the world. Did you know that people around the world celebrate kindness on November 13? It’s World Kindness Day!
And, for those of you who would like to make kindness a focus for longer than just a day, how about practicing kindness for the next 30 days?
All you need to do is commit to doing 30 kind acts over the next 30 days. You can participate as an individual or as a family!
Here are ideas of what you can do:
• Commit to doing at least ONE daily kindness (DK) each day. These can be small acts of kindness or big ones – an encouraging sticky note to a parent or sibling or a bigger project. You can do the same thing every day – like writing one thank you note or text each day – or you can pick any combo of different kindness acts.
• Consider doing (alone or with your family) a bigger Weekend Kindness Challenge (WKC).
You can find ideas of people to write notes of appreciation to on our printable Kindness “BINGO” board! Keep track of how you’re spreading kindness using our printable Kindness Tracker! Also, here are some printable GACspirations to keep you inspired to spread kindness!
How many acts of kindness can you do this month? There are 30 days in November, so if you do one kind thing each day, that’s 30 ways to make yourself and others happier this month! If you miss a day, you can always do two acts of kindness on another day to catch up. And, if you go over 30 acts, all that means is that you’re spreading even more kindness to the world, which is a good thing.
Since on weekends we tend to have more time, we’ve saved some more time-intensive kindness ideas for the weekends. These are just suggestions. You can come up with your own kindness ideas, too!
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has free printable, “Hello, Let me know if you need help” cards. Distribute them to neighbors who may need assistance and offer to get them supplies when you get your family’s.
Order essentials to be delivered to someone who may be in need during this time. This may be someone you know personally, or a place that you know thrives off of donations. Another option is to create a care package for someone who you know is working extra hard these days like a medical professional–again, this could be someone close to home (maybe your own family member!) or someone across the country.
Who is someone you really appreciate? Take some time to write them a letter about what you appreciate about them. If you are able, read the letter aloud to them either in person or on the phone. You’ll make their day and your own!
There are many important events that are coming up in your friends’ and family members’ lives that we don’t want to forget just because we can’t celebrate how we usually would. Pick an upcoming event such as someone’s birthday, an anniversary, or a surprise thank you celebration and start planning! One thing that you can do is contact all of the person’s loved ones and ask them to send you a video, a message, or a physical note that you can collect and give to the person all at once on their special day. You can give them guidelines such as “tell them what you love about them” or “tell them a funny memory you have with them” or you can leave it open to the sender of the message. You could also organize all of the person’s loved ones to call them at different times throughout the day and deliver their messages personally. If you had enough time to receive physical letters, you could organize them into a book or a nice box for them to keep. Alternatively, you could plan a “surprise” virtual event (via Zoom or something similar) where all of the guests knew that it was a party for the special person. You can still “theme” the event even with everyone at home. It could be fancy or a fun costume theme, the possibilities are endless! Your special person will feel so loved that their day did not get overlooked just because everyone is inside. If this feels overwhelming to you, pick another friend or family member to help you brainstorm and plan what would be best for your special person!
Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.
Marian Wright Edelman
Being a considerate, kind person who thinks about others is a character trait that helps children form good relationships and leads to a happier life as an adult.
What does this mean for super competitive parents who want their children to succeed at all costs, even if it means cheating and being mean to others? It could be helpful for parents to know that research has clearly shown that kind people are happier people, and happier people, in turn, are more successful in life. In jobs and in future relationships, kindness will take our children “further in life than any college degree.”
In our cut-throat, competitive culture, where assertiveness and achievement are glorified and valued, focusing on developing kindness is often overlooked.
There are anti-bullying posters and speakers at most schools, but where is the message about the powerfully positive impact of kindness?
Parents and youth development professionals, including teachers, coaches, and camp staff, know that wording things positively and telling kids what we DO want them to do is far more effective than a list of “don’ts” and “nos.” So, why hasn’t this message translated into how we teach children to treat one another?
We’re talking with children a lot about not bullying each other, but we’re not talking with them enough about what we want them to be doing instead — which is, of course, to treat each other with respect and kindness. I propose that as parents and youth development professionals we flip the “anti-bullying” message into a “pro-kindness” one.
Get kids to focus on kindnesses that they have seen by asking them to point out kind acts they have witnessed or done.
Brainstorm with kids kind things they can do for others and help them follow through. Focus on small, easy kindnesses rather than huge things.
Talk with kids about how they feel after someone has done something kind for them or after they’ve done something kind for another person.
• Share something kind they’ve seen someone else do this past week.
• What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?
• What are kind things we can do for our friends? Siblings? Parents? People we don’t know?
• How do you want to be remembered by your classmates and friends?
“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”
— John Wooden
This topic is so important to Gold Arrow Camp and to Sunshine that she dedicated an entire chapter of her book, Happy Campers, to kindness: Camp Secret #8: Make it Cool to be Kind. Each chapter of Happy Campers ends with five different “Bringing Camp Home” activities to consider trying in your family.
One of GAC counselors’ favorite read-aloud books is R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. Consider reading (or listening – Audible version is free right now if you sign up for a free Audible trial) to Wonder individually or as a family read-aloud. Get some popcorn and have a family movie night to watch the movie version after you finish reading.
Do you like Pinterest? Check out Sunshine’s Kindness board.
Five Ways to Raise Kind Children, Greater Good Science Center
Being Kind Makes Kids Happy, Greater Good Science Center
The Power of Kindness, American Camp Association
Happiness Tip: Commit to Kindness (Christine Carter, Raising Happiness)
“Camp forever shaped me as an educator.”
Kristi Tanner, Teacher and former GAC Counselor
Why can’t school be more like camp? It can!
For years we’ve heard testimonials from our counselors about how they get life-changing training at camp that helps them become fantastic parents and amazing teachers who create positive classroom communities.
Camp counselors master connecting with and forming positive relationships with their campers – and they learn to coach campers on the friendship skills they need to make and keep friends.
The GAC Director team is thrilled to be bringing fun, engaging “camp counselor”-style trainings to educators through GATA – the Gold Arrow Teacher Academy.
The library of GATA resources is growing, with three webinars and 11 PDF resources of no-prep and low-prep connection activities now available on demand for GATA members.
GATA WEBINARS NOW AVAILABLE ON DEMAND FOR MEMBERS
8+ Activities to Foster Online Classroom Connections
Creating a Positive Classroom Culture
Coaching Students to Better Collaboration & Communication
GATA PDF RESOURCES NOW AVAILABLE IN THE MEMBER RESOURCE LIBRARY
Questions for Classroom Connection
Creating a Positive Classroom Culture
Songs & Videos
Build Positivity & Optimism in Your Students
Guess Who
Jokes & Riddle
Teaching Kids Better Communication & Collaboration
Rules & Language of Collaboration
Create an Animal
Chill Music for Your Class
Coaching Students to Better Listening
Our November 11 live webinar is on Coaching Students to Autonomy and Problem Solving.