As kids grow into teens, as teens grow into adults and as adults grow older, a funny thing happens: time goes by faster and faster. In the blink of an eye, you can think about your 10th birthday party, your first day at school, high school, college, graduation, your wedding, having children, even the birth of your grandkids. The circle of life. Camp, perhaps, is one place that mirrors the circle of life with even greater speed. But while the days and nights fly by, the memories linger and last forever.

Who can’t remember stepping off the plane or bus into your camp director’s waiting arms? Meeting your counselor for the first time? Feeling the warmth of security and the familiarity of a hug, high five or a fist-bump. Then you meet your cabinmates, Campus Leaders and more friends in your age group. Your camp circle grows, your friends increase, you branch out and try new things, meet new people, eat new foods. You experiment.

Then there’s the routine we settle into. The A and B Days. The special events and S Day Trips. Overnight Camping Trips, Intercamps and Theatre Shows. Camp Brother and Sister activities. Quest and College Days.

Before you know it, we’re at the Final Ceremony. And just like that, in the blink of an eye — it’s over.  But there’s one thing that never leaves us: our memories.

While camp comes and goes by so fast — we always have the stories, shared experiences and dreams of camp forever. Our memories. They’ll always be with us and we will cherish them forever.

THANK YOU to all our campers, counselors, staff and families for being part of the Camp Laurel community this summer.

It was an amazing season on the east shore of Echo Lake.

Have a wonderful fall and keep in close touch.

We miss you already!

After five days of spirit, games, meets, tournaments, cheers, songs, contests and regattas — College Days came to an end today. All the Super Seniors and Staff Captains led us through an amazing array of program and activity, and after the unbelievable Float, Song and Plaque Presentation, we announced the winner and then quickly came together as one big, camp family.

It was an incredible College Days 2015. Not only in that it was closely contested throughout, but also because we witnessed enthusiasm, sportsmanship and camaraderie from the youngest Frosh to the oldest Super Senior. Everyone participated and everyone contributed.

We’re now back as one camp — ready to spend the next 60 hours together as we enjoy each others company and start to wind down the summer of 2015. We have a relaxing Rec Day followed by final evening activities, Reprise, Highlights, Steak and Lobster Banquet and, of course, Final Ceremony.

It’s almost over… but there’s still precious time to cherish and savor every moment.

After an incredible 6 weeks of camp, College Days broke today. There was a Tailgate Party followed by a gourmet Picnic Lunch, and then a Parade of decorated dump-trucks and a big White Trolly followed by an incredible Fireworks Show on the Lacrosse Field signifying the start of five days of our summer-culminating event. The camp is now broken into two teams: The University of Missouri Tigers and The Texas A&M Aggies. It will be an incredible week!

Throughout the week, there’ll be sports, games, contests, songs, cheers and spirit galore. There’ll be Chaos, Rope Burn, Tug O’ War and Keith Says. We’ll fight hard, win with pride and dignity, and lose gracefully. There’ll be opportunities for all our Super Seniors to exhibit the leadership skills they’ve honed all summer. And there’ll, of course, be boatloads of fun!

We’ll keep you posted on the events and progress of the week ahead! Go Aggies! Go Tigers!

At camp, campers often get scrapes, bumps and bruises. Sometimes they get sick for a day or two, or even three. Sometimes they fall off a wakeboard and hit their head. Sometimes they even break a finger, an arm or a leg.

Camp is far and away the safest place for these things to happen to children. Because children are away from home for seven weeks, they adapt and learn the skills needed to deal with relatively minor adversities of life. Of course, they do this with the warm and thoughtful assistance of caring adults.

When children at camp face a bit of diversity, the adults at camp – Counselors, Campus Leaders, Head Counselors, Department Heads, Directors – are all here to pick them up, hone their adaptation skills and ultimately move on.

What better place to learn to handle the trials and tribulations of daily life is there than camp? We can’t think of any.

From Basketball Intercamps to Rehearsals for Annie, Tennis Tournaments to Camping Trips all over Maine and New Hampshire, Fitness to Equestrian, S Day Bumpertubing to Extended Trips in Montreal, Boston and Sunday River…it was a busy week!

We built-in some sleep-ins because after five weeks, everyone’s getting a little bit tired. But we still have two weeks of fun, surprises and excitement to go, and we cant wait!!

It will be great to have our whole camp family back together on Sunday when the Super Seniors return from their seven-day trip. We have a busy week ahead: Annie, Home Run Derby, Movie-Under-the-Stars, Arena Dodgeball, All Day Boys Basketball Tournament at Camp All Star, Bec Flashback Friday, Cabin Campfires…and so much more. We’re also so psyched for Lake Swim, Sports Night Championships, U-12 Boys Lax Tournament, and trips to Swan Island and Belgrade Lakes. Lets not forget “Feel Like A Pot” Day at Ceramics and, of course, the annual Ping Pong / Pop A Shot Derby.

We’re gonna have an amazing weekend…and we wish you the same!

After a busy visiting weekend, we made the turn to the back nine and there’s still plenty to do. Our Bec and Bago campers are having a blast traveling all over Boston, Montreal, Ogunquit, North Conway and Sunday River. Intercamps, Overnight Camping Trips, Tournaments, Radio Shows and “Annie” Rehearsals are all in full swing. And, of course, our younger campers love having “camp to themselves” this week while the Extended Trips are out.

We wish you had the opportunity to fly over camp and see what was happening in Readfield. The activities, sports and program are in high gear as you likely witnessed on Visiting Day. But what’s best are the relationships — both camper-to-camper and camper-to-counselor — that have developed over the past five weeks. Relationships and friendships that will last a lifetime. Some are subtle and will sprout over time. Others are in high gear. Either way, in their own way, each child feels safe, connected and comfortable. Each camper has adapted to camp life and is engaged in his or her own way. 

The next two-and-a-half weeks will be filled with 1000 things to do. Tennis players, waterskiers, basketball players, dancers, lax players, ceramacists and equestrians will all get better at their skill.  But regardless of anyone’s interest and proficiency level in a program, the most important thing is that everyone will grow from the relationships they have nurtured during their time on Echo Lake.

We are just mid-way through the summer, but there’s much to do. We still have mountains to climb, rivers to cross, lines and lyrics to learn, wakes to jump and goals to score. We’re going full force in our routine and look forward to continuing to master our skills, learning how to live with each other and most importantly, we look forward to having more fun.

Living in a cabin with a group of friends and counselors for seven weeks — with hardly any privacy — is not always easy. We learn to share and to compromise. We learn to give a lot and to take a little.  We learn how to cope. These are all great skills we will put to use in all our relationships: at home, with our family, at school, in college, at work and beyond.

Our days are filled with fun and frivolity. Our nights, with memories that will last a lifetime.

We look forward to seeing our families this weekend…and to spending the next three-and-a-half weeks together. There’s still lots to do!

Today marks the end of Week #3 at camp. We’ve been in a great rhythm at camp and cabin groups, program areas, campers and counselors are running on all cylinders.

Every morning, before anyone is up (except the breakfast chefs), Jem and Debbie meet with the Head Counselors, Campus Leaders and Program Directors to review the day ahead. We have an incredibly structured and complex program at Camp Laurel, and this 40 minute meeting gives us the opportunity to refine the day based on many different factors. Even though the daily program is set, there’s always a degree of spontaneity based on how the camp “feels.” Are campers and counselors rarin’ to go full speed… or, because we’ve had almost three full weeks without any weather delay…. do we need a late wake-up? Do the U-12 boys need an extra baseball intercamp, or do the Baxter girls need another round of bumper tubing? Do Super seniors want their next trip to Boothbay… or, should we try Old Orchard Beach? All of these questions (and so many more) are pondered as we put the very best, most exciting and most interesting program together for every camper.

After the program section of the meeting concludes, we break up into Boys Campuses and Girls Campuses and each Head Counlselor (Jon, Claire and Joie) meets with either Jem, Debbie and Peter to review each cabin group. We talk about cabin dynamics, camper interactions, staff interactions and make adjustments to ensure every child is getting the maximum experience possible.

There is a lot of structure at Camp Laurel, but we are not so set in our ways as to not open our eyes to adjustment, change and flexibility. Great traits to make an incredible summer and great traits for our campers to emulate in the outside world.

At the all-camp Staff Meeting last night after Carnival, Jem and Debbie spoke with the counselors about camp being a marathon and not a sprint. They talked about pacing themselves, making sure they take good care of themselves and making the very most out of their experience at Camp Laurel. In the blink of an eye, it will be College Days and the end of the summer. So, we want everyone to “Take Advantage.”

The week gone by was awesome: we had Trips, Intercamps, Tournaments, Golf Plus, Carnival and so much more. We had 6th Period Specials, Matball Tourneys, Home Run Derbies and an amazing Camp Sister and Brother campfire. We created incredible delectables in Chefcamp…made masterful projects in Ceramics and Metals…and the Acadians and Apaches made hilarious paper penguins in Crafts. We worked on our pitching in baseball, hitting in softball, free throws in basketball and penalty kicks in Soccer. We tried to improve our form in tennis, better our balance in Gymnastics and control our breathing and strokes at Swimming. We loved Bumpertubing, Skiing, Wakeboarding and Wakesurfing behind our fleet of 5 Mastercrafts.

Senior Bec and Bago campers leave this afternoon for their whitewater rafting trip down the Kennebec River and the Ospreys and Eagles are at Alliquippa for Cabin Campfires. Baxter girls are going to Lake St. George and Sequoia boys are off to Rangeley Lakes.

While we want the staff to take advantage, we of course want the campers to take advantage too. Take advantage of this great thing we call CAMP!!