Center of the Camp Action!
Go to almost any summer camp in America, and you’ll notice something about the way they are laid out.
The camp office sits close to the entrance, somewhat removed from the program area. This is by design. It’s the first stop on the drive from the road for every family or staff member. Makes sense.
Camp Twin Creeks? Nope.
Our camp office isn’t on the edge like Tatooine on the Outer Rim. Not some pit stop on the way to the heart of the Galaxy.
Anything but. It sits almost dead center in the middle of the action. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Twenty-five summers into this Twin Creeks journey (can we even call it a journey anymore? What’s a better word? Help me out, people!), and I can tell you one thing: the placement of the camp office might be one of the very best camp advantages we have going.
In fact, if I were designing a new camp from scratch, I would insist to the fancy architect that the office sit right in the middle!
After that, I would insist on a working Flux Capacitor by the door because who wouldn’t want the option to time-travel as an activity to next summer? But that’s a dream for a different day.
The camp office is the physical and cultural hub of Camp Twin Creeks. Sit there each day during the summer, and one need only look out from a swivel chair (it helps to be able to spin) to see, well, everything:
Cabins
Theater
Archery
Basketball
Dining hall
Totem Pole
Swimming pool
Our legendary Minnehaha Spring
And even the stables, if you really squint.
Some camp directors might not love this placement. It’s full of “distractions,” especially when summer is in full force, and believe me, Twin Creeks is a literal hub of movement, activity, and noise.
But the way I see it, there’s no better place to be. It’s the center of the action. The office doesn’t provide energy to the camp (it’s just an office), but it acts as a place to begin each day, knowing that a few steps in any direction will land me in the heart of the middle of something amazing.
Because from this spot at Twin Creeks, you can see and feel the energy that comes from the activities, bunks, games, and fields.
But you also see something else. The moments happening each and every day in each and every one of those spots.
Without getting too much into a typical day at Twin Creeks (which we will get into in the coming weeks for sure), know that sitting in the middle of camp allows you to see all kinds of moments in real time.
Things like:
The Friendships that start from trading jokes by the archery field.
The Resilience from tidying a messy cabin for an 8-year-old boy!
The Confidence from making a new friend and playing cards together at Rest Hour
The Curiosity from trying a new food at lunch
And there’s so much more happening elsewhere, you need only to walk a few yards to see it.
This is the real stuff. And it’s going down from sunrise to well beyond sunset. This is what kids walk away with. The activities are just the conduits.
Not the Heart, The Lookout Tower
Working at a summer camp means a full commitment to understanding everything about not only the day-to-day, but also the year-to-year growth happening. This office vantage point has allowed me to see that as well.
A full-of-himself camp director (not me!!) might call the office the HEART of the camp, the beating energy hub. Or the village hearth, where warmth emanates. Eyes roll. No, this is more the lookout tower, the perch from which we can watch camp life unfold.
Twin Creeks has always been an immersive, disconnected from the outside world haven, an increasingly rare spot these days. And because of that, it’s even more important to sit in a metaphorical and literal swivel chair, seeing everything buzzing. It means having a quiet vantage point to see the camp world.
It means understanding how things are working. It means getting to places quickly. It places us in the action. Next time, I’ll take us on a stroll through a typical day in Twin Creeks (and you can watch me put on my infamous and very large white Crocs). It all starts from this spot at camp.
The key to understanding any place is to sit in the center of it. I’ve been blessed to be able to start each morning from this point, walking in larger and larger circles out to see the true world-shifting moments happening with kids each and every day.
There’s no hiding here. And who would ever want to? Sitting at the center of camp means seeing one of the coolest places in the world playing out in real time for weeks on end, every single summer.
Next time you visit, pull up my swivel chair. Maybe not to talk camp, but to watch it unfold.
Because this is the best seat in the house.
