The Sari Diaries- Sunday 6/21/15

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

In just under 18 hours, the summer will officially be under way. As I sit in my office on the final night of pre-camp, it is difficult to put into words the immense excitement that I am feeling. Since August 9th of last year, we have been reflecting, idea-sharing and planning in an effort to create an even more magical summer in Chippyland. While #CRC2014 was out of this world, I am feeling confident and optimistic that #TheRanch2015 will in fact be the best summer yet.

This morning, for our final pre-camp session, we discussed what we call “soft skills.” From my perspective, the growth of our campers’ soft skills is the essence of the Chippewa program. While learning to waterski, climb the wall and horseback ride are all a lot of fun, Chippewa is more than a place to learn how to do activities. It is a place where we want our staff to be intentional about helping our campers to learn resilience, grit, leadership, sportsmanship, determination and so many other skills that are essential to leading a successful life. The dialogue among our staff on this topic proved that we are ready for the campers to arrive…as a group, we understand the responsibility we have taken on and are looking forward to caring for the Chippewa campers this summer. We ended the meeting with a video that Cliff put together with clips from different Chippy parents describing their hopes and worries for their campers. There was barely a dry eye in the entire theater and it was a perfect way to end an amazing week.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the entire staff. This week has been incredible and the effort that each and every member of this team put in is astonishing. As I have been saying all week, this is a truly special group of mostly young adults that I am so lucky to work with. I am thanking all 109 of them for their hard work and dedication through pre-camp and in advance for all of the blood, sweat and tears that they will inevitably give throughout the summer as they dedicate the next eight weeks to the Chippewa campers.

And that’s it for now…the next time I write to all of you, I will be telling you about what is sure to be an unbelievable first day of camp. Thanks for reading tonight- enjoy your evening!

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari