Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships “Camp is not for lazy kids.” You’d think this would be some quote that came up at a program staff meeting or in an aside director convo, but nope. This is from an Evergreen girl we met with a few weeks ago at a family visit. She wasn’t complaining. She was proud. Said it like it was the very best thing about the place. One line and it sure does capture something essential about K&E that most camps won’t even bother saying out...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships It’s Saturday at home. The phones get collected. Everyone agrees to the plan. But then the world keeps buzzing anyway. The restaurant menu is a QR code. Homework assignments are posted in a parent portal. The carpool group text needs a response. Snapchat stories need checking. Ordering pizza means DoorDash. Even when kids aren’t on their phones, they’re still living in a world designed around screens. The infrastructure...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships Was trying to think of the simplest and most direct way to explain summers at camp which usually means going through all of the activities, schedules, and other pieces making up weeks at K&E. But really, it’s pretty simple. Camp is truly actually fun. You’re in it together. See, most places kids (and honestly, adults) spend time operate on a simple formula: Work first, then fun. Finish the homework, then go out and play....
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships Remember in The Sandlot when the Babe Ruth ball lands over the fence into the Beast’s yard? Summer screeches to a halt. Smalls, Benny, Ham, Squints and the rest of the crew stand there knowing what’s on the other side. They’ve heard the stories. They know there’s some risk. But they also know they have to get it back. So they start scheming. Building contraptions. Coming up with increasingly elaborate plans. All summer,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships Years of working with execs and business leaders, and I’ve noticed the most effective members of this group share a particular quality: High sensitivity to what’s really happening in a room. They can sense when someone has an idea they haven’t shared yet. They notice when the group is aligned and ready to move forward. They pick up on energy shifts during a meeting, even when nothing obvious has changed. This isn’t a skill you...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships First: Wishing you strength, reflection, and peace this Yom Kippur. In 2016, a Dinosaur-themed monster truck tank drove into K&E and literally ate cars. There’s video of it happening. Maybe you or your kid was there. Everyone screaming. Cars getting crushed. Megasaurus was Color War breakout that year, and it was absolutely insane. See for yourself. It’s way hard to put into words. And this hasn’t been the only big moment. We...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships It’s easy to think of camp as a big and loud place. It’s easy because it’s true. Camp is a big and loud place! Days are packed with sounds and energy spilling over. Which is definitely the point. So when I ask kids about their most meaningful and memorable camp experiences, part of me is always waiting for those big, loud stories. That was the case last week in Dallas. I was there for ForumWithin work and got to meet up with...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships We had a camper here this summer who’s an elite U13 quarterback. Has a cannon. High schools recruiting him. Getting all the accolades, all the attention that comes with being really good at one thing. In the world, he’s a football player. Plain and simple. But at camp, he did a lot of different things. Played ping pong. Shot hoops. Spent time at A&C, laughing constantly. Still got to compete for sure, played U15 flag football...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Kids these days... Weekly insights for inspiring flexible and thoughtful leaders I’ll just say two things straight out: All of my best friends in the world are camp people. And most of the important things I know, I learned at camp. On the friendship front, it’s a common refrain from people who’ve spent weeks, months, years, and summers at places like Kenwood & Evergreen. How could it not? Camps across the country have people who’ve left them and taken those friendships out into the world. So...
2 months ago • 3 min read