At NaCoMe we believe that the best people to tell us how to make camp the best it can be are the campers. During our summer sessions, we want campers to give input into their own unique camp experience. Whether it’s adding or changing rules to a game or building a new high ropes course, we want to hear the ideas of our campers on how to make camp better for them.

It's April 30th, which means we're cutting this month's newsletter pretty close. And while I would like to say that it's on purpose, it isn't. We value authenticity here at NaCoMe, so I have to come clean. I was under the weather for a couple days last week, and between summer camp preparations and retreat groups starting on weekdays in addition to the normal weekends, I haven't had any time to write this.

In its most primal and basic form, our summer camp programs are about belonging. Every camper belongs at NaCoMe. It's a foundational belief and is more profound than it may sound because 'belonging' and 'fitting in' are different.

In the moment, you would have been tempted to say that we didn't know what we were doing. Or at the very least, you would have said we didn't think this through.

When I was a counselor at camp in college, I had a camper named Beans. It wasn't his real name; I don't even remember his real name. But I remember Beans. After his parents dropped him off in my cabin, we went to meet up with our family group and start playing games to learn each other's names. He announced himself as Beans.

One year for Christmas I got a tool set as a gift. It was a small blue case with a couple screwdrivers, a ratchet set, a pair of pliers, and a couple other things. It was a typical small tool set made to fix small things around the house. It seems nice, right? I didn't think so because I was 8.

Recently I found myself in a checkout line wearing a NaCoMe shirt. The gentleman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me he remembered coming to NaCoMe as a kid. He shared a couple of memories and then with the gracefulness of an octopus in rollerskates he hit me with "Is the creek still running?" and waited.

Every now and then, I find it really funny to offer ridiculous suggestions to Nate, our Maintenance Director. I'll put on the straightest face I can and propose something like flushing a bunch of steel wool down the toilets to clean the inside of the pipes.

I'm consistently surprised by a tree in my front yard. By the middle of September, it has already dropped enough leaves to cover the gravel where I park my car and the driveway. Every year since I've been at NaCoMe, I worry that somehow this tree is dropping leaves too early; that maybe there won't be any left when all the other trees are showing off their best colors. 

At NaCoMe, we believe in the power of camp. I know, I know, that’s obvious. The fact that we believe is pretty straightforward, but I’d like to take just a moment to share about “why” we believe.