The last two days of the ACA conference were jam packed with lots of good stuff. Thursday started off with more breakout educational sessions. We get started bright and early every morning as the sessions start at 8am. Some of the sessions we all went to focused on things like bullying at camp, marketing strategies and camp operations. Leb, Sue, Andy and I spent time after the conference ended sharing some of the things that we learned at the different sessions.
One of the great parts of these conferences is that we have the opportunity to sit down and talk to other camp directors. Maybe its over a meal or after the conference has ended for the day. We get a chance to share ideas with other camps, see what they are doing, giving us ideas for new programs and other ways to make camp great. Yesterday we met some folks from The Tim Horton's Children's Foundation. Tim Horton's is a Canadian Coffee/Donut shop, with over 3500 locations (including a few hundred in the US). The company is heavily involved in the community and has an annual "camp day", where they raise a lot of money for their camp foundation.
We had two big keynote sessions over the last two days of the conference. During one of them, olympic gold medalist Kerri Strug talked a bit about the impact her time at camp had on her. The conference ended with a brunch and a keynote speech by Luis Benitez. Benitez has reached the summit of Everest six times, including one remarkable trip where he led an expedition with a blind climber. Benitez told us all of the expedition, being told so many times that his mission was not possible. During the expedition, during the most challenging times, he thought back to his times as a young kid at summer camp where he leared the to put one foot in front of the other when times were tough.
North Star Notes:
- Andy and I will be at the Uncle Dans in Highland Park, IL on Sunday (Feb 21st). All NSC campers, prospects and their families who stop in will recieve 10% off of their purchases. If you know of anyone who wants to learn more about camp, we'd be happy to talk to them and answer any questions that they have.
- We'll be staff recruiting next week. On Tuesday we'll be at the University of Illinois, Wednesday at Indiana University and Thursday at Purdue University. We'll post the specifics but let us know if you want to meet up and if you have any friends looking for camp jobs, have them come meet us,
One of the great parts of these conferences is that we have the opportunity to sit down and talk to other camp directors. Maybe its over a meal or after the conference has ended for the day. We get a chance to share ideas with other camps, see what they are doing, giving us ideas for new programs and other ways to make camp great. Yesterday we met some folks from The Tim Horton's Children's Foundation. Tim Horton's is a Canadian Coffee/Donut shop, with over 3500 locations (including a few hundred in the US). The company is heavily involved in the community and has an annual "camp day", where they raise a lot of money for their camp foundation.
We had two big keynote sessions over the last two days of the conference. During one of them, olympic gold medalist Kerri Strug talked a bit about the impact her time at camp had on her. The conference ended with a brunch and a keynote speech by Luis Benitez. Benitez has reached the summit of Everest six times, including one remarkable trip where he led an expedition with a blind climber. Benitez told us all of the expedition, being told so many times that his mission was not possible. During the expedition, during the most challenging times, he thought back to his times as a young kid at summer camp where he leared the to put one foot in front of the other when times were tough.
North Star Notes:
- Andy and I will be at the Uncle Dans in Highland Park, IL on Sunday (Feb 21st). All NSC campers, prospects and their families who stop in will recieve 10% off of their purchases. If you know of anyone who wants to learn more about camp, we'd be happy to talk to them and answer any questions that they have.
- We'll be staff recruiting next week. On Tuesday we'll be at the University of Illinois, Wednesday at Indiana University and Thursday at Purdue University. We'll post the specifics but let us know if you want to meet up and if you have any friends looking for camp jobs, have them come meet us,
