A Day at Grier Summer
Campers are assigned to a unit of 6 or 8 girls the same age. At least two staff members are assigned to each unit, usually a counselor and a specialty staff. Each unit sits together for meals, and breakfast is served at 7:45. Following breakfast, campers attend three individually selected activities, at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00 a.m. Fifteen minutes is alloted between activities for transition time for traveling from place to place and changing clothes if necessary.
On the first day of the session, campers sign up for activities that meet their individual interests. All activities are offered at the beginner level, with opportunities to progress. Campers must demonstrate skill proficiency in order to receive advanced instruction in horseback riding or dance.
Other activity areas include drawing, painting, ceramics, arts and crafts, singing, drama, swimming, soccer, tennis, games, creative writing, hiking, and nature.
Lunch is served at noon, and at 12:30 half of the campers have a free swim period, while the other half has rest hour. During rest hour, campers stay in their dormitory rooms, or visit the room of another camper in the same unit. Campers are expected to be quiet, but are not required to sleep. Activities encouraged during rest hour are reading, letter writing, drawing, and playing card games. There is always a staff person on duty in the hall during rest hour.
Campers choose between going to the pool or going to the gym for an hour of unstructured time to play, relax, or socialize with girls from other units. Both areas are well-supervised, and staff often initiate games to encourage active participation.
At 1:30 p.m., the unit counselor leads an age appropriate activity each day for the unit. Some examples of unit activities are team building on the challenge course, planning skits, biking, dance, art, going to the computer lab, making memory books, playing games with other units, and preparing for a camp out. Unit activity time is also used as needed for essential tasks such as doing laundry, taking showers, and cleaning rooms.
Unit time allows the staff to become more aware of campers’ individual needs, and campers to develop deeper relationships with members of a small camp “family.”
At 2:30, everyone gathers in the courtyard for a quick snack before going to individual afternoon activity periods. Afternoon activities begin at 2:45 and 4:00 p.m.
Before dinner, campers who did not have free swim yet have a chance to go to the pool while other campers have rest hour.
Dinner is at 6:00 p.m. Following dinner, campers have an opporunity to go the “canteen,” our camp store. Items to purchase include candy, t-shirts, hygiene products, and camp merchandise.
At 7:00, counselors lead another unit activity. Sometimes, this activity period involves preparation for the evening program. Each night, the specialty staff members coordinate one large-group activity for the entire camp, or several activities through which large groups of campers rotate. Examples of evening programs are campfires, scavenger hunts, capture the flag, crazy Olympics, dance presentations, talent shows, game shows, lip sync contests, skit nights, and movie nights.
By 9:30 p.m., campers are back in the dormitories and getting ready for bed. Exact times for lights out depend on the campers' age and the activities of the day.
