For Those New To Walton’s

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Walton’s Grizzly Lodge new family online orientation.

Hopefully you were able to access the webinar easily. I see that we have many families on the call tonight. So, welcome to all of you new families. We are so excited to welcome you to Walton’s Grizzly Lodge and to go over a few things that will hopefully make the getting ready for camp very smooth for you and your camper.

So, just a couple of housekeeping items before we get started here. Um, the sound, you are all muted. Um, so I can’t hear you if you have questions, but you can type in questions um as we go, and I’ll talk to you a little bit more about that. You have the option to either hear the sound through your computer or if you’ve called in to the number, you can hear it through your phone.

So, I hope that’s all working out for you and you’re not having any technical difficulties. I had visions of speaking to my computer and no one being able to hear me or you’re not being able to see my screen. So, um I’m hoping that that works out. You know, our family does summer camp really well and we’re excellent with children.

Webinars are brand new to us. So, I just want to let you know um please be patient just to set the scene. Um, we came back from our family meeting where all of us were together and talking about the webinar and um Grandpa Bob was like, “And what is a webinar?”

And so we’re explaining it to them, telling them how we’re going to be talking to our new families. They got a kick out of that as the third generation and wished us all luck.

Um, Adam and I are in our home office. Erica is at her home office in Truckucky and um our teenage daughter is in charge of keeping the door and the dog quiet. So, the things that we can control. We do live on a busy main street here in Grass Valley.

So, um you know, pardon us if the sirens or something go off, but um bear with us.

Adam is um taking care of questions. And so if you have questions as we go, you can type them in. Hopefully you see the spot there on your screen on the right hand side, the blue bar that says questions. If it’s not showing a place for you to type a question, hit that little triangle so that it’s pointing down and you should be able to type your question in there.

When you type your question, only Adam and I will be able to see the question and he will answer your question um just to you or if it’s a question we’re getting quite a bit, he might respond so that everybody can see that answer.

Okay, so let’s get started. First off, I just want to say welcome again to all of you.

This is really an exciting time for us. Camp is getting closer and our two families spend all nine months preparing for camp. So, the best part of the year is just around the corner as far as we are concerned.

My name is Julie and as I mentioned, my husband is Adam. We have two daughters, Ella and Georgia. And we’re in partnership with Adam’s brother, Jared, and his wife, Erica.

And they have three children, Abby, Charlie, and Greta.

And I think most of you know the story, but Adam and Jared’s greatgrandparents started camp. And that makes us the fourth generation owners and directors. So quite a bit of history.

We are getting prepared for the 88th summer of Walton’s Grizzly Lodge. And I’m going to be honest, some of the younger campers have asked me what it was like 88 years ago when I was running camp.

So, I don’t know. I tell them I was not here.

All right, let’s talk about what we’re going to cover tonight.

The most important thing we’re going to cover is getting ready for camp. Right, it is just around the corner. Your children are probably very excited for their first Walton’s Grizzly Lodge camp experience.

You are probably excited as well. We really want to make your first experience as positive and as rewarding as possible. The first step to this is being prepared.

The topics that we’re going to cover tonight um are primarily geared towards parents. So, some of you may have your kids on the call as well. That’s totally fine. Um, but it is more focused towards parents. Um, so keep that in mind.

The things that we’re going to cover are getting ready for camp. Um, what parents can do to get ready, get their mindset around camp, and what campers can do.

We’re going to cover packing in detail. We’re going to talk about the opening day of your session. Knowing what to expect is really important.

And then um, a few tips about while your camper is at Walton’s Grizzly Lodge.

And again, we’ll take questions. Depending on how um many questions we get, I might pause periodically and um have Adam answer the questions live or he might just tell me if he wants to chime in on something, so that’ll be fine, too.

He’s a pretty fast typist, but be patient with him. There’s a lot of people on the call.

Okay. So, let’s start with preparation for parents.

So the first topic in preparing parents is realizing that you may fall victim to kid sickness.

Now kid sickness is not how you feel when they don’t clean their room or when they forget their lunch for the second time that week and it’s sitting on the kitchen counter. Now you know what I’m talking about.

Kids sickness is really missing those kids. And I want to let you know that sometimes this can sneak up on you.

I have talked to many, many parents who have said, “Oh, I’m going to be fine. I’m not worried about it. I’m looking forward to getting stuff done around the house or I have plans.”

“And then it takes them by surprise and they actually find that they are really missing their kids more than they thought.”

It’s fine to miss them, but if it really starts to turn into quite a bit of worry on your part, then we want you to um take action and not let that get the better of you.

So, couple things that you can do, of course, are stay busy. I’m serious about that. We laugh, but really plan now.

What are you going to do when your child is at camp? Um, focus on something that you’re going to do and have a plan.

Do send letters and email. The important part of that is really focus on camp in those letters and emails to your child.

So, if you are missing them or if you’re having a fabulous time and you haven’t thought about them at all, be sure not to focus your letter and your email either on I miss you so much. It’s just not the same. Even the cat is depressed.

Or also, you don’t want to say, “We are having the best time. We have gone to Disneyland every other day. We’ve rearranged your room.” You know, on and on and on.

You really want to focus on camp. So, how’s camp going? who’s your counselor, what are your favorite activities? Those kinds of questions and comments.

Um, and again, the focus, Robert, your letters and your email, um, being about the camp experience, okay?

And you can check in on your kids, and I don’t mean driving up that camp road and hiding behind a pine tree. There’s other ways to check in.

You can check in on our website, through Facebook, and I do send out tweets. Um, and you can follow me.

I don’t tweet all day. Um, but I do as especially in the morning try to give parents a little glimpse of what our day looks like and sometimes at the end of the day kind of some highlights.

So follow me on Twitter if that’s your thing.

Let me show you for those of you that haven’t seen the website and Facebook.

Now let me see if I can do this without messing something up. I think I can. Okay, here we go. Ah, tada. I did it.

The new Walton’s Grizzly Lodge website. Raise your hand if you’ve seen it.

Are you raising your hand? I can’t tell. You actually can raise your hand on that webinar with a little hand that you can put up.

If you haven’t seen the website, be sure to check it out because it’s a really important place that you need to go as a parent of a camper at Walton’s Grizzly Lodge.

So, of course, there’s all these different places and all these amazing pictures and videos and things to explore, but one really important area that you’re going to want to check out is the area called my account.

My account, see my mouse going right under it there, is where you can log in. And you can log into your account. You’ll be able to see pictures that are just posted for that particular for for parents, for people who are logged in and for particular sessions. You’ll also be able to um email your your campers from there and see the news that we’re posting there.

So, things that are in addition to the general website for the public, this is for parents to log in and see.

I’ll take you there to that um login in just a moment.

Another thing you’re really going to want to check out is the Walton Scrizzy Lodge Facebook page.

So, there it is, the Facebook page. If you’ve liked our page, and you can see this is the number of people that have liked our page, then you’ll get um information about camp in your Facebook news feed.

If I scroll down here, you can see that we let people know when our new website was up. We’ve been posting a lot of information about the staff that has been hired because, of course, camp hasn’t started yet. But when summer’s going on, we’ll be posting pictures of campers and events that are happening and keep people in the loop.

There’s my younger daughter, Georgia, there on the left with her thumb up getting ready for backpacking.

Okay. Um, at the top here, another little feature that a lot of people don’t know about, but you will because you attended the webinar. This campouch button right here, if you go here, this can will also take you to log into your account.

Same login as from our website. So, if you’re a Facebook user and you’re here quite a bit and it’s easier to log in, click on the camp and touch and right up here is where you will log in to your camp and touch account. You’ll use your email and your password. If you forgot your password, it can be sent to you.

Okay, so back to our um website here. This is where you log in. I want to show you what this looks like.

So, log in. Log in. Here we are. That’s my email address. You’ll type in your password. And there you are. You’re logged in. Many of you, I know, have already been here because you’re working on those camp forms.

The camp forms and documents are all located here on your forms dashboard. when it’s time to enroll for next summer, July 1st actually, if you can believe it. This is where you’ll fill out your application because you already have an account and obviously camper information, updating other information for your family if you want to change your password.

And then our online community is here. I’ll get into more detail about that, but that is the place where you’ll see those photos, news items, that sort of thing.

Okay, let me get back to our slide presentation.

The next thing I want to talk to you about is preparation for kids.

So, as camp is approaching and kids are getting more and more excited, um, one thing we really recommend is for you to talk with your child about the things they are most looking forward to about their experience at camp.

We think it’s terrific to really focus them in on what are your top three activities or maybe four or five, whatever, but what are the top activities you really are looking forward to?

It may help them to look at the video again or cruise around the website and see what activities are um really interesting them when they get to camp and they’re sharing that information with people.

I think that um it’ll be very very um helpful for them to have that to talk about on that first opening day to other campers.

The counselors do a lot of that, you know, so what are you looking forward to? So helping them focus on that is a great way to help them prepare for camp.

The next thing is for them to practice camp life.

And by practicing camp life, I don’t mean y’all need to go and get on a horseback riding trip or be sure that you’re taking them to the lake to practice their water skiing or fishing or any of those other things.

What we mean by practicing camp life are all of those um daily living habits that will be helpful for them to practice.

Now, not all kids need to practice these, of course, depending on their age and experience, but some of those things are sleepovers.

So, if your child still gets a little nervous sleeping over, that’s okay. but maybe plan a practice sleepover with a relative or a good friend and showering.

Now, that might seem a little silly, but honestly, we do have campers who actually still can’t get the shampoo out of their hair.

So, really, really helpful if they have that skill down or some, “Where’s the bathtub?” They ask their counselor and we say, “There’s no bathtub. There’s a lake and we have showers.”

So, really important that they are able to do that on their own.

And then lip balm and lotion. Don’t these seem like the tiniest little things? But let me tell you, they will make a world of difference for your child if they get in the habit of having lip balm in their pocket and putting that on several times a day and putting lotion on before they go to sleep at night and in the morning. That’s really, really a helpful habit.

And then encouraging your kids to ask questions. So if they are wondering about things, encouraging them to ask you and have conversations. We really find that the more that kids know what to expect, the better prepared they are.

Okay. Now, asking questions.

Your child might be one of those that gets into the whatifs. There might be a lot of whatifs. They want an answer to every single thing.

Some of those questions, of course, you’re going to be able to answer, and some you may not. You might want to send us a quick email or pick up the phone. One of us would love to answer your questions for you.

In some campers, those questions might really turn into a little bit of worrying and worrying about things that are very common to worry about.

You know, what if I feel homesick? What if I’m a picky eater and I don’t like the food? What if I’m really nervous, shy? What if I don’t know anybody?

What we want you to know, what we want you to be able to have a conversation with your camper about is that obviously all of these things are very, very normal whatifs to have.

And we really do talk to kids about framing that as whatifs rather than automatically labeling them as fears.

Um it is okay to have all these what if questions.

Um reassuring them that we have been doing this for so long and we have had so many kids with nearly a thousand campers every summer that we have come across almost every what if and reminding them that Walton’s Grizzly Lodge is set up for kids.

So, of course, it’s normal to be missing your parents when you’re away from home, but you can certainly write to them and you’ll be getting correspondents from them and your counselor’s right there with you and there are people that you can go to and let them know how you’re feeling that have had lots of experience with this.

Let them know that most kids get over that very quickly.

But if they are still really having a hard time that I’m there and I work with the kids that are feeling homesick and I’m available and that you and I, meaning the parents and I, can be in contact.

Sometimes that’s just enough to make them feel better knowing that I’m in contact with you.

Another question about what if I’m a picky eater?

Well, I’ll tell you, our food is very, very kid-friendly. Many, many choices, things served separately. Most kids do not have an issue at all with um finding things to eat at camp.

If you’re still concerned, I definitely encourage you to give me a call so that we can talk about your specific concerns with your child.

And of course, what if I feel nervous and shy?

I picked this picture because that is our dog, Bochi, who is nervous and shy all the time.

And so I always let kids know that are feeling that way that he feels that same way. And the longer he’s here, the better he feels.

um and that they would be surprised how many people are actually feeling that way um just like they are.

And that usually goes away honest to goodness before the sun has set on that very first day.

If these whatifs go beyond your being able to um reassure your child, please do give us a call ahead of time.

Okay, a few reminders for parents.

Hopefully you’ve gotten your handbook in the mail there. That’s a picture of it on the right.

That handbook was sent out um in April.

If you didn’t get it or you possibly misplaced it or you would simply just like another copy, um you can take a um I’m sorry, you can log into your account and under the forms you can download a copy of it. So, it’s right there.

Another quick reminder for parents in that handbook there’s lots and lots of information.

And it’s really important that you read it so that you’re really clear on all of the different components to camp or different procedures, that sort of thing.

One of the things that we want you to know so that you’re not disappointed is that um your child can receive mail, but the only kind of mail they can receive are letters with one first class stamp.

We don’t accept packages and we don’t accept oversized envelopes or anything with anything more than one first class stamp. And they’re refused at the post office. They don’t actually even come into camp. we return them.

So, I don’t want you to be heartbroken that you’ve sent something special and it was returned because we didn’t even see it.

Um, the reason for this is that we used to accept um uh packages or even oversized letters and it was crazy disruptive.

I have about 25 years of stories about that. Honest to goodness, um this is a real true life story and I think enough time has passed so none of you know this mom.

We received in a box care package for a boy at camp a blow up basketball hoop so that he could inflate this giant hoop in his dorm and at rest time he would be able to play hoops with his cabin mates and we just can’t handle hoops in the dorm being sent to their kids. That’s one of many many stories.

And so okay no packages, and then we got really gigantic envelopes stuffed with all kinds of crazy things.

So really not helpful for kids, disruptive stuff they don’t need, keeps them focused on home rather than at camp.

So um there you go. There’s probably more information than you needed to know about why letters with one stamp, right?

Okay.

Another quick reminder for parents, the forms.

I think that you um have many of you have already logged in and started on those forms. You do that from your account that I showed you earlier.

Some of those forms you go ahead and just fill out right there, like that health history.

And good news, when your campers return the following summer, all that information is just something you have to update.

So, that hard work you’re doing, don’t worry, it’ll all be saved.

Some of the other forms, we do need a signature.

You’ll see the physician’s examination right there and the parent authorization. And those are just printed, completed either by the doctor or you, and then you fax them back.

Now, here’s a little tricky thing. The fax number for those forms is different than our general camp fax number.

So, be sure to just fax it right there on the number to the number that’s on that form.

Okay.

And then there’s a photo of our beautiful health center.

Um, we want you to know that we have two RNs on duty. And actually, maybe a little known fact, my sister-in-law Erica is also an RN.

So, um, she supervises our health center along with their other duties, but we have two RNs that are there, and you get to check in with them on opening day and meet them, and they’ll do a brief, um, check-in with your child and with you just to be sure they’re very clear.

Um, something we want you to, um, keep in mind is that any medication that you bring has to be in the original containers, whether it’s a prescription or an over-the-counter medicine.

So, please do not show up with little Ziploc baggies with pills in them that you would like us to give to your child there.

Even though we are sure you know what those pills are, we just simply can’t do that.

So, everything in its original container.

One other note is that if your child does um end up spending the evening in our health center, you know, upset stomach or something or requires a trip into the doctor for no, I don’t know, strep culture, anything like that, we will definitely give you a call.

So, we want you to know that you will be informed of those kinds of things.

Okay, onward packing. This is coming later.

Of course, you guys aren’t packing yet, are you? Raise your hand if you’re packing. Good. No hands are raised because that is way too early. That is two on top of it.

No, the packing though is important.

And there’s three things that we want you to keep in mind with packing.

Camper involvement.

Let me tell you why this is so important. True story.

Sam, why don’t you go and get your sweatshirt on? It’s freezing now this evening. We’re headed down to a campfire.

I don’t have a sweatshirt.

Really? You don’t have a sweatshirt?

Nope. My mom did not pack a sweatshirt.

Okay. Well, do you have some socks and tennis shoes because of sandals? It’s so cold.

Nope. She didn’t pack me that either.

Anyway, I think you probably can figure out how this story goes.

When you end up looking through Sam’s stuff, Sam has a whole bunch of stuff. In fact, Sam’s mom was very diligent and packed every single thing on that list.

But Sam wasn’t involved in that packing and honestly wasn’t aware of the things that he had available to him.

So, it’s really important.

And of course, depending on the age of your camper, they can either do the whole thing themselves and you can just kind of oversee or double check um or you can do it and then go through it with them. But really let them know.

That packing list is in the camper handbook. It’s also available as a separate list to download if you want to log into your um account.

So, there’s the packing list.

I we send it and I think some people just can’t even believe it. That just can’t be enough stuff.

We do do laundry for our two week sessions in the middle. So, um that is why this is the same list whether it’s a one week or a two week.

So, we do recommend you follow it.

Now, of course, you might have to adjust it here or there for your particular child, but um that we have found has been a very, very good list to follow.

Then, label everything.

I say that all the time. We write it everywhere that we can, but stuff will come without labels.

And I could open a sock store and the shampoo store and the duffel bag store. I Well, maybe I should just open one store and put it all in there.

So many things get left at camp.

And if they had their names on them, we could get them back to those kids before they packed or certainly send it to them um afterwards.

But lots of things come into camp without labels.

So please, please, please label everything.

Some parents choose to order iron-on labels. That’s great.

Um, others, um, go ahead and just mark the name in with a laundry marker. I just use a Sharpie and it works just fine.

Um, initials are not okay. It’s really hard. We might have a lot of kids with the same initials.

So, at a minimum, the first initial and the full last name and absolutely everything.

Towels, please. We have so many towels.

Um, shoes. You can put a piece of um masking tape on the end of the toothbrush and put their name on everything.

So, as much as you can, please help your child and help us by labeling everything.

Okay.

So, you’re packed, your kids excited, they waited.

Some of these kids have been enrolled since last summer, so they are just waited and finally it’s the night before.

And really, it is tough, but try to see if your child can get a reasonable night’s sleep the night before.

Some of you are going to drive up in the morning, have a really long drive, try to feed them a really good dinner, have them take that shower, and um, you know, soak them in the tub, whatever it is you need to do.

But do all of those things the night before and get as much rest as possible because you can see from these pictures, there is a lot of action that is going to take place.

Okay, now getting to camp.

You know, when I was looking through these slides earlier, I realized that I didn’t cover um very well at least if your child will be flying into the Reno airport.

So, briefly, I just want to say that the two ways that kids get to camp are um either they fly into the Reno airport and we meet them at their gate and we take them um by bus, charter bus back to camp.

They’re supervised the whole time by our staff and we do that.

We also do that on the return for those kids.

Most kids show up by car and their parents or they go with friends, bring them to camp.

So, I’m going to cover mostly just driving um into camp.

And what I’d like um to remind you also is that we want to know how your child is getting to camp.

So, please um be sure that you complete that form so we know to expect you if you’re especially if you’re getting to the airport.

Okay.

Arrival time.

I’m laughing you guys because I have to look it up. I already know it’s 11:30 to 1:30. Let me see if I’m right.

Yes, I was right.

Okay. 11:30 to 1:30 arrival time.

Now, if I was teaching fifth grade like I used to, I’d say, “When is arrival time?”

And you would all respond, “11:30 to 1:30.”

And we really want you to try to arrive in that window.

Um, when people arrive early, it’s awkward for us because we don’t have the staff to greet you in the Walton’s Grizzly Lodge way. We want to be able to do that for you.

So please in that window um know that we have that window and we get rushes at certain times.

So um we’re not uh we’re going to do the very best that we can but there might be a little bit of a wait time sometimes.

So um we just want to be sure that that goes very very smoothly for you in terms of what to expect.

Um know that there’s going to be you know kids with maybe some nervousness.

There might be some parents with some nervousness.

We’ve been doing this a very long time. So, try to keep it all in perspective.

Smile and wave. Get the peace sign like that camper is doing and know that um we’re going to really take great care of you.

Get your kids to where they need to be. Um but we’re doing it for a lot of people on that first day.

Another important tip is just to um have a very good breakfast and a mid-m morninging snack.

We have a later lunch that day. Sometimes it’s not till 2 or 2:30 depending on um how the arrivals go and when people are settled in.

So, um, it’s important that your child has that good breakfast and a midm morning snack because they can be hungry.

Adam is typing away furiously.

Adam, do you need to mention anything?

Nope.

He says he’s able to um keep up with your questions. So, great.

He did pass me a note.

Dear Julie, I love you.

No, that’s not what the note says.

The note says um he doesn’t know how to answer the question about will this slideshow be available? And the answer is yes.

So, um, when we are done it, we are recording it. We will have a link and I will email that link to all new families. Um, I’m hoping tomorrow.

So, there’s the answer to that one.

Okay, moving on.

What to expect that first day?

That first day you are going to drive into camp and you are going to be met at the welcome wagon.

I’ll be standing at the welcome wagon. Our staff members will be at the welcome wagon.

And well, there won’t be watermelon like that picture. That is the welcome wagon, but that’s on picnic day.

But we will be there and we will greet your car and we will let your um know where to park specifically place for the boy cabin areas and the girl cabin areas.

And then one of our staff members will go ahead and greet your car and show you where your cabin is and help you get your things to your cabin.

At that time, you and your child can go into the cabin and you can pick out a um bunk and put your things on there.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time unpacking and getting settled because we do that as a cabin group later, but you certainly can help your child arrange a few things if you like.

Oh, one other thing on that in the packing.

When you’re packing, it’s really important not to bring a trunk. That’s in our handbook. just a duffel bag because later, as I mentioned, when the groups are really unpacking and getting everything organized in that cabin, we do that later after lunch.

Um, we store all those duffel bags. We don’t keep them in the cabins.

Okay?

So, you’ll get them to their group in their cabin.

And then you’ll go with your child to the health center and you will do what, as I mentioned before, check in with the nurse.

And the nurse will just briefly go over if she has any questions, if you have any questions, any medication that’s going to be given and that sort of thing.

um so that everybody is clear exactly how that process is going to go.

The next thing is their camper will head down to our lake where they will have a swim evaluation.

This is only for our brand new campers.

We need to be sure that all the kids are water safe and it’s not done in that really big part of the lake.

I had a camper call me last week and asked me about that.

I saw on the video the big lake. How many times do I have to swim across it?

It’s just in our swim area which is a small um inlet part of our lake and camper swim there and back there and back.

How many feet across is it Adam?

30 yards total.

30 yards total says Adam.

Okay. So they do that and then they tread water for a while and um it’s not judged on how their stroke looks or any of that sort of thing.

So, it’s just are they water safe?

And of course, our waterfront director and lifeguards are down there.

So, they do that and then um they’ll head back up to the cabins, get out of their suits if they want, that sort of thing.

And um they’ll join their other cabin groups and their counselors that are there, the staff.

And at that time, once they’re back and settled with their group, waiting for the other campers to arrive and making them feel welcome, you can go ahead and say goodbye at any time.

One word about the goodbye.

when you say the goodbye, might be hard on you, might be hard on them, might not be hard on anyone, I don’t know.

But, um, I really recommend just to do that whole process once.

And if Erica were sitting here, she would be smiling with me because we have seen some parents go back and say goodbye multiple multiple times and double check that they remembered where this was packed in the bag and that sort of thing.

And I can completely understand that as a parent, but it can be hard on the camper.

Um, so, and it could be hard on you guys, too.

So once you say that goodbye, assuming you’re feeling okay about it, then it’s time to go.

Now, if you aren’t feeling good about something as you’re leaving, please swing by the welcome wagon and let me know so that I can be aware of that um and can advise you or at least can know.

Um so please.

Okay. All right.

After that, like the other kids start coming, we do that later lunch.

Um we also start moving into the cabin a little bit before lunch.

And then after lunch, we finish up with our counselors and get everything organized.

The kids know where their stuff goes.

And then your child will get uh tours after lunch, especially all of our new campers really look forward to that so that they know where all the activities are and all the great things they can do.

So the cabins, see that picture there in the middle?

That is sort of what most of them look like. You know, wood floors, wood walls, wood bunk beds.

Of course, when we get all the kids and the stuff in, it looks a little more lively than that.

But we do we sleep in bunk beds in the cabins and we are definitely sharing space.

You know the cabins are dormitories where we sleep and um we get ready of course and we do have cabin cleanup.

Um but we don’t spend a lot of activity time in our cabins.

Um so it’s really important that kids learn how to share that space.

It can be um some kids cannot are maybe not as used to having to share that smaller amount of space.

If you look there between those bunks you can see a shelf an open shelf. campers share that with another camper.

So, picture all their stuff on half that space. Can you picture that?

Um, so just know that that is um where their stuff is going to go.

Of course, their sleeping bags will go there.

You probably saw a fitted sheet on the packing list that you can bring that to put over those mattresses.

Um, and that’s what the the dorm looks like there.

There’s typically eight campers per group.

And something that can be a little confusing to um our new families, we refer to groups and cabins separately.

So your group is your group of eight and you have one or two counselors.

And that group, you can see right down there on the bottom, there’s a group of kids there.

I don’t see the counselor, but that group um sleeps in one of the buildings together.

They also eat their meals together family style.

Um their counselor is the one that helps them be sure to sign up for their activities. Really, they’re homebased.

So that is their group.

But groups are housed in cabins that hold more than one group.

So there are cabins that just have one group in there, but there’s also cabins that have as many as three groups, some of our bigger buildings.

So that’s a little bit of a difference there.

And of course, every building has between two and five counselors.

A word about groups and group requests and all of that.

Um, some of you may be coming with a special friend.

And at Walton Grizzly Lodge, we do allow bunk requests.

I know some other camps don’t do that, but we understand you may want to be with a friend in the cabin group and we work very very hard to um make that happen for your child.

There’s an online request form and on that online request form, it’s optional, you don’t have to fill it out, you would just list the name of one friend and then be sure that that friend also lists your child.

We accept mutual requests.

So, um it’s very important that we get those mutual requests and making the cabin groups is one of the more difficult assignments because we do want to make them age appropriate of course and balanced with new and old when we can.

We do spend a lot of time making those groups and trying to make them as successful as possible.

I do want you to know that um the way we sign up for our activities, kids can go with campers from other groups.

So, if they don’t have every friend they want in their cabin group, they can certainly spend a lot of their day with friends from other cabins.

Okay, I hope that answers the cabin groups.

Lots of times there’s lots of questions about that.

If you have more questions about that, you can certainly let me know.

I do see one question coming along about, uhoh, group of three, what do we do?

If you have a group of three kids that really want to be together, especially when they’re new, um it’s very hard for us to say I’m sorry. We only accept for pairs. So, we do make an exception for a group of three.

If you have specific questions about group placement that you want to talk to me about, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Um, but just know that we really do our best.

A lot of times the worry about group placements is more to be honest on the parent end and in camp things work out beautifully.

So, um, keep all of that in mind, but if you have specific concerns, um, do contact us.

After that first day of moving in and everybody getting excited, we have a really special evening um, where we spend a lot of time getting to know each other.

So that picture on the right hand side, we gather on the front lawn and um the four of us, the directors tell a story about the history of camp and about mom and pop Walton and how it all started and um the new campers get to hear that story.

After that, we head down to this big beach area and campers in a group, their own group of eight.

You can see that the photo on the left there, spend some time around an individual campfire, and they talk about what they’re looking forward to, what they’re excited about, if anyone has anything they’re nervous about.

The counselor talks about how to make it run smoothly for everybody.

They’re really working on primarily building inclusiveness and promoting kindness to each other.

So that’s what they’re doing at that individual campfire.

You can’t tell, I’m sure, from the picture, but the left picture, the counselor has a paper bear claw cut out and a pencil and it has their group name on it and all the kids are going to sign that.

We’re going to hang it on the banner um just so that they’re kind of symbolizing we’re a group, we’re a team, we belong together.

Um, and that’s a ceremony and a tradition that’s been going on for decades at Walton’s Grizzly Lodge.

After these individual campfires, we come together to the very big campfire as a whole camp.

And my husband, Adam, tells the story about the Bearclaw ceremony.

It’s a beautiful story about people coming together in the summer months and um, spending time together, learning from each other.

Um, and he tells that story in the history of the pow-wow.

And um again, that’s a tradition that’s been going on for decades at Walton’s Grizzly Lodge.

Okay, daily schedule.

This is our daily schedule um that we follow most days.

And um of course, it doesn’t have every single thing that we pack into a full camp day, but I wanted to give you guys an idea of what what the day looks like.

So, we have a um wake up bell at 7:30 in the morning, and of course, that’s when campers wake up.

Then we head down to the flag salute area, the whole camp.

Um, and we line up and different people lead us in the flag salute.

Again, that’s been going on for decades at camp.

We all walk in together then into the um dining hall to have breakfast.

We eat together in our historic lodge for all three of our meals.

Your child will eat with their group and their counselor so they don’t have to wander around looking for a place to sit or a friend to sit by.

Um, meals are served family style, so they’ll get to choose from the platters of food.

And again, there’s always lots and lots of kid-friendly choices.

After breakfast, we all head out of the dining hall and we head over to the announcement area.

Something really special about Walton’s is the way that we um sign up for our activities.

And I’d need an entire webinar just to explain that one to you.

But don’t worry, the kids get it very quickly.

It’s fun and it’s individualized and um we spend time at the signups in this announcement area.

Again, your child will be with their um counselor sitting there and our counselors come down with big fun announcements and exciting announcements about the activity they’re leading and finding out who wants to go and kids raise their hand and get selected.

They don’t always get their first choice.

Most often they will get their first or second.

Sometimes they have to go to their third.

Um, but they will get a first and a second period activity that they sign up for.

This is a really um neat opportunity for camper growth.

The very nature of the way that we sign up sometimes has kids do things they wouldn’t have thought maybe they were going to do.

And they meet kids from other cabin groups.

They can certainly sign up with a friend as well. That’s um fine also.

Okay.

After we have our two activities for the morning, everyone’s picked a first and the second. We all head up to my favorite time of the day.

No, not really.

But it is a fun time because it’s dorm clean up.

And the kids head up to the dorms and they do just that. They clean up.

And honestly, it is so much easier at camp to get kids to clean up the dorms than it is to get them to clean up at home.

I don’t know what it is. It’s just the camp atmosphere.

And they do they clean up their dorms. They get their things all organized.

They have rotating job charts. Everybody pitches in.

It’s also the time where they get ready to go to their first and second period activities.

So clearly if I’m going down to uh stand up paddle boarding, I’m going to get my suit on.

And if I’m going horseback riding, I’m gonna have long pants, that sort of thing.

And everybody puts on sunscreen, of course, because we’re all outside.

Um and everybody gets ready to head off to first and second period when that bell rings.

That bell rings at 9:30.

Campers head to their first period where they whatever they signed up for and then they go to their second period after that.

We all come back 15 minutes prior to lunch in our wreck area and there’s ping pong and horseshoes and tetherball and um we’re all together in the wreck area and then we head into lunch.

After lunch we have our rest period where kids can well of course rest.

They can also play checkers and chat and read and we have some board games and that sort of thing and that’s in their cabin groups.

After that we go back to the announcement area where they choose their third and fourth period activities.

So again, it’s so great because these kids aren’t having to plan their entire day. They’re not having to plan their whole week or sign up in advance.

They’re really learning about designing their own program, what they want to do.

Um, sometimes it takes some kids a couple days to venture out of their comfort zone.

Sometimes all it takes is a friend saying, “Come here with me.”

Or sometimes it’s just a counselor that they really, really want to be with, and they’ll try a new activity.

Um, again, they haven’t committed to things, you know, in the morning for later that day.

So, if the weather changes and they want to change their afternoon, they can do that.

They’re only committing either to first and second or later they’re committing to third and fourth.

And once they’ve committed to that, they don’t wander around camp. They go to those activity periods.

Then we have another um after those activity periods, we have another short recreck time and then dinner.

And after dinner, we have mail call.

And mail call word about that is that Obviously, it’s we call out the mail. Mail calls. Again, another long tradition at camp.

And we call out just the regular stamped mail that comes to the US post office.

The emails that I referred to are handed out to the counselor.

We don’t call those out individually.

So, I wanted you to know that after mail call, everybody changes for the evening.

You may hear your camper leader say, and then we put our wmies on.

It’s one of those camp words that has just gotten stuck um and has stuck and we use.

So, it’s warmmy time and that is because it can get a little cooler in the mountains of course in the evening and so we change and bug spray that sort of thing.

And then campers get to choose one final activity for the evening.

A popular one is capture the flag.

Kids love to fish at this time and there are some big fish that are pulled out of the lake especially during that evening activity time.

Rowing, canoeing, those kinds of things.

When the evening activity ends, we head down most nights to our big campfire, which dorm cleanup isn’t my favorite time of the day, but campfire, it really is.

It is just what you think of when you think of summer camp.

We head down. We’re sitting around this campfire on these logs, big campfire in the middle, stage with the sign, grizzly players, and different cabin groups are assigned to entertain us that evening.

And honestly, I’ve been watching campfires now for a very, very long time. and they’re still terrific.

Nothing like it.

So, campfires and songs and skits, um, every child’s group will get a chance to perform.

And it is really just a terrific way to end our day.

Of course, we end by singing taps and walking up under the stars to go to bed.

And bed bedtime bed clock bedtime is around nine o’clock. It varies a little bit here and there.

Campers are really tired.

So, if any kids are on this call and you were rolling your eyes, I saw it. I didn’t really, but you will be so tired you won’t even mind that bedtime.

Okay.

Communicating while at camp.

Bochi and I handle all the communications. He does the Facebook and I talk on the phone.

No, of course not.

But here’s how you can communicate.

I’ve touched on these, but I want to be clear.

The mail, you can send your child letters. Of course, we’ve gone over the one stamp.

The address is the PO Box 519.

And how much mail?

Well, some parents really have the idea that there has never there’s no such thing as too much mail. And I want to tell you, it’s a balance.

Really, you want your kids to be immersed in camp life, right?

So if they are bombarded and they’re getting mail from every member of their family, two and three pieces every single day and friends and you’ve gone door to door in the neighborhood and told them all the address to write really maybe not doing them any favors because it starts feeling like just this bombardment from home.

So our recommendation is writing them, you know, two, three times a week. I think that’s going to be really hard for you guys, especially of new um campers. It would be very hard for me.

So, it’s okay if you do a little more, but really don’t bombard them.

Same with the email.

This is our first time having c uh campers be able to receive emails.

So, they don’t send email out.

You didn’t send them away to camp to sit at a computer and send an email.

Um, it is, you know, a convenience for you to be able to email them.

It is so easy to jot off an email that we’re hoping again you won’t be bombarding them because it really isn’t in their best interest.

But we do want to make it convenient for you.

And we have this really cool program that you can um use that you’ll see you’ll discover online in your account.

And of course the office, you can call us. You really can.

You’re not going to be one of those parents.

I have a lot of stories about parents that just white knuckled it the whole time their kids were at camp and they are just, you know, exhaling for the first time when they pick up their child.

And I say, “Why didn’t you call? I probably could have just laid that fear right away. So please, please, please, um, our secretary is Debbie. She is fabulous. She can take a great message. We can check on your child and get right back to you. So, um, you know, again, don’t white knuckle it. I would just recommend that you pick up the phone.”

One thing about camp, Debbie, our secretary, is there Monday through Friday, 9 to5.

Um, and we do have someone covering the office on the weekends, and of course, I’m checking in, you know, obviously up until after campfire, 9 or 10 at night usually and first thing in the morning.

Um but all during the evening we aren’t um by the phone checking that.

So if for some reason we have not had this situation, there was some sort of emergency and you had to reach someone in the middle of the night, the Plumis County Sheriff is really the phone number to call and that number is in the handbook too.

Um of course you don’t anticipate any need for that at all, but um in an emergency that is what um you could do.

Okay, your account I showed you earlier, but this is about that checking in and communicating.

So, if you look at your account, that online community email, obviously, that’s where you’re going to email your camper.

The news, we post a blog called the Growl, and that’s a couple times a week with a photo and a in-depth article about something going on at camp.

Photos are posted there.

Now, these are different than just our regular photos on our website.

These photos are specific to the session for your child.

And a word about photos.

I know that you would love to see how many hundred a thousand photos.

And I know there are camps um I I know this because my friends who own these camps tell me that post that number of photos.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it. Um in the mountains where we are, our connection we are not able to do that.

Um it it we just couldn’t time wise. It takes a very very long time for the upload time.

So, we we don’t post a ton of photos.

We do post um you know, our top 10 photos that first week.

We try to get them in in those first few days and definitely by Thursday so that you can see some big group photos hopefully.

And then the second week, the twoe session, we post some more.

So, just know that um it’s because it is um our limited internet in the mountains where we are.

We do send a camp yearbook out in January to every camper with a group photo from every group, every session.

And then lots of candids and photos of special events and and that sort of thing.

So you will get that for all that that memory book of photos.

And of course the other things are pretty um self-explanatory.

Um the credit card for the email and photos that goes through your camp and touch account so that you can you know take advantage of that or not.

You can also create some guest accounts for um family members that may want to send an email or look at photos that sort of thing.

Okay.

I love this photo. every time I look at it because it just well first of all because there’s some of my very very favorite people in it and it’s on an out of camp event a hike there just a beautiful beautiful location look at that snow I don’t think we’re going to have that much this year but such a beautiful place and it reminds me of you know why I can’t wait to get up into the lakes basin area in the mountains that low tech life of being at camp which is kind of funny right because we’re on a webinar so we’re not anti-technology here at Walton’s Grizzly Lodge.

But we do think it is vital, I’m going to use that word kind of extreme, but I do.

I think it’s vital that kids unplug, that they have a time, a place, and a space to lead a low tech life, even if it’s just for a week if they’re there, or two weeks.

So, we don’t allow cell phones in camp.

True story, I do not carry my cell phone in camp. I I leave it in my desk on silent. I just I don’t I don’t walk around with it. um and and it works out just fine.

So, cell phones are not allowed at all.

Our staff doesn’t have them around. The kids don’t.

If your child’s traveling and you want them to have the cell phone for that traveling, maybe they’re going up with a friend or they’re flying in, then they can certainly bring that check it into our office.

We’ll lock it in our safe and give it to them at the end of the session.

We also don’t want them to have their iPods and iPhones and that sort of thing.

They can bring a camera, but not an iPhone that is also their camera or an iPod that’s also their camera.

So, a camera that’s just a camera is fine if they want to take photos.

Um, they can certainly do that.

Um, really important that we maintain this or as long as we can.

Um, for kids, this place, this space. So, help us with that.

Um, really and truly, um, we don’t allow those.

So if there’s an issue, I’ve talked to one mom recently whose child was really um used to falling asleep with their iPod, but they have been practicing, you know, practicing camp life, and so she has, you know, been practicing now falling asleep by reading.

So no electronic devices and not even any e-readers or any of those things because a lot of those have internet capabilities and other things and um content on them that we don’t want to supervise either.

Okay, questions.

We maybe raised more questions than we answered. I don’t know.

I hope that you got a lot of your questions answered.

I hope that this has helped you feel a little more prepared.

Um I hope that um you are able to just be as excited as your child is and know that we are here for you.

be comfortable in sending us a quick email or picking up that phone if you have further questions.

We really want to make this just a smooth um event for you and just one that is just very very exciting and rewarding.

We are excited.

One of the very very best things about our job is the opening day and seeing those new campers and they have been thinking about this and talking to their friends and choosing a camp and they’re finally here and they, you know, most of the time we hear, “Oh, it looks better than it did on the video.” work.

It’s better than my friend told me and and they just got out of the car and it only gets better from there.

So, we are here to help you in any way that we can.

We want you to um be as comfortable with the process.

Um so, there’s the email address.

There’s our phone number.

That’s the phone number for year round. It rings here in our home when um we’re not at camp.

And of course, it rings at camp when we’re there.

And look at that place. We’re going to be there very shortly.

our family moves up the day after um school ends.

So um early June we’ll be up there and we will be getting ready, setting up with our staff, preparing everything.

Of course, we’ve been preparing for nine months, but putting the finishing touches, getting it all ready for your children to have the best best part of their summer spent with us.

So that concludes our webinar.

I am going to um post this recording. I hope I hope I’ve recorded it correctly.

And um I will send out that link to all of our new families.

So you might get that um link even though you’ve been on the live call.

But if you have any other last minute questions, Adam, are there any questions that are left unanswered?

[Music]

I’m going to answer them as they come in and uh it’ll take a couple minutes, but we’re gonna answer them all the next five minutes.

Great.

Adam’s going to stay on the questions there and he is going to answer those.

Um, but I hope this has been helpful for you and um, give us your feedback.

You’re going to get a little email followup asking you to let us know how helpful this webinar was for you.

So, you’ve just participated in history.

That was the Walton’s Grizzly Lodge very first webinar ever.

And that’s kind of a big deal for a very traditional camp 88 years.

We don’t do um, you know, we don’t make a lot of changes too quickly. We like to think keep things traditional.

So, thank you again so much for participating, and I’m going to say good night.