The new Yurts are inching closer to completion, and are going to be AMAZING this summer! At 24′ in diameter, and sitting on raised platforms on the Kern hillside, these are competing with the Bridgehead Treehouses for coolest place to sleep at camp. Brotherband Chronicles, Star Wars, Garage Band, Percy Jackson and more programs are all going to be using these great new cabins. Can’t wait to see everyone this summer!
Thanks to all our Mother-Daughter pairs who joined us for a fabulous weekend! We didn’t let a little rain stand in our way – we had a ton of fun canoeing, climbing, tie-dying, trail riding, and much more! Hope to see each of you again soon. For those that weren’t able to make it, our next Mother-Daughter Weekend will be August 17-19, 2012 and our next Parent-Child Weekend will be September 14-16, 2012.
April is approaching quickly and that means it’s almost time for our Spring Mother-Daughter Weekend! Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to spend time with just the girls! This year’s event will take place April 13th-15th at Elk Lodge. We’ll be offering both a traditional Mother-Daughter Camp and a Mother-Daughter Ranch Camp. Traditional Mother-Daughter Camp (for daughters ages 6+) activities will include archery, climbing, a night hike, campfires, arts & crafts, trail rides, and much more! The cost is $160/pair, $50 per additional child, and $15 for Trail Rides. Mother Daughter Ranch Camp is for the moms and daughter pair (for daughters ages 10+) who love horses! The weekend will include trail rides, horseback riding lessons, grooming, tacking, and general horsin’ around, along with traditional camp activities. The cost for Mother-Daughter Ranch camp is $225/pair, $100 per additional child. To register, or for questions, call us at 513-932-3756.
We had a great time with a fabulous group of women last weekend! Wine tasting, (which was not so much “tasting” per se and more just drinking), hilarious board games, pottery painting, massages, trail rides in the snow, yoga, cooking class, hiking, rock climbing, and crocheting by the fire….what a fantastic weekend! We can’t wait to do it again! Speaking of which…our next offering will be the weekend of July 20th. It’ll be all of the fantastic activities like those mentioned above, plus so much more – think relaxing by the pool, climbing Tango Tower, rafting, ziplining and much more! Based on some great feedback from this weekend, we’re planning on making it so that you have the option of staying one or two nights. Mark your calendars! Click below to check out all the fun we had last weekend…
Here is a link to download the NEW Camp Kern song!
Natalie performing the Camp Kern song at Harry Potter Week!
Written, performed, recorded, mixed and made awesome by Natalie Jones, Counselor Summer 2011
Check it out in the Camp Kern 2012 Summer Camp video
Check out some of Natalie’s other work here
After two years of single-day Percy Jackson and the Olympians themes, Camp Kern is now expanding the Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter theme for an entire week of overnight camp!
Check out all the photos from Camp Kern’s 2011 Percy Jackson Day!
Demi-gods are needed to fill out the ranks at Camp Half-Blood. The cabins are ready, Dionysus is grumpy, and there are dark stirrings. There are quests awaiting, training sessions planned, and monsters to be vanquished. Are you ready to join our ranks? Are you ready to test your character and courage against the same challenges faced by Hercules and Jason? We’ll see you this summer!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
We’re bringing Women’s Weekend back! Ladies, join us this February for a weekend of excitement or relaxation, or maybe a little bit of both! We’ll start the weekend off right with wine tasting from Valley Vineyards. Other activities to include pottery painting, cooking, indoor rock climbing, trail-riding, crocheting, and yoga. Massages will also be offered throughout the weekend. We’ll be staying in our new cozy, comfy Casper Lodges. It will be held Friday, February 10th (6:30pm) to Saturday, February 11th (7:00pm). The cost is $95/person, which includes 3 meals on Saturday and all activities with the exceptions of trail rides and massages (an additional fee). Register with a friend and get $5 off each registration! To register or for questions call us 513-932-3756 ext 1526 or email Leadership Adventures at ladventures@daytonymca.org.
Today as I was walking across the athletic field I had an uncomfortable moment. I stepped in a mole tunnel.
If you have never noticed such a thing, you’ve obviously never seen some of the fields around Camp Kern. Yes, moles live here. There is certainly some crazy contraption out there which could either catch them or, I shudder to imagine, smash them.
Yet, we let them live. They normally aren’t much of a disturbance, just a slight annoyance when their tiny tunnels grow too large or their mounds of dirt too high.
But that all changes when it rains. When it rains, their previously unobtrusive tunnels turn to gooey mud-filled traps for unwary feet. And that’s what happened to me and my just-cleaned boots.
There is something important here for us, and for our kids. How many days do our kids go without really playing outside? When is the last time your kids were covered in dirt, or rain, or snow?
Camp Kern exists to reconnect kids to nature, and through that connection to foster an appreciation for our world and a willingness to engage without fear. This is why we do things like Winter Camp and (even muddier) Spring Camp. This year, Winter Camp looks to be less “White-out Wonderland” and more “Tough Mudder”.
We’re OK with that. Whatever the weather, there are amazing things to see, smell, jump and splash through in the outdoors. And here, there are not only 485 acres of outdoors, but willing companions on the journey.
So, as I’m cleaning off my previously sparkly clean boots, I remember the moment two days ago as I rode a brand new zipline across the Little Miami, and saw a river which is flooding it’s banks, and tiny runoff streams raging like the Colorado River.
There is nothing quite like a rainy day to make you remember why our planet is so amazing. We hope you can join us in our little corner very soon.
Winter Camp is 3 days filled with hot cocoa, sledding, great friends, snowmen, white elephant gifts, candy canes, elves, tree decorating contests, and favorite counselors. Ages 7 to 14 are invited to stay the night, relive the Summer Camp memories, play in the snow, and generally have an amazing time!
Reasons to come to Winter Camp:
The sports shed has concrete! Although it’s already pretty dried (this got done on Friday, and I’m just uploading the pictures today…) the new concrete floor in the sports shed is going to be sweet! Check it out:
