Camp Mail! Writing your Campers, Out-going (before THEY go!)

Camp Mail

Yay for "Low-tech" camps!  They make room for letters.

I hate to admit it...but I forgot to write my 14year old son who has already gone to two camps this summer! Arrrrgghhh!  Thankfully , one of my daughters wrote not once...but twice to him.  Yay!  Someone around here is on the ball.  Really.  Camps seem to spring up like weeds.  In two days I will be off to camp in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with my 10 year old daughter--she, as a camper, myself as a counselor.  My 12 year old son will be off to NC  in the Sauratown Mountain range (also called the mountains away from the mountains), incidentally, we will be departing on the same day.

One thing about writing campers is the necessity of THINKING ahead!  All of the camps that my children attend are rather short...only one week or less, so this does not allow for any dilly-dallying or shilly- shallying around.  In fact, I sometimes mail my letter the day BEFORE they leave for camp, this makes for mail in the camper's hands hopefully before the last day of camp (when they are picked up!).

Camp letters are usually short, just a note to inform them of the mundane  insanity at home they are missing and to let them know they are missed...and loved.  I have sent many a packages  in the past, but have, in recent years, resorted  mainly to the simple letter. I do try to jazz it up with mail art... the sillier the better. Sometimes, getting a bit devious, I might put on the envelope:  "make the recipient sing a song on receipt" or, "perform 10 push ups"...ha, ha.  Your kids will love you.

Out-Going Camp Mail  (going out, even before they leave home!)

 

I told you, it would be silly...

 

The back side is silly too...

 

 

 

Ruthann's is all sweetness and all about making friends at camp!

 

 

She's going to love this and wonder how I sent it...if I am AT camp with her!

 

 

My (now 21 year old) daughter  Maddie, was a crafty one.  She knew it was "super cool" to receive mail at camp, and  she determined to get LOTS of it.  Here was her plan: The Sunday before she left for camp, she typed up the address of the camp with her name and a brief plea  to write her...and then proceeded to hand out these slips of paper to everyone at our church!  And do you know what?  It worked.  She always got tons of mail.  I'm sure she just slyly smiled each and every day when they had  "mail call" ...and called her name--over and over.  And of course, those dear ladies at our chapel not only wrote her...they also tucked in a "bit of encouragement" for her into their letters.  That made Maddie smile all the more each day as she trekked to the Snack Shack and spent her "encouragement".

One camp we send our children to encourages letter writing  by the campers.  Before they have lunch the first full day of camp, they must have a letter written to home!  How about that?   In the camp brochure, they are told to bring a stamp, envelope and paper.  Don't you love this?

Well, I must end this post and go DO what I am writing about!  I have to get two camp letters out by tomorrow's post.  Don't forget your campers (like I have already this summer) and plan ahead.

Write Letters
Write Often,

Lady Pamela