Last week marked the end of our overnight camps for the summer, while this is the last week for Lake Stockwell Day Camp. Over the course of the summer, thousands of campers came to our camps and we can say it was an eventful summer! In late June, we were hit by that massive storm and the camps came together wherein nearly one hundred staff members and volunteers came to help with the massive cleanup. We had old staff, returning staff, first year staff, and volunteers arrived to all help get camp ready for the next day. The overnight camps did not miss a beat by having a slumber party that night in their dining halls.
The boy’s overnight camp, Ockanickon, and the girl’s overnight camp, Matollionequay each had a great summer! During Session 2, they held their 1st Annual Ancient Olympic Games where the four teams: Athena, Artemis, Poseidon and Apollo, competed to win.
Team Artemis won!
A few days later, the overnight camps celebrated July 4th by having their own festival and their own private fireworks show. Session 3 brought about the 2nd Annual Matolly vs Ocky special event.
This year, Ocky won!
Then, in Session 4, Ocky and Matolly had their annual legendary Color Wars special event. After an intense competition there could only be one victor and…
Team Black won!
It was a great summer for the overnight camps, and it was also an eventful summer for the day camp. This year, Lake Stockwell celebrated their 25th anniversary since its opening in 1990. On top of that, they had one of their biggest summers ever by having nearly 500 campers in one session! They also continued to have their competition weeks throughout the summer. In Session 3, Gryffindor triumphed over Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw during Harry Potter week. In Session 5, England pulled ahead over U.S.A., Spain, and Ireland in Olympic Week. Lastly in Session 8, Stockwell had its own Color Wars which lasted an entire week. Between the four teams, Team Red beat the three other teams: Blue, Yellow, and Green.
Throughout the summer, we worked to instill our four core values of honesty, caring, respect and responsibility. We hope our campers and counselors take all the lessons they learned and use them the rest of their lives! We also wanted to take the chance to thank all of counselors for working at camp this summer. Each year, our staff arrive to maintain the culture that camp creates through their hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm. We would also like to thank the campers, the camp families and all of our donors for making this summer possible. Without the continuous support of our staff and the community, YMCA Camp Ockanickon, Inc. would not have the chance to instill the four core values and create lifelong memories and friends among our campers and counselors. We hope to see you throughout the year at our various events, but we can’t wait to see you next summer!