The Blog of Camps Kenwood and Evergreen

When you feel connected to the people around you life somehow feels easier. When you feel attached and supported by the institutions in your life, adapting to changes somehow becomes easier, more manageable. It’s even been reported in the Journal of Science that feeling disconnected from peers and social groups can be as detrimental to your health as smoking, high blood pressure or obesity. During 7 weeks of overnight camp, feeling a bond with your fellow campers and counselors can be the difference between occasional bouts of homesickness (something that even happens to the most seasoned camper…or director) and separation anxiety that lasts throughout the summer.

I write about it so often: that the friendships campers and counselors make in our overnight camp community last forever. I write about it because it's really the most important part of our community, and it’s also something we are so passionate about. Kenwood and Evergreen is not just a 7-week summer home for boys and girls – it’s the place where our community members make some of the most lasting, meaningful friendships of their lives! In this blog I’d like to focus on just how true this is for our staff and alumni.  Deena, Jackie, Amanda, Marla and Emily - camp friends forever!This past weekend my wife Deena, who also grew up at K&E, was with many of the members of her Juniper celebrating their recent milestone birthdays (no, I will not say how old they are, but I will say that they haven’t been campers together since Vanilla Ice had a song on the billboard charts). Even with their busy lives of professional careers and families they still get together as often as possible, and as Deena said afterwards, “it was like we were campers again in about 4 minutes”. All weekend long they sang their favorite Evergreen songs and cheers, reminisced about the many summers they spent living together, and laughed and laughed and laughed. Deena, of course, baked a cake that was decorated in green and gold, the colors of our girls' camp. A few of the women in this group are now current camper parents, and the others will hopefully be in the near future.Amazingly enough, out at dinner on Saturday night, they actually bumped into a current Kenwood and Evergreen parent who was their counselor back in 1985. As you can imagine, there was more than a little bit of screaming and hugging in the restaurant. An absolutely great time was had by all!