Packages!!!

[Skater Bubbles]

At your camp are you allowed to get packages? At mine we can't wait for packages, I bug my friends and family all summer with letters and then hopefully they send me packages!! I got a couple packages from campers from previous sessions!! I love packages, especially ones with candy and stuff! My mom sent me great packages!!

[Fallen]

We do allow them. I wish people sent me packages. It was a pain just trying to get them to write me letters.

[Indigo]

We allow packages! Last summer I got one from my non-camp friend (candy), and a few from former campers.

[martha27]

as my birthday is in the summer.......i get very excited for packages as you can imagine!!

[Flukie]

We allow packages - during a two week session, on the Monday/Tuesday of the second week, I definitely pick up two very full mail bags from the post office - and they are almost ALL large pacakges. It's crazy! We have kids that get a package everyday they are at camp... It's good we're only there for one or two week sessions! I imagine we'd have to limit it if we were longer...

[rockinsmiles]

We are allowed packages but I only got one last summer...and i knew it was coming :) but still i got really excited when I received letters...then again I do at home too not just camp!

[who_stole_my_loofa]

Campers are only allowed 1 package per session but counselors can get as many as they want!! :-D I love getting packages- so much fun! Mine usually don't have anything good in them though because my mom just sends me like stuff that I forgot haha.

Loofa

[camper]

for campers, we're a no package camp. pretty funny how there are still usually packages in the mailroom...campers are only allowed to get packages on their birthdays or if it's an item they need and has been cleared through my mom. we open every package w/the kid there and let them know what's in the package that they can have (special toiletries, summer reading books, uniform clothing, an important stuffed animal that they forgot, blowdryer, etc.) and what they can't (ANY food, including candy/gum, games, magazines, toys, etc.). obviously, if it's the girl's birhtday, she can have the whole package. parents are reminded repeatedly not to send packages, and most of them comply. if the items in a package are "illegal," they're kept in the mailroom and given to the kid on visiting day or on the last day of camp.

the reason for the rule is that there are some kids that will get a package every day and others who won't get any at all. plus, the stuff from packages clutters up the bunk, and if it's food it gets gross. we bring the kids enough food back from our nights off/days off and they get enough on visiting day where they don't need more.

as for counselors, we're allowed to get packages, so sometimes if a parent knows the item won't be approved through my mom but they feel it's important for their daughter to have, they'll just address the package to the counselor.

[CAMPFRIEND]

I am so happy that I don't have to deal with them at day camp. This is one thing that I think I don't miss!
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[Skater Bubbles]

Ya I have had some campers that always get tons of packages and then I have some that don't get a single one and I think that is the hardest part of packages.

[camplover86]

Campers can get packages, but we try to hand them out when they are not around everyone else. Some campers get a package everyday, and some don't even get a letter the whole session. We tell the campers that if there is anything they are not supposed to have (food, money, music, magizines...) then they have to give it to us and will get it back on day 10. They are usually pretty good about this. They are afraid of the raccoons, getting their food if they keep it. Sometimes we have girls feeling guilty/scarred before they go to bed, and hand it over then.
We keep track of who gets mail and who doesn't and we write the girls who don't get mail special notes and hand them out when we hand out mail.

[CAMPFRIEND]

Campers can get packages, but we try to hand them out when they are not around everyone else. Some campers get a package everyday, and some don't even get a letter the whole session. We tell the campers that if there is anything they are not supposed to have (food, money, music, magizines...) then they have to give it to us and will get it back on day 10. They are usually pretty good about this. They are afraid of the raccoons, getting their food if they keep it. Sometimes we have girls feeling guilty/scarred before they go to bed, and hand it over then.
We keep track of who gets mail and who doesn't and we write the girls who don't get mail special notes and hand them out when we hand out mail.

Camplover86,

I think that's great that you keep track of who gets mail and give notes to the kids that don't. I think that we all love to get mail at camp!
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[who_stole_my_loofa]

Oh we do that too- since packages are restricted but mail is not, a lot of the kids get very few letters-- like 3 or 4 a week or something while other get like 12 a day from their great aunt in Ireland that they've never met before. So we write them in camp mail and put like friendship bracelets in them. They get really excited about it.

Loofa

[S_R_Star]

I LOVE getting packages, especially from Home. Some of my counsellor friends from my first summer are very cool and will send me a package. I always beg my Mum to send me newspaper clippings and Tim Tams!

Our campers can recieve packages. I think it is funny when campers who are at camp for a week get three or four packages from their parents, with notes saying "I love you and miss you, can't wait to see you etc" and then they wonder why their child gets homesick everynight. I think one or two letters for a one week session is enough. Obviously Birthdays are an exception. Our 2 weekers usually get a package. It is hard when you are handing out mail and the same kid is getting mail and others get none. My opinion, and its just that my opinion, is that short term campers (1-2weeks) only need a couple (maybe 3-5) letters, they need to be able to try and forget how mum or dad is feeling and have a fantastic time.

We ask the parents not to send food etc but the always do, we try to get the girls with packages in the Unit lodge before going back to their cabin so we can put the trach straight in the bin and not have it all over their cabin/tent. If they have candy we put it in the fridge until checkout day and hopefully remember to give it back to them, sometimes we end up with it and eat it on our way back up to the staff unit :)

I have definately written to some campers, i love writing letters to campers. When writing to campers i usually make their letters fun, with huge colourful envelopes and usually a friendship bracelet made in some of my favourite colours that i will tell them about in the letter.

[CAMPFRIEND]

It's fun to see how much the counselors love getting mail as much as the campers!!

[S_R_Star]

I'd say counselors at my camp love it more than the campers!

[CAMPFRIEND]

I guess when you are away from home you can get some waht homesick as well. I know that we all love camp but it's good to be at home!

[Skater Bubbles]

Ya our counsleors LOVE getting packages, we all go pretty crazy when someone gets one!!

[Kerrbear]

Packages are KEY to surviving at camp! I sadly didn't get any this year, although I DID get a 50 page letter from my friend who decided to print up all her blogs of the summer and send them to me so I can just read what she did LOL! First year, my best friend sent me the best package FULL of candy, gum, my sunglasses I left in her car, a few pictures, stamps, a letter, and stationary. It was awesome!!!

[Skater Bubbles]

It's so great to get packages from your freinds, but it's tough when they are all up at camp with you!! -But last year my best friend and I made packages for eachother on our days off and put them up with all of the other packages, that was fun!!

[EchoLaker]

We try to discourage camper packages, but we always get them nonetheless.

You become quite familiar with the local FedEx, DHL, and UPS delivery persons if you work in our admin building !

The first week of camp is always quite testing on the mailroom; that and the week after visiting day when the parents have gone out to get stuff that they realised their camper needed once they'd visited !!

Good fun though - there is always excitment around when the camper picking up the mail for a particular group can see a box with their group initiails on it.

Staff can recieve whatever; I ordered a new Nalgene off Ebay US before this summer and just had it delivered to camp ready for when I arrived.

Heck, I get excited when Staples delivers more stationary for the office (my name on the waybill) and when I get an invoice addressed "Andy Monk - Accounts Payable, Camp Echo Lake... etc". That along with personal mail too, always fun - I got a letter from my grandparents arriving every Saturday through the summer, keeping me up to date with things at home. :D

[speedx5xracer]

Our campers are allowed packages but contents must be cleared by the office staff. Staff has no restrictions on packages as long as the contents are legal and allowed on camp.

[CAMPFRIEND]

[QUOTE=EchoLaker]We try to discourage camper packages, but we always get them nonetheless.

You become quite familiar with the local FedEx, DHL, and UPS delivery persons if you work in our admin building !

I know what you mean about this. I new them all by first name.

[collissimon]

We are allowed packages, and so are the campers. Though because we are a candy-free camp, we do have to watch what the campers get. If they do get candy, it gets given to the unit leader to store, and is given out on trip day, when we go off site.

I really like getting packages, and get really excited when I get one, or mail. Last year, I ordered myself the new Harry Potter book, which was pretty cool, because you guys have really different covers and illustrations inside to us. It was also my birthday during mini-camp, which was pretty cool, because my parents sent me cards from my family, and a little present to open on the day, which was pretty special as it was my 21st!

[camper]

speaking of packages, i'm at school right now and waiting for a HUGE one with the stuff that didn't fit when i came back, and...the dvd's i had made of my last summer as a camper that i haven't watched since they were on video a couple of years ago. i can't waittttt! hopefully today...they were still sorting packages when i went to check before. haha i feel like i'm at camp waiting excitedly for a package!

[speedx5xracer]

When the new Harry Potter book came out there were so many copies ordered by campers and staff that along with our USPS and UPS daily deliveries we have a truck from Amazon Come with all the books that were pre ordered.

[collissimon]

We had something like that too! It was quite funny to watch all the huge wedges be unloaded! The worst is waiting for a package that you know is on it's way. When it's from the UK as well, it can take as long as three weeks!

[camper]

i didn't get my package today, sad. hopefully i'll get it tomorrow.