Camp Program "Rewards"

[prettysocks]

This post was inspired by the "camp badges" post for GG/GS.

At my camp, campers choose 2 "skills" and they work on them on opposite days. At the end of the session, we do an award ceremony, where everyone gets recognised for working on their 2 skills. The awards are really neat, and all handmade by the programmers. For example, for arts&crafts, it might be a handmade stick picture frame with a finger painting or something inside. Or for archery, she once made little targets with styrofoam and painted them, and stuck the feather end of a broken arrow in the target! For sports and games, it could be a cardboard medal. Anyways, they were really cool. We also have a "tidiest cabin" chosen everyday. They are announced at campfire, and someone gets to hold the tidy cabin flag during campfire.

Does your camp do something similar? Recognising everyone for their efforts througout the session/camp/summer? Do you have special awards? (Tidy bunk, quietest cabin, etc)?

[rockinsmiles]

On leaving day we give out awards to the campers. Our awards are just a piece of paper that reconizes so and so for their such and such, with the date and their counselors signature. Of course depending on the counselor the award can be creative. I started the year with pretty bland awards (like most friendly, etc), but as the summer progressed it became easier to be orginal (like tree hugging). We also give out the "golden broom" after lunch for the neatest cabin that day. The broom is decorated and the end is spray painted gold.

[runrachrunn]

I remember as a kid getting badges for all the skills I completed at camp. It wasn't a big thing, but I really think it's great to acknowledge kids who spend the time and energy to improve their abilities in whatever area.

[Flukie]

Oh man... We have like, a billion. Lol. Our final awards ceremoney each week is a BIG deal. We're a "board" camp. In our dining hall, we have these large boards for camper awards. They include (but aren't limited too!): Spirit Award, 150 Mile Club (Biking), 250 Mile Club (Biking), Great Canoe Adventure to the Sea, Skipper (Highest Sailing Rating), One Match Fire Club, Boutilier Award (Biking Sportsmanship), and the Proulx Award (Sailing Sportsmanship).

We recognize girls who have sucessfully completed Polar Bears, Running Bears or Iron Bears. We recognize the girls recieving ratings of Able and Skipper - Able means you can sail on the bay with the Advanced Sailors, and Skipper is just a HUGE to-do cause, well, you are amazing! :) We also recognize units as necessary - so last year we recognized our Windsurfers with certificates, and the revitalization of our Biking program with certificates (They were nowhere near 150 miles, but 68 miles in 5 days was pretty impressive!). We've recognized amazing badgework, like our Oceanography girls who were the first to earn the Council's Own Oceanography in like, 2 years. Pretty much, I'll recognize whatever staff suggest! :)

This year... We're introducing an Intern Board as well, recognizing girls who have successfully completed both years of our Leadership Program. We make a huge deal out of CIT graduation - they get a huge ceremony, a party, and get to paint a "CIT Block" in the CIT Pit. So now I want to recognize our Interns. I'm modeling it after our CIT Board at my home camp. Each section will say the year (2006), the girl's names and camp names, their Director's name, and their "Year". My class when I graduated was the Year of the Duct Tape. The class behind us was "The Year of Fish" and the class before us was "The Year of Junk Food". I'm really excited - and not telling ANYONE but my co and our director. Shh... :)

[CampFreak]

We have a white feather class that the kids choose to take between 3 choices. In our feather class the kids get that class once everyday and it has some kind of theme like archery, canoeing, ball games and etc. At the end they get a little patch to complete a circle and an award signed by the person who headed the feather class.

We also have an honor cabin award which goes to the highest scoring cabin. We give points for doing various things like polar bear swim, cleaning and other things.

I work at a YMCA camp and so we have Caring, Responsibility, Respect, and Honesty as core values. So each counselor picks one kid for each award.