Catalina Island Camps

Your Child’s First Teacher

Tom Horner — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:30:44 +0000

Parent’s are a child’s first teacher. Camp is also full of positive teachers for children. The counselors who live with them. The instructors at sailing, snorkeling, arts and crafts and every activity in camp. At CIC there are leadership staff who lead all of camp at meals, evening programs and special events. Maria and I are also teachers of the children in camp. Bob Ditter’s article at Bunk1Buzz.com, Your Child’s First Teacher, talks about how parents teach and how camp can add to that.

Camp starts June 18. Register before April 1 and receive our Spring Discount. Call us to talk about camp!

Tom

E(xcellent) Mail

Tom Horner — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:15:51 +0000

We saw this blog over at bunk1buzz.com E(xcellent) Mail and thought it would be a great story to share with CIC camp parents. While it is great to send a handwritten letter, the mail takes 3-4 extra dadays to reach campers. We use bunk1.com one way email so you can send email to your camper. Hopefully these tips from one of my favorite summer camp training authors will be useful when you write to your camper this summer.

Tom and Maria

Summer Camp Makes Kids Resilient

Tom Horner — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:15:25 +0000

New research on summer camps shows that camps are a powerful way to teach children resilency. “Summer camps are places where children get the experiences they need to bolster their range of coping strategies.” The article is compelling and we hope you enjoy Summer Camp Makes Kids Resilient.

Tom and Maria

Camp and 21st Century Skills: Oxymoron or Ideal?

Tom Horner — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:00:12 +0000

As parents, we often wonder if the skills we learned as children and young adults are the same skills our son needs to learn as he starts high school. The world is a different place today than it was 30 years ago. Technology and information have exploded. One thing we know as camp directors is that the need to relate to other people in your family, community and world have not changed. We know that Nick needs to be curious about the world around him. Camp brings him skills that make him a better member of our family, a better student and hopefully a better adult.

Read more about what Peg Smith, CEO of the American Camp Association has to say about Camp and 21st Century Skills: Oxymoron or Ideal?.

Tom and Maria

The Case For Camp

Tom Horner — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:30:22 +0000

Summer camp contributes to the development of young people. The American Camp Association believes camp experiences are more important today than ever. “A quality camp experience provides our children and youth with the opportunity to learn powerful lessons in community, character-building, skill development, and healthy living.” That sounds like a summer at Catalina Island Camps to us! Read The Case For Camp to see for your self.

Tom and Maria

The Search for Summer Camp is On!

Tom Horner — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:36:43 +0000

American Camp Association CEO, Peg Smith recently wrote in USA Today The Search for Summer Camp Is On. At Catalina Island Camps we are in full swing registering campers. Summer may seem a long way off, but the time to research summer camp is now!

Catalina Fox Thrives after a Battle with Extinction

Tom Horner — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:42:08 +0000

Anyone who has visited Catalina Island in the past few years knows that the number of Catalina Fox has grown substantially just by seeing the scat around camp every morning. Many of us will even see a Fox exploring around camp after dark. This link is to an article in the Los Angeles Times about the resurgence of the Catalina Island Fox after becoming nearly extinct a decade ago.

Danny and Becky ride 100 miles for MS

Tom Horner — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:58:51 +0000

Danny Sudman is a full time employee at Catalina Island Camps. He is the Outback Director for summer camp and an Catalina Environmental Leadership Program Assistant Director during the school year. Danny writes about his experience in October riding in the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour 2011.

On the morning of October 22^nd, 2011 Becky Morrow and Danny Sudman, two staff from Catalina Island Camps arrived at the Irvine Transportation Center amongst 2300 cyclists packed into a parking lot awaiting the 7am ceremony to kick off the Bike MS Bay to Bay 2011 Tour. Pinned on the backs of Team Catalina Wheelers were signs which read, “In Honor of Danny’s Dad, Taki’s Mom, and Kelly (a CELP chaperone),” all of whom have been affected by Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and are members of Catalina Island Camps extended family. Through the support of a multitude of businesses, friends and families of riders, and other sponsors this event raised about 1.8 million dollars towards research and the support of the 2.5 million people worldwide affected by this disease.

The 100 mile century challenge route followed Southern California’s scenic coastline to the lunch stop in Oceanside and then inland to North San Diego County’s picturesque backcountry. The challenge of the ride was at times overwhelming, but putting it in the perspective of those who live with this disease everyday was a driving force to push through the aching muscles and saddle sore. Sleep came easy that night from exhaustion and the good feeling of utilizing a passion for cycling to make a positive impact in the lives of others.

For more information about Bike MS or to donate to the National MS Society please visit: Bike MS

What passions and causes can you bring together to impact others?

Sustainable Living Bike Tour

Tom Horner — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:31:46 +0000

The Sustainable Living Bike Tour gives volunteer educators the opportunity to visit students in their home communities and continue the education process where they left off at Howland’s Landing. Many of these educators work the Catalina Environmental Leadership Program (CELP), Catalina Island Camp’s Fall and Spring environmental education program. The message of sustainability and practices at CIC provide a strong focus for the bike tour. Sustainable practices can be implemented into almost all areas of our day to day life. Whether it be what we eat, the way we get around, how we dispose of waste or the health of our community.

The highlights of the 2011 Sustainable Living Bike Tour included:
• Closing the loop through Aquaponics
• Building Compost Bins, Revitalizing School Gardens, and Restoration Projects
• Urban Homesteading
• From Bikes to Biodiesel Workshops

The Sustainable Living Bike Tour continues to grow with the founding of the Catalina Ecology Project, a non-profit organization whose mission is to create educational experiences and provide resources that connect individuals, schools, and communities to natural systems and empower them to live more sustainably.

Please check out the blog to learn more about this year’s bike tour! http://www.sustainablelivingbiketour.blogspot.com

Slater’s European Adventure

Tom Horner — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:06:18 +0000

Slater McArdle is a Sailing Instructor at CIC. He’s from Oceanside, California. He writes about his recent European adventures.

In April of 2010 my aunt was a contender in a national book writing competition called the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. She made me a promise at the time that if she won, she would take me to Ireland. In June of 2010, she won the contest, rising above over 2500 other applicants. That meant the trip was on. It took us a while to pin dates and such. We couldn’t go in winter because it was too cold, and summer wouldn’t work. The rest of the year I was in school. Finally the opportunity came. I decided to take a year off of school, so there was loads of time available. We talked about it and decided to leave a couple weeks after I got home from camp. My aunt put me in charge of planning everything, and as I started planning it the realization suddenly hit me that I was going to be in Ireland for 3 weeks, and I had a year off. I should go to Europe while I was over there. Once I’d made that decision things really got rolling. A little over a year later, our plane touched down in Dublin, Ireland.

Over the next three weeks, I had my first experience in a new country. I was in a new time zone, in a new car, driving on the wrong side of one-lane roads. Besides the fact that Ireland is a civilized country and they speak English, there aren’t too many similarities to Southern California. First of all everything is green. I’ve never seen so many shades of green anywhere. That wasn’t the only green thing though. Renewable energy was huge over there. Wind farms and solar panels were abundant, which was really cool to see. Everybody in Ireland was also really friendly. Even in the really small towns where tourists don’t usually go, people were welcoming and accommodating. The weather in Ireland was probably the one low point. If it wasn’t raining, it was cloudy and windy, and the cold was bone chilling. If you look at the people, the culture, and the history, and the overall beauty of Ireland it was more than worth it. After such a magical time I was more than ready to tackle the rest of Europe.

My first stop was London and it was lots of fun. I was staying in Greenwich, one of the nicer parts of London and with the tube system it was easy to get everywhere. Taking the bus tour of London was one of the best ideas ever. I took a river boat tour of the Thames and got to see London from the water. One thing about London is all the museums are free, so I got to browse there for a while then walk to the nearby Royal Observatory. After that it was time to have dinner and hit a couple pubs before moving onto my next destination.

Next was Amsterdam, and I’d decided to go by train. After making the crossing and changing trains a few times, I was in Europe’s liberal center. During the trek to my hostel, I got to enjoy some of Amsterdam’s beauty in the twilight. The next morning I spent most of the day touring through the canals, and visiting some very old ornate churches. The architecture is quite beautiful in some parts of the city. I hit more churches, a couple coffee shops, a Buddhist temple (the largest one in Europe), and Madame Toussauds. It was hard to tell who was a visitor and who was a famous wax figurine. Once I was done there it was time to pack up, and I figured I should quit while I still had my money and my sanity.

I then arrived in Bad Munstereifel, Germany. Bam, as the locals call it is a tiny little town where a good friend of mine lives. We went and saw an old German castle where people would live for a week at a time in the traditional old style, cruised on the Rhine River, and I got to take a ride on the longest closed race course in Europe in a Lotus sports car. It was sad to leave and say goodbye to my friends, but it was time to press on.

My next destination had to be the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I stayed two nights in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Located in a picturesque valley in the Swiss Alps, Grindelwald was like something right off a postcard. There was plenty to do in the town itself, but the real reason people go there is to explore the surrounding mountains, and that’s exactly what I did. I took a gondola up to 7000 feet, and then hiked up another 2000 feet to a beautiful runoff lake. It was a beautiful sunny day, and even at 9000 feet, it was warm. The views throughout the entire hike were so amazing; it was right up there with the scenery in Yosemite.

My next stop, Rome, was quite the opposite of beautiful sweeping mountain views with nature all around. Over 2000 years old, and home to millions of people, Rome is the definition of a bustling city. There was so much to see. I started off with a bus tour which gave me a lot of great history and background. I saw the Coliseum which looks like a football stadium after a bombing and I saw Palatine Hill. The hill was the site of a massive palace and home to an amazing view of Rome. The next day was Sunday. I went to mass at the Vatican and listened to the Pope rattle on in Latin. My last day there I spent just seeing some of the lesser sights that I had missed the days previous and recharging my batteries for my final stop.

I decided to take a night train for my last ride, to Paris, the city of lights, love, and cheap bread. I met an Australian guy on the train who became my traveling companion for 3 days. We started with the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, felt just like that of the Empire State building just with a different city spread out below. The next day we dedicated entirely to one massive exhibit: The Louvre. It was big, quiet, and the artwork was amazing. The Mona Lisa was much smaller and less spectacular than I thought, but it was still worth seeing. My last day there, my new friend and I took a free walking tour. We got to see a lot and get a lot of history from a great tour guide. He even showed us a 16th Century Facebook! After that we visited Napoleon’s tomb, took some photos then parted ways. That marked the beginning of my trip home. The next day I spent 26 hours getting home, and the entire time I reflected on one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. Europe was incredible and I hope someday I can return.