During
activity times, boys gain specific outdoor living and athletic
skills. Every camper is encouraged to try every activity that
is offered and then, after several weeks of scheduled activities,
is allowed to sign-in and out of activities depending upon what
he has learned his interests to be and how far he elects to pursue
his participation and achievements in that activity. Campers gain
memories from climbing Tumbledown Mountain, canoeing down the
Androscoggin River or camping out on Skookamee or on Monhegan
Island. They also gain respect for the natural world as they become
comfortable within it and carry forward a desire to care for it.
At Kawanhee we have a healthy respect for
free-time as well, which becomes a chance for boys to hang-out
and talk with each other, play a spontaneous game of Frisbee or
tetherball, read, fish, take out a canoe, or go for a sail. Although
free-time activities are not always directly supervised, they
are when safety demands it; no boy is able to take a boat out
by himself until he has passed the necessary boating and swimming
tests, and a beach guard is on duty to supervise boat sign-outs
and check-ins.
Camp is about traditions, traditions that
bond us to one another and help to define the community to which
we all belong. Whether it be the legend of Chief Kawanhee, our
spirited Maroon/Grey competitions, Saturday night campfires, these
are all time honored traditions that have existed here at Kawanhee
since its beginning in 1920. We often say about the Kawanhee experience
that here we make “Friends for the summer, and family for
life!” The majority of our staff, both lodge counselors
and non-lodge counselors alike, have been campers at Kawanhee,
helping to carry forward the sense of tradition and family that
is such a prevalent feeling here.
Our goal at Kawanhee is to have campers
leave their camp experience with greater self confidence, a sense
of responsibility both to themselves and to others, the ability
to make good choices and to develop greater respect for others
and their individual differences. |
