“The organized summer camp is the most important step in education, in the broadest sense, that America is giving the world,” said Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot, over seventy years ago. On this basis we have developed the philosophy of summer camping in which we strongly believe, based on the theory that a democracy […]
A year is round
A few days ago, I received a letter from a camp friend who had stayed for second term. She sent it the second-to-last day of camp, and so it arrived after camp had finished. Reading the letter made me so nostalgic for my camp days and I can’t help lingering in that camp mindset just […]
Saying Goodbye
As is the tradition, Friday night, the last night of first term, was Baby’s Boats campfire. It was raining that night, so first we had the campfire portion of the evening in the play hall. Awards were given out, such as friendliest camper, happiest camper, etc. Afterwards, we made our way to the pathway behind […]
Cate Wilcox to camp and to mom: Thank you!
I wish I had the vocabulary to express my feelings at the moment. Bringing my Mom to camp* for the first time was altogether healing. Coming to camp for the first time myself at age 13, all the way from Arizona, was a life-changing journey. So life-changing, in fact, that at 25 I’ve now made […]
How Ghany girls weather the weather
I hope parents have been receiving my emails about how camp life has proceeded apace in spite of record heat and blustery storms. But if not, this column is for you (and for friends of Ghany who are wondering what camp is like this year). First off, ‘Ghany Girls are resilient, cheerful, and willing to […]
The drop off
My daughter Chloë is Camp Alleghany-obsessed. She loves everything about it and, it seems, has already planned out her next seven summers there, from her final one as a camper next year, and on to what she hopes is a great career as first a JC, then a counselor, and then who knows what. So […]
Tent raising weekend
One of the biggest projects in getting ready for the camp season is the raising of the tents. While this could seem to be a big logistical chore, we try to make it fun by hosting a volunteer weekend that includes plenty of work, but also plenty of fun. And like so many things around […]
From bow to stern; all about canoeing at camp
Continuing in my aim to write about the various daily class activities at Camp Alleghany (last week I wrote about Rifle), this week I’m going to talk about Canoeing. There really is something for everyone who wants to do canoeing, no matter your level of expertise. We divide campers taking canoeing into four levels: Beginner, […]
Lots of children in the woods!
As I’ve written before in this blog, it’s so important to me personally — and key to the Camp Alleghany philosophy —that our campers enjoy an experience that’s steeped in the natural world. Not only is there a no technology policy at camp, and an absence of the pervasive elements of modern life like TVs […]