Parent's Weekend

Camp Agawak is a 2 session camp. Halfway through some campers go home, some new ones come and some stay on for the whole summer. This weekend is called Parent's Weekend. 

The days leading up to this weekend consist of cleaning cabins and packing up duffles for the first session campers who are going home. Campers who only stay first session all leave on the Friday morning on buses to go back home. Its a very sad, crazy day saying goodbye to new and old friends. Camp feels a little bit empty and everyone feels a bit sad. We hold fun activities like tubing and a movie in Happy Camper Hall for the kids who are still at camp. Its a great night with pizza and everyone sitting together to enjoy the film.

The next morning is one of the busiest of the summer. Visitor's Day. We wake up bright and early and get ready for all of the parents to come. I got myself into KWAK (the camp radio station) at 8:30am to start the radio show for the parents to listen to. 

Its such great fun to meet all of your campers parents. They love to know about you and where you are from. They like to hear all the great things their children have been doing at camp and they are always very grateful for your hard work. For you Aussies - remember that tipping can be common and the best thing to do is be polite, grateful and thank them. It is considered rude to refuse a tip, even though for us it seems really awkward to accept one.

The campers go with their parents for the rest of the day and overnight. They look forward to seeing their parents and showing them around camp and they love being able to introduce their parents to their counselors. On top of that - they love being able to go to Wal Mart to stock up on candy again!

Once the campers are all gone we get a list of any new campers coming into cabins, staff and cabin swaps happen and you get your cabins ready for second session. Depending on whether you have new campers coming in; you may need to make a new job chart, add more beds or make a new candy cup. In all it is a long but fun and exciting day and the pay off is a that you get a night off to get an early night's sleep to get ready to start all over again the next day!