Special Ceremonies

[Belay06]

I was curious whether or not you guys have special ceremonies for your campers or not.

We have three sort of. There is the the raggers ceremony, thunderbirds ceremony and the beads ceremony.

Raggers most people know about, the goal setting program.

Then we have a thing as my camp for 5th year campers called Thunderbirds (t-birds) where we lead them on a walk and they get to do something very special at the end (I can't tell what it is, fifth years only)

Then we have the beads ceremony. At the closing campfire we hand out leather necklakes with beads on them. First years get a white bead, and then as they keep coming back they get more beads on there necklace (a new necklace every year). The necklaces can only be tied onto there neck by someone who has been there longer than them and it has to be a counselor or cit. The kids love getting there necklaces, and even now as a counselor i still love to get my necklace.

Does anyone else do anything special like that? Especially like the beads ceremony. Is there anything physical like that that the camper/counselor can look back on to remember there time at camp.

[Dave]

Those are some good ideas. I don't think we do them though at our camp. They're good ideas though.

[daisy_0144]

No, nothing like that, but I wish we did!

[camper]

we don't do those, but we give stuff out for people at camp for certain amounts of time, starting at 5 years when they get a really cool hooded sweatshirt. 6 years is a watch thats really ugly and no one actually ever wears haha, 7 years is a satin jacket, 8 years is necklace w/a "B" charm and your name engraved on the back, 9 years is a silver id bracelet, and 10 years is a really cool keychain

[audur]

We have camp necklaces as well. The first year everyone gets a green wooden bead at my camp, or a blue glass one if they go to the other camp the council runs. They also get one white plastic bead... and then each year another bead is added on to it, I can't remember the exact order of colours but every 5th year is another white bead, and all years between two "white" years are the same colour (so year 1 is white, years 2, 3 and 4 are purple, year 5 is white...). We also give out beads for special activities (polar bearing, dawn drifting, slug-kissing...), there's a CIT bead (different every year) and some trips do trip beads. Our necklace ceremony was pretty rushed last summer and didn't feel very special, but it got better towards the end of the summer so I hope it'll keep improving this year.

[Buster]

At my old camp, we did a bead program. Campers (and counselors) could earn different beads by doing individual or group activities. The beads were related to character development, but I can't remember what each one stood for now. There wasn't a big ceremony when the necklaces were passed out at the end of the week, but I think that's because the nature/arts directors were usually rushing to get them finished as other awards were being passed out!

[campnerd99]

I love the idea of a bead program. I wish my camp had something of the sort.
We don't really have anything like that.
Does anybody do campfire ashes? At Brownie camps everybody gets a film canister of ashes from the campfire.

[YUrocks!]

I was curious whether or not you guys have special ceremonies for your campers or not.

We have three sort of. There is the the raggers ceremony, thunderbirds ceremony and the beads ceremony.

Raggers most people know about, the goal setting program.

Then we have a thing as my camp for 5th year campers called Thunderbirds (t-birds) where we lead them on a walk and they get to do something very special at the end (I can't tell what it is, fifth years only)

Then we have the beads ceremony. At the closing campfire we hand out leather necklakes with beads on them. First years get a white bead, and then as they keep coming back they get more beads on there necklace (a new necklace every year). The necklaces can only be tied onto there neck by someone who has been there longer than them and it has to be a counselor or cit. The kids love getting there necklaces, and even now as a counselor i still love to get my necklace.

Does anyone else do anything special like that? Especially like the beads ceremony. Is there anything physical like that that the camper/counselor can look back on to remember there time at camp.

I'm looking for a cool ceremony thing to do this summer. I've been considering beads linked to character development, but I also love your idea of having beads for each year they come! I run a day camp, so I might do a different bead for each week that they come back

[YUrocks!]

I was curious whether or not you guys have special ceremonies for your campers or not.

We have three sort of. There is the the raggers ceremony, thunderbirds ceremony and the beads ceremony.

Raggers most people know about, the goal setting program.

Then we have a thing as my camp for 5th year campers called Thunderbirds (t-birds) where we lead them on a walk and they get to do something very special at the end (I can't tell what it is, fifth years only)

Then we have the beads ceremony. At the closing campfire we hand out leather necklakes with beads on them. First years get a white bead, and then as they keep coming back they get more beads on there necklace (a new necklace every year). The necklaces can only be tied onto there neck by someone who has been there longer than them and it has to be a counselor or cit. The kids love getting there necklaces, and even now as a counselor i still love to get my necklace.

Does anyone else do anything special like that? Especially like the beads ceremony. Is there anything physical like that that the camper/counselor can look back on to remember there time at camp.

I'm looking for a cool ceremony thing to do this summer. I've been considering beads linked to character development, but I also love your idea of having beads for each year they come! I run a day camp, so I might do a different bead for each week that they come back

[CAMPFRIEND]

You could also do a bead for each activity they do well. Like if you do archery the could have the bulls eye bead somthing like that. I know next summer I am going to work on a patch program where campers can earn them each year. They will get them at the closeing campfire. I am hoping that will make them want to come to camp for more years and give the somthing to work for while they are in camp.

[SWTexan]

The camp I worked at had a great patch program...The first year that a camper took a class, they got a large patch for it. Each class then had between 3 and 6 levels of "qualification" that the kids could work for during their career. The classes (we had about 21 different classes) were geared toward helping the kids acheive the qualifications. At the end of each summer, the kids got patches for all of the qualifications that they earned, as well as any special awards (manners, sportsmanship, etc). At the end of their first summer, they also got a huge patch board that had a labeled space for each patch that was offered. Then, they could put all their patches on the board when they got home. Since each camper took 10 classes every summer, it wasn't unusual for them to go home with 10-20 new patches each summer. The first thing they did on closing day was spread them out in the dining hall to show their parents what patches they earned. I've seen many former campers have their patch boards framed and still hanging on their walls as adults.

[CAMPFRIEND]

That is kinda of what I am looking for. If you have any more information on that program I would love to see it if you don't mind.