The value of a girls’ camp lies in the simple things. It’s in the confidence of a child’s first dive off the high diving boards. It’s standing up with a group of your friends and singing your heart out in front of strangers. It’s in those strangers becoming first friends, then sisters—and having those sisters forever.
Having gone to the same all girls’ camp for 12 years now, I can say with confidence that the people who I lived with in the first few years of my camper days remain my closest friends, and it is not unheard of for us to fly miles across the country to see each other for a few hours. I routinely hear of the need for “camp times” and “camp chats” from women 20, 30 and 40 years older than myself—and their excited chattering upon seeing old camp friends after years apart still sounds the same as two campers greeting each other the first day of camp.
Blossoming Into Amazing Young Women at All-Girls’ Camps
To be a part of an all-girls’ camp is to see girls come out of their shells in the most amazing way possible. Children who hid behind their parents’ knees upon arriving at camp will be signing up to perform at camp talent shows only days later, discussing with gusto their opinions on the latest teen pop stars at dinner, and returning year after year as young women and eventually as counsellors and leaders themselves.
I cherish the moments when preteen girls decide that they don’t need makeup to look pretty, that having a mud fight is a perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon, and that receiving a letter is more rewarding than any email or text message. These are the things you can’t teach anywhere else and that they will carry for the rest of their lives.
To teach girls these things is incredibly important—to give them sisters, coaches, teachers and friends, often who are all encompassed in the same person. To give them self-confidence and self reliance, and to teach them that they are always worth it. To show them strong talented women who they can relate to and look up to. And to show them that they can be that person for someone else. I cannot think of a better way to spend your summer.
To learn more about all-boys’ and all-girls’ overnight camps, please visit overnightcamps.ca.
