5 Reasons Why...

First steps toward investigating
independence. 

As a parent, it is important to know you have a support system backing you as you take on the beautiful task of raising children. Our mission at Camp Foley is to partner with parents to guide children to grow grit and investigate their independence in a safe, kid focused environment. Parents, we have your back.

Time in the muck with your besties?
Yes, please. 

Some of the best, and maybe hardest, acts of parenting occur when a child is provided the opportunity to branch out and experience life without a parent's immediate guidance. A longtime ACA member and camp director, Audrey Monk, wrote  5 Reasons Why Great Parents Send Their Kids To Camp. This is an incredible post that simply puts 5 of the major benefits of camp into words. Click the link to read why allowing a child to develop independence, experience outdoor childhood fun and adventure, relax, unplug, and become better at making and keeping friends could be the best decision you make as a parent all year.


If that article speaks to what you desire for your children, grandchildren, or neighborhood friend - REGISTER THEM TODAY!

Umuganda in Rwanda and also Gorillas

This past February, I was lucky enough to travel to Rwanda and Uganda for a once in a lifetime

experience photographing the Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees. The animals were of course very impressive and watching them interact with each other was not much different than watching my cousin’s families interact (they have lots of young, spirited children and we, as a group of adults, tend to share parenting responsibilities when we are all together). The Gorillas and Chimps are incredible animals that are threatened by habitat loss, climate change and poaching but in recent years have started to rebound (thanks to treaties by Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo). I could go on for hours about them, and probably will if you ask me, but something else has burrowed in to my soul and had me thinking since my return – “Umuganda” and Rwanda’s Plastic Bag Ban.

So what is Umuganda? In Rwanda, every last Saturday of the month, all able-bodied citizens between the ages of 18-65 spend 2 hours volunteering in their communities, in a day they call “Umuganda”, which translates to “Coming Together”. Umuganda has been practiced in Rwanda for decades but it wasn’t until after the genocide in the early 1990’s that it got a makeover and took on its current form. For many years (until 2007), it wasn’t technically the law, but the social pressure to help was so high that estimates put participation at over 80%. Those that don’t participate are often not invited to local events or shunned at birthday parties and weddings. Now it is the law and fines can be administered if people are found to be skirting their responsibilities.

It is estimated that Rwandans do 18 million hours of community service per month. They pick up trash on the roads and trails, paint houses, help a neighbor who lost their farm to a mud slide, volunteer professional services like medical or dental care, dig trenches to prepare for rain water run-off and countless other acts that better their community.

And it works! The people of Rwanda are so committed to keeping their country clean and helping their neighbor. They voted to outlaw plastic bags and when you drive around you rarely see trash on the ground. If they don’t put it there, they don’t have to pick it up at the end of each month. Neighbors are helping neighbors and the whole time, guess who is watching? Kids!.

5 million children watch each month as their parents help others, as government officials work side by side with community members and skilled professionals offer their services for free. The kids watch (and usually help) and prepare themselves for a future where they, too, will be called on to help their communities.

What does this have to do with Camp Foley? In the spirit of Umuganda, this summer we are going to have 1 block of time each session that will be dedicated to community - both directly related to Foley and in our local area.  Every camper, counselor, and director will participate in some way, giving us time to connect as a camp community and do something that makes us proud. Just think. If every person in the USA, between the ages of 18-65, dedicated 2 hours a month to helping our communities we would have 624 million hours per month.

Of course the process isn’t perfect, and they have to revisit each year how to make this work for their communities. But I have been to quite a few countries and something was different in Rwanda. I’m not sure if it was their storied past, their sense of urgency that it can’t go back to how it was or something else that I, as a foreigner don’t understand, but something was different. There was an acceptance and a community and a togetherness that I haven’t always felt when I have traveled. I came back thinking and yearning to be better and pushing to find new ways to engage my neighbors. And for that I thank Rwanda, the Gorillas and Chimps, and most importantly, the Rwandan people.

Marie and I look forward to working side by side with the campers and staff this summer as we strive to make our community a better place and partner with parents to start kids on a path to bettering the world they live in.

For more pictures that I took of Gorillas and Chimpanzees see EightLegsPhotography.com or follow @eightlegsphoto on Instagram . 

~ Alli Faricy, Director

Superheroes at Camp

Some of the 2013 returning staff will be writing blog posts in the coming weeks. This week, Kylie Beltz has written a blog about how everyone in the camp community is a superhero in their own right!

I was sitting in class the other day and this idea came to mind about Superheroes. Like how awesome would it be to be a superhero; to fly, be invisible, shoot web, save the world and such. Spider Man, Bat Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, Miss America, Golden Girl, Captain America. The list goes on and on! Life would be so much easier being able to fly to class or put enemies in a web, and get the satisfaction of saving the world one good deed at a time.

But then I realized something that I will forever be grateful for. At Camp Foley, I am surrounded by superheroes everyday. And not only are there hundreds of them, but each and every one of them are unique and add their own power to better the Foley community. Campers, counselors, directors, assistant directors- all these people contribute their own superpowers that make Foley one of the greatest places on earth. 

The directors and assistant directors do everything they can to make camp run smoothly. They have super powers we don’t even know about, and ones they probably wish to remain secret. The counselors juggle teaching activities, counseling a cabin, showing endless energy for ten weeks, and balancing the role of role model, supervisor, and friend. Foley would be nothing without the super powers that the staff bring to Foley every year, each counselor bringing something special. 

Kylie and the 2009 1st/2nd Session CITs at the Superhero
Banquet. Kylie, Matt and Parker (middle) will all be back as
second year counselors in 2013!

The campers probably possess the most super powers of them all. The power to shoot a gun or a bow and arrow for the first time, climb up a forty foot climbing wall, get up on skis for the first time, enter the battlefield of paintball, captain a sailboat, and bring life and inspiration to the Foley community. Campers have the power to have character growth, the power to try new experiences, and the power to make friends and build relationships with people from around the world. 

Thinking of camp as this place filled with superheroes, I am fortunate to be able to spend yet another summer at my favorite place in the world, and I get to spend it with hundreds of superheroes, all unique, talented, and ready for the time of their lives.

We couldn't agree with Kylie more in her assertion that everyone - Directors, ADs, Counselors, Campers, Office Staff and Volunteers - are all superheroes at Foley. Without everyone's individual super power, camp wouldn't be what it is! Thank goodness we don't have any super villains trying to bring us down! Continue checking the Rattlin' Blog for more posts from returning staff members.

Check out our work...

Now summer camp is well and truly under way, we would like to cast your minds back a month or so to our Outdoor Education program this spring. We had such a blast teaching our sixth-grade visitors about the beauty and value of earth, and we believe they had a great time too!

Take a look at this short video which shows some pages of the students' workbooks, along with audio clips of the kids talking about their favorite memories of visiting the center.

We want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who took part in our Outdoor Education program this past spring! See you next time...

- Marie and Alli, Directors