Tues, Oct 20, 2026

5 Things I Love About Camp Sloane 2.0

When camp ends I get very reflective. I like to take some time to think about the summer, the staff, the kids, and the role I played in (hopefully) helping everyone have a memorable and meaningful experience. There are always certain details that stand out when I think about what I love most here.

1. Odyssey & Camper Choice

A huge part of our program is based around kids getting to make their own choices. Choices about their activities, choices about what to eat at each meal, choices about what to wear, and so on. 

During Odyssey, our kind of chill, ‘free-choice’ hour at the end of each afternoon, kids can basically roam freely around the center of camp, choosing their own adventure. Will they go to the pool? The slip and slide? Go read a book in the library (a top choice on hot days… thank you AC!)? Or simply hang and play Gaga at Oval? 

That’s the beauty of it. It’s totally up to them.

2. Our Returning Staff

Don’t get me wrong, I love our first year staff too. But there is something extra special about those people who choose to spend their summer here year after year. 

They also make my life easier. 

Returners have knowledge. Knowledge about the way things run, how meals work, the expectations, the high standards. 

Returners have experience. Experience in teaching their classes, dealing with conflict, working through behavioral challenges.

Returners have relationships. Relationships with returning campers, with each other, with me.

All of this gives them the confidence to help guide the new staff, to teach them, to handle situations, to make decisions. They are the ones who truly make the summer a success.

3. Knowing Everyone’s Names

Give me a kid’s first name and I’ll tell you their last name too. That’s what happens when you’ve been working with families all year long AND you’re the one who does the bunk assignments. Names sort of get stuck in my head.

Even better than that is when I can also put those names to real faces during the summer. I don’t get it right 100% of the time (we have 1000+ kids over the summer, it’s not an easy task), but it’s always one of my goals to never have to ask a kid their name more than once.

4. "Everything is better with friends”

A kid said this to me this summer. I was asking about how their day was going and what they’d been up to. They said they’d been in Archery, which wasn’t their absolute top choice activity, but that it didn’t matter because their best friend was also in that class and, ‘everything is better with friends’.

 To me, this so perfectly sums up one of the greatest things about camp.

5. The Ski Boat

I didn’t go on the boat all summer. Not out of a lack of desire. Being on the boat on Lake Wononpakook is probably my favorite pastime at camp. Always has been, since my very first summer here when I bid on and won ski lessons in the staff auction. I know it’s a favorite of a lot of our kids too!

But when you’re running a camp, AND you have two young kids of your own, the luxury of taking an hour out of your day to speed around the lake doesn’t really take priority.

Once things quietened down though, that’s when I took my chance. We (myself, my son Leo, Rhino, and Gonzalo) took the boat out for its final little jaunt of the season a few weeks ago and it was glorious! Leo even gave wakeboarding a try… kind of.

What are your favorite things about Sloane? Hit reply and let me know.

Ru