Writing on the walls?

[campnerd99]

Prettysocks' thread about sharpies got me thinking.

At my camp one of the biggest and one of my favourite traditions is that we write on the bunk walls. Mostly anything goes so long as it's camp appropriate. Mostly you sign your name what camp you were at and the year.
I love it because it's so much fun to come back to camp as a 16 year old and find your name in your 7-year-old writing scrawled across your bunk.

Anybody else get to write on the walls at their camps?

[speedx5xracer]

I used to when i was a camper, but they discourage it heavily. it is pretty cool that alot of my old cubbies and bunks still have my writing... including lyrics to a song we made my first year at camp.

[Shrek]

Most of the camps I have worked at discouraged it as well but I did work for one that it was encouraged for the very reason you all have said. It made teh campers feel like they were a part of camp year round (what better for camper retention and staff recruitment?) As the cabins became to filled they stared to have campers just make a cabin plaque that they could hang in thier cabins.

[audur]

Writing on any walls at my camp is a HUGE no-no. I can't imagine how messy the cabins would look if there was writing all over them! If graffiti is found on the walls or bunks, we use sandpaper to get it off. The girls rarely write on anything - I think that because there is no writing there when they get there, they don't feel the "need" to add their names.

[camper]

in our older bunks (the ones that haven't been redone since the 60's or 70's) there are names EVERYWHERE in every color in every medium you can think of...pen, marker, sharpie, paint pen, spray paint. in those bunks, the girls can still write on them b/c they're about to be redone anyway. in the new bunks that were redone in the early 90's or are just being done now, there is absolutely no writing on the bunks. we do bunk plaques now for almost every bunk since they are being redone at a rate of 4 a year, the renovations will be done next summer! its sad to see the history in the old bunks though, but those buildings aren't really up to codes anymore and thats why they have to be redone. my mom's name is actually in one of those bunks from the early 70's!

[Sparkes]

we write on the walls, cubbies, washroom, floor. Mostly its the older kids that do it, but my 11 year olds were all about it. They let little things go - its really the call of the head counsellor of the age group how much gets sand papered off. I know my girls went crazy and started tracing their feet - which we attempted to stop as soon as we found out what they were up to (giggling, followed by silence - up to something!) - and that all got sand papered off.

[Belay06]

WE don't encourage our campers to write on the walls or anything. Usually they do a really good job at this. In the cabins that have wooden bunks though there tends to be a lot of writing on them. I actually wrote my own name on the bottom bunk of one of the wooden beds :) My campers found it and they were like "Are you Dom '99?" and i just laughed haha.

[Melk]

its a big no no at my camp. We do cabin boards insted. There is a part of camp that is just for staff to do though.... it gets pretty ornate... with names years and jobs at camp and inside jokes and such. Most staff paint in the one room it is allowed when they know they are not comming back the next year

[Lilbit88]

Hey Melk, did you see the "poem" somebody wrote about a certain Aussie counselor on one of the bunks?..oh lordy

[Melk]

Hey Melk, did you see the "poem" somebody wrote about a certain Aussie counselor on one of the bunks?..oh lordy

since you know about it that means its in one of the older buncks.... so that would be a no since the oldest cabin I am in is Omaha

[Pooka]

We're not supposed to write on our tent platforms or shelters, but it occasionally happens. For how old my camp is, there's surprisingly little graffiti around. Last year, me and a few other counselors Sharpied our names onto stones while waiting to greet parents, but that wasn't actually defacing camp property. It was pretty cool to see the row of autographed rocks by the driveway at the end of summer.

I really wanted to sign one of the fish painted on the showroom walls last summer, but I never got the chance!

[c3divers]

At my camp the staff do not write on the walls we sign our names to the camp round. The camp has been around since 1968 and there is a round for every year hanging on the dining hall rafters.

[CAMPFRIEND]

I know that my name is all over my old camp. Things have changed now! At my new camp all of the cabing are clean at this point. We have younger campers and our counselors check the walls and beds before the campers leave camp. For all of the Pinewood Staff I have my name in every building in camp. Even the new ones!! The only place that I don't have my name is in Niles!

[clarabelle1985]

we dont have much writting on walls or bunks at my cmap as with new kids every week there would be no room left at end of summer. some camp make plaques or pieces to decorate rooms such as creative art week or frountier camp there some really old ones around still. One years creative arts camp created a mural in the day camp room which is still there.

The internationals have a post in the back of the craft lodge whcih they sign its getting pretty full tho.

[Melk]

I know that my name is all over my old camp. Things have changed now! At my new camp all of the cabing are clean at this point. We have younger campers and our counselors check the walls and beds before the campers leave camp. For all of the Pinewood Staff I have my name in every building in camp. Even the new ones!! The only place that I don't have my name is in Niles!


no way!? This is going to keep me busy then.... but I think its funny that the only place you havent written is in niles.

[CAMPFRIEND]

Who knows I might not be done at Pinewood yet!

[Melk]

its an addicting place... I tried to leave onec... look at what that did to me.

[CAMPFRIEND]

You never know when they might need a new director!

[facade1138]

I know at one of my local Girl Scout camps, (not the one that I am a counselor at) when they were building a new cabin and renovating the camp every year they had a 1000 Women Hike and always had all the participants sign something to be hung on the walls of one of the buildings there were renovating.

[campnerd99]

Most of the camps I have worked at discouraged it as well but I did work for one that it was encouraged for the very reason you all have said. It made teh campers feel like they were a part of camp year round (what better for camper retention and staff recruitment?) As the cabins became to filled they stared to have campers just make a cabin plaque that they could hang in thier cabins.

Yeah, has only been in operation for about 12 years or so. The problem of the walls becomign too full hasn't happened yet but I'm sure it will. I like the idea of plaques, maybe something like that will get started once the cabin walls are full.

[Pooka]

Hmm... I really like the idea of session banners. Lord knows, we've got a lot of space in the rafters of the lodge (even with the giant stuffed lizard, painted canoe, and tent up there) and that we need craft ideas. Some sessions make them, but they never're displayed all together...

...heheh. It's got me thinking, now.

[Melk]

we decorate canoe paddles and put them up in the lodge too. Mostly ist CIT, LIT, and trip groups that do it. cabins do there own thing.

[Sparkes]

oh, that reminds me, some of our campers choose to make a plaque that they hang on the wall (but that mostly only happens if one of the campers has taken woodworking).

[KiwiCRB]

Each staff member and each group makes a banner every year. We did giant feet one year but that didn't work out very well.

[rockinsmiles]

Yea, we are anothe camp that does not encourage writing on the walls. However, it is there along with the mattress pads and bunks. The funny thing is I have never caught someone writing on the walls, etc...well except for when I was a CIT and i was with some other cits. Last year i know one group had a problem with the girls writing very inappropriate things on the walls which they had to wash off. Melk, I really like the idea with the canoe paddles..way cool.

[gremlin_c]

My Camp does not allow writing on the walls but it does happen. The kids who come to camp very rarely return to camp, and if they do it's for another reason other then camp.

One of the most common things they write on the bunks is the counsilors real names, such as "so and so's real name is bob". the bunks are a kind of report card to the kids who have that bunk the next session.

[Flower]

The girls at my camp are not allowed to write on the walls at all. If we find it, they sandpaper it off. If it's found after the end of the summer, they're greeted the next year with sandpaper.
The fifteen year olds used to be allowed to sign the walls and ceiling of the Arts and Crafts room with paint. It's pretty full so they're not supposed to anymore. Some still do though. It makes the A & C really cool to have all those signatures dating back years and years up there.

[Indigo]

We get in lots of trouble for writing on walls, tables, etc. The one exception is that the wranglers carve their names into their table at the barn in the summer! The lifeguards do the same at the pool, I believe, and also put their names on a canoe paddle at the lake.

[Campy Measius]

lol yeah Donna, that was fun when you guys wrote on the walls in the rec hall this summer... hahahah

[campnerd99]

"Gary! You wrote on my walls!"
Which reminds me...we should paint the walls of the Rec.Hall with white board paint. Then everybody could draw on the walls and erase it themselves.
Also we should program Legos during Sepecial Week.

[Campy Measius]

Donna, that's a wonderful idea!!!!!
Are you planning on going back to Aite this summer?

[campnerd99]

Donna, that's a wonderful idea!!!!!
Are you planning on going back to Aite this summer?

Yup. I'm ready for round 2. =)

[Smudge]

At the last camp I was at the staff were allowed to sign the walls of the staff cabins but the kids weren't allowed to sign their tents. This summer where I worked no one was allowed to sign the cabins - we actually had to check the cabins before they left at the end of the session and they had to sand off if they had signed - then we double checked at the end of the summer.

[happy_camper]

Our sister camp is much older than ours, so they have some writing from past years even though now it is considered "defacing camp property."

We have a "no writing on cabin walls" rule, and everyone follows it. Like someone said before, there isn't writing now, so kids don't feel the need to write.

[laurathistle]

We don't have writing on the walls of any buildings at my camp. There is a table in riflery that all the instructors carve their names on. There is also a canoe paddle from every summer since the camp started that has the name of every kid (cabin by cabin) and every member of staff. There is a staff competition to design and paint the top part of the paddle.

[happy_camper]

Someone told me about a camp where the kids are actually encouraged to write on the cabin floors and such.

We have a giant rock called Gagaloo rock and starting in the 1970s, another letter was made (which all the staff signed) to eventually spell out gagaloo. The first G was made and signed but none of the other letters. Last year we started the tradition up again and will hopefully continue it.

[happy_camper]

oops I forgot a phrase...

...each year another letter is made...

[Smudge]

[QUOTE=happy_camper]Someone told me about a camp where the kids are actually encouraged to write on the cabin floors and such.
QUOTE]

At the first camp that I worked at the drama kids were allowed to sign the walls of the drama house - but they were the only ones who were - personally I didn't how it looked - I wanted to paint the walls but they wouldn't let me.

[Strand]

At our camp it is greatly frowned apon. But there is no said written in stone rule that say's you can't do it. The camp itself has been around since the 1930's It was the same camp that I myself stayed at back in the 1990's several times. And when I found my old name. It brought a tear to my eye. It reads "T.K. 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998"

The oldest name I found was carved into the oldest building on the camp, the mess hall. It reads "Kilroy was here, July 1945"