Campers
Camp Monterey began as an eight week residential camp. Because of the change in school schedules and growing demands of sports camps, we now offer options to stay at Camp for shorter periods of time. However, our program continues on the eight week plan and on average a third of our campers come for the whole summer.
We believe that the longer a camper stays at Camp, the greater the opportunity for developing self-esteem and making lifetime friendships. She has more opportunities to explore new activities and master the skills she already has.
Coming to Camp for longer than two weeks alters the whole experience from merely a change in the daily schedule to an opportunity to become totally comfortable in a different kind of environment. Our campers become more at ease living in nature and more appreciative of it the longer they stay. They learn to live without a whole lot of things, particularly television and computers, and they learn that they have resources to make their lives more manageable and more fun!
Living in a cabin with eight other girls, our campers find ways to get along with other people who are different from them. They learn skills that will make the future step to college life easy because they are more at home with themselves and others. They have a better understanding of who they are because they have been in a community setting at summer camp.
As teenagers, a camper who has been with us since she was young feels the same peer pressure that every teenager feels and yearns to be at Camp for as long as possible so she can “be herself” again and be with her friends who bring out the best in her.
Our campers are placed in cabins arranged by Units from the youngest to the oldest. A camper is “promoted” to the next unit according to her grade at school. The “JCs” are our oldest girls who have finished the 10th grade. “J.C.” stands for Junior Counselor. They are leaders in Camp and on their teams; they help with Church Planning and focus on certain activity areas as they prepare to be on staff. When our girls finish the 11th grade, they may come back as counselors-in-training or CITs.
At Camp Monterey, we think of our girls as family and try to make every detail of their camp life count. We enjoy watching our campers move from the youngest cabin to Sr. Camp, to see the self-esteem and skills they develop over the years and watch as they take leadership roles and mentor younger campers.
We want our campers to have opportunities to play in the woods and watch the stars, take a walk and make friends. The importance of unstructured activities is minimized as year-round school and college preparedness loom over even the elementary school child. There’s a different pace at Camp Monterey which we believe gives the child time to discover what she can do and how to get along with others, giving her a sense of who she is and who she may become..
