This summer, our campers are coming from 27 different states (and four different countries!).

They’ve spent anywhere from zero to nine summers at Camp Chippewa.

Their favorite hobbies range from hockey to video games to reading to theater to rock climbing.

Their biggest fears about this summer include eating new foods, thunderstorms, being away from their parents, missing their girlfriends, touching weeds in the lake, or not watching Mexico play in the World Cup.

On one hand, all our campers are being sent to Camp Chippewa for the same family of reasons. Philosophically, campers' parents are aligned about youth development. Time outside. No screens. Skill-building. Single-sex education. Real adventures. Life lessons.

But while our campers’ families are choosing Chippewa for similar reasons, the boys themselves are an incredibly varied bunch. For example, there are two boys (in the same cabin this summer), one who we can hardly get out of the lake after Free Swim (he’s got his face in the water, hunting for crayfish and minnows) and one who hates getting his hair wet.

To best serve each boy, Camp Chippewa can’t be one-size-fits-all.

Yesterday, Jacob, Will, and I spent a day together eating my mother-in-law’s homemade strawberry scones and matching the campers with the right cabins, cabinmates, staff, and trips.

Multiplying 150 different camper personalities, you’ve got 1,979,102,381 different combinations. Roughly.

It is a puzzle.

Scone-in-hand, we got to work.

The room immediately filled with lively debate about camper combinations, trip dates, and progression from previous years.

Incredibly, this job is really easy at Camp Chippewa. As we go through cabin by cabin, we know every single camper.

I know Lucas desperately wants to pass his water ski test this year.

I know that while Mau adores camp, he is nervous about his two-night camping trip.

I know that Timmy is quick to react when he perceives someone else putting in less effort.

I know that Kevin and Ty beg their parents to Facetime each other every couple of weeks during the school year.

I know that Robby wants to play college soccer.

I know our new campers too. How their parents heard about camp. How they do in school and new situations. What they’re most excited for at camp. What they’re most nervous about as they leave home.

I know the staff even better. Adam we’ve known since he was eight. Now, as a 21-year-old, he’s an excellent student, a guide for his university’s outdoor club, among the most patient staff we’ve had. I know which groups of campers could use an "Adam."

I took Zylon on canoe trips when he was a camper, back in 2013 and 2016. Now as a counselor, he’s passionate about passing on the lessons he learned as a kid, and darn good at it. I know which trips could use a "Zylon."

Knowing our community is how we make intentional decisions about how everyone's camp experience will look before summer even starts.

This won’t make camp utopia. Camp will always have its challenges for the campers. Someone else’s wet swimsuit will be forgotten next to your bed. A cabinmate will get annoyed that you are breathing too loudly during Rest Period. It will rain when you really wanted to go to climbing class. Someone will not pass the basketball.

Conflicts are inevitable. Disappointments too. And each and every instance provides an important rep for campers to strengthen their muscles in patience, cooperation, independence, and compromise. Challenge + support = growth.

And setting boys up for success—before they even arrive—matters.

Being known is a fundamental human need. We put real effort into knowing every single camper and meet them exactly where they are at.

When campers have that need met, they can take off.

It's why campers return to Chippewa year after year.

It’s why campers can take on such defining challenges on their canoe trips (and write their college admissions essays about them).

It's why a piece of advice from a counselor can stick with a camper for decades (I will never forget my counselor, Kingsley, telling me each night at lights out that, despite the challenges and discomforts, “Today was a good day”).

And it's why campers will thrive at camp for two, four, or eight weeks, even as they miss home along the way.

When campers know they are supported, camp becomes home.

At Camp Chippewa, knowing the boys is our superpower.

Onward,

Sam