Fridays with Franky: Flying Solo at Camp?
Good morning camp friends! It’s Franky the camp dog, back with another installment of Fridays with Franky. The WeHaKee family is still out on the road talking to potential campers and staff about camp! It’s an important part of their work, but I sure do miss them sometimes! There’s a real sense of togetherness and comfort around these people we know so well when we are home! What a wonderful feeling!
Well, today I’m here to talk about another wonderful feeling that’s a little bit different: making new friends! As you may know, WeHaKee is a great place to make and build new relationships! After all…
At the Heart of WeHaKee is Relationship!
The thing is, it sometimes feels easier to just stick with the friends you’ve got. But what if you want to go to camp for the first time, and none of your friends from home can? I say go for it, and here is why it will turn out just fine…
You won’t be the only one. Every summer we have girls register because their parents found camp online, or met one of us at a fair. Your parents are really smart, and they wouldn’t trust just anyone to take care of you! You’ll definitely meet other girls coming to camp for the first time who are looking for new friends, just like you.
You are valued. At WeHaKee we know it’s important to have new voices and new faces contributing to our community. We want you to come, no matter if you sign up with a friend or just you. It won’t be “just you” for very long after you arrive… 🙂
Our community living is built with intention. Our cabins are grouped by ages and assigned with great care and intention by Maggie with help from Bob and Thatch. We do allow requests for one cabin mate, so campers can continue to build relationships from past summers, but we cap at one request so that there’s always room for new friends. We even sing a song about it sometimes!
You will learn new things! Not only are you going to pick your very own customized activity schedule, but everyone else will too! Even the best of friends who come to WeHaKee together have the marvelous opportunity to pick exactly what they want to do, regardless of what their buddies are doing. There’s always time to catch up later. And not only will you learn to canoe, knit, or ride horseback… along the way everyone is learning to get along and make friends too!
We don’t expect everything to be perfect. I know making friends is challenging, especially if you’ve had that left-out feeling in the past too. And while I can’t promise you won’t run into challenges at camp, I can promise you that I (and the rest of the WeHaKee staff) have your back through all of this. You’ll learn, grow, and be a better you for it!
There are already a good number of new WeHaKee campers registered for summer 2018! We hope you can join their ranks and continue to grow our community with us! I’m also really looking forward to some familiar friendly faces coming back… I know them to be the most welcoming and helpful potential new friends anyone could ask for!
See you at camp!
