Why Camp Nor’wester
The Nor’wester experience
Established in 1935, Camp Nor’wester is an overnight summer camp for campers of all genders, ages 9-16. Our goal is to provide a safe and beautiful setting where campers can learn more about themselves, their strengths and talents. Any great camp will provide campers and staff alike with a positive and memorable experience, but how we accomplish this is a bit different than many camps today.
Why Nor’wester?
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Our activities are designed to teach traditional camping and outdoor skills, waterfront skills including sailing, canoeing, and kayaking, as well as biking, archery, arts and crafts, singing and drama.
All aspects of the program are supported by a strong ethic of stewardship with an emphasis on community living.
We strive to minimize the distractions often found in the “real-world” and maximize everyone’s exposure to a more basic way of living.
While not primitive, we are rustic—we use outhouses vs. flush toilets, build wood fires to heat water for our showers, live in tipis and tents, learn how to build tarp shelters, dig pit latrines, start one-match fires, give up electronic gadgets, email and the internet.
Basically, we ‘unplug’ for the summer and learn to live without some modern day conveniences and without many distractions of our often times hectic modern life.
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Another unique element to our program is our Unit System – campers are grouped by grade level into living groups called “Units”. The Unit provides a support system for individuals throughout the four-week session. Campers participate in most daily activities as a unit, so the opportunity to learn, experience challenge and succeed together becomes the foundation for individual growth.
The unit is supervised by two Unit Leaders, who participate with the campers in their activities. The responsibilities of these staff are to support each individual camper and the building of the unit group. In addition to our program activities, Unit Leaders will also facilitate group discussions and team-building opportunities with the intent to build a strong, cohesive, fun unit, which can then be the foundation of support for each individual camper.
This structure promotes an intensive group living experience. While campers try new activities or improve their skills in familiar areas they are also learning to live together. A good portion of our work is focused on giving support and guidance to our campers through the conflicts and issues that naturally arise out of such an environment. This requires compassionate and competent leadership.
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The four-week experience is a cornerstone of what Nor’wester has been offering for decades. While not unusual on the east coast, our session length is considered a large commitment by many families. For us it supports our focus on group living and community.
While it may not be a fit for all campers and their families, we have found that the growth and development that can occur within the 28-day arc can quite simply be eye-opening and life-changing.
It supports our intentional focus on group living and community and both gives time and provides space for personal growth to occur.
We believe that group development follows a natural progression which can only be fully realized with an extended residential program and are proud to have been offering this vehicle of experience for over 80 years.
For Financial Aid Information, including our Indigenous Campership Award, please visit our Financial Aid Page.
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The Directors work diligently to hire seasonal staff members with the experience and skills necessary to implement the Nor’wester philosophy.
This means looking for individuals who are not only talented in specific department areas but who also understand the impact they will have on the campers with whom they spend the summer.
Through our interview process, we target staff who demonstrate that they know what it means to engage campers, whose instincts are to plan activities WITH them rather than FOR them.
We seek staff members who are committed to our mission and to the camper experience, above their own experience or benefit.
Nor’wester’s summer staff of approximately 90, most of them college students and recent graduates, provide leadership to a maximum of 170 campers, with a supervision ratio of 1:3.
Unit Staff, as “parents” for the unit, are responsible for planning and scheduling the daily activities of their campers, while Department Staff provide specialized instruction in their area of expertise.
Medical personnel reside on property and are available on a 24-hour basis. Background checks are conducted on all staff. At least three reference checks are conducted on new hires, in addition to an extensive application and interview process.
Generally, about half of our staff each year are returning to work again after a previous summer or more, and some two-thirds are past campers, providing for the continual passing on of camp culture and philosophy, while also allowing for sharing of new ideas and improvements.
The Value of Nor’wester
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The value of the Camp Nor’wester experience lies not only in our beautiful island setting, intentional staff mentoring, a palette full of engaging activities and burgeoning relationships formed under the umbrella of a unique four-week experience. The value lives in the very thread that sews together all of these essential elements to create a meaningful and timeless experience that can be held in heart and memory for years to come. This thread is personal growth. Self-awareness, the building of character and unique competencies, accountability to community and self, the ability to be present and involved, and the ultimate servant leadership – being able to transfer wisdom and experience from one’s head and heart to give to others – these are the components that make up the thread that weaves our experiences together, not only at camp but throughout our lives.
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With a solid foundation of establishing a personal growth mindset at Nor’wester, campers and staff members are poised for other experiences away from home, collaboration skills and an increased capacity for resiliency. While we cannot teach empathy, patience, tolerance, love – we can provide a venue for the opportunity to experience these feelings and qualities and then name them and talk about them in a supportive environment.
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Camps are essential partners with schools and families in providing these 21st Century Skills for our future generation. Nor’wester takes an innovative approach through all of our activities and group living experiences to help campers learn and practice these tenets experientially and in the embrace of a caring community. It’s been said that having a sense of awe, relationship with nature and openness to new experiences are better predictors of creativity than your IQ. We are honored to be supporting the development of our youth for future creative problem solving in our world.
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Grit is the sustained passion and perseverance through challenges and experiences that helps in establishing long-term goals. So how does Nor’wester help nurture the grit factor in our campers and staff?
By providing the experience, debrief and completion of our 4-week program
By supporting the forming of friendships, some challenging and some fluid (and equally compelling, participating in closure – having the ability to say good-bye and express desire to maintain connection)
By providing a rustic setting where they can not only survive, but thrive – without modern amenities, close proximity to family, and tech devices
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And, with each step of the camp experience, sometimes building on many years of camp adventures, campers and staff move closer toward life-shaping practices in time management, healthy habits, relationships, community equity consciousness, spontaneity and fun, and the ability to recognize and celebrate the sense of wonder and stewardship that comes with living in nature. We hope that attending Camp Nor’wester for four weeks will have far-reaching effects on our campers, extending well into the future. With the skills campers learn, the personal growth that can take place, and the friendships that are made, who knows where they will go or what they will do, but they have the potential to make the world a little brighter.
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The American Camp Association is currently conducting a research study on the impact a camp experience has on young people. Just released in November 2017, the following are some preliminary results from this research. These are the top responses to questions asked of current staff members who were former campers at camps across the United States:
“Looking back on your experience, what did you learn that was most distinct from what you learned in other settings?”
- Relationship Skills
- Self-Identity
- Appreciation for Diversity
- Independence
“Of what you learned at camp, what is most important in your life today?”
- Relationship Skills
- Teamwork
- Self-Identity
- Appreciation for Diversity
“Of what you learned at camp, what do you now use most in school?”
- Relationship Skills
- How to Live with Peers
- Self-Confidence
- Organization
“Of what you learned at camp, what do you now use most in jobs you’ve had?”
- Relationship Skills
- Teamwork
- Emotion Regulation
- Responsibility
Nor’wester is a proud member of the ACA. We see these results happening every summer at camp and take our work to create opportunities for growth seriously. Children can learn many things at camp, and many of those things are carried forward into their adult lives. Check out more perspectives from the ACA on their website’s Because of Camp page.
"You spend a month in one of the most breath-taking places on the planet, making bonds with new groups of people from lots of different backgrounds." - Camper, Age 16
"You spend a month in one of the most breath-taking places on the planet, making bonds with new groups of people from lots of different backgrounds." - Camper, Age 16
