Tuesday began a little earlier than usual for Gretchen and Gardner who were up at the crack of dawn to travel over Caesar’s head and down the mountain to Greenville where they joined a few hundred camp comrades for the American Camp Association Southeastern Conference. Back home, Lindsey, Dave, and Laurie manned the office and continued to fine tune camper enrollment.
The conference covered topics such as staff training and activity planning, to legal and cultural implications in the camp setting. Talk about a montage of information! In light of Illahee’s upcoming (in 2020) 100-year anniversary reunion, Gretchen gleaned some ideas from Illahee Alum herself, Kim Aycock, during her workshop on planning great camp reunions. Gretchen is working on developing the alumnae portion of our website and it will unfold as we lead up to our centennial year. We are sure to have a spectacular birthday celebration for our heavenly home.
Gardner participated in a highly interactive (especially for 8 am) session on “Finding the Spark” in campers. This was a great reminder of the power and impact of camp. Both Gretchen and Gardner left the conference with lots of excitement for next summer. There is nothing like spending a day with people who share one common and AMAZING thing- a passion for camp. We can’t wait to fill you in on our upcoming plans and projects for summer 2017-the Best Summer Ever!