We are a very enthusiastic Kupugani family with 5 years of camp experience. This summer we sent our shy and sensitive son for his first Kupugani Boy's camp experience. We had the memory of sending his confident and outgoing sister to her first year at Kupugani Girl's camp four years prior. Like his sister, he LOVED every minute of camp and immediately was looking forward to returning next summer. Kupugani has been an important annual touchstone for our daughter and looks to be headed in the same direction for our son: a place to reconnect with special camp friends (including wonderful camp director/owner couple, Kevin and Natasha), make interesting new friends from around the globe, and experience a positive, multicultural environment.
Kupugani features a full-range of classic camp experiences including pretty scenery with a stream and boating "lake," archery, swimming, canoeing, fishing, arts and crafts, rock climbing, playing fields, lots of great camp songs, daily outdoor games, wildlife, stars, night owls and morning birdsong.
Kupugani programming is rooted in the crucially important developmental activities of experiential play, diversity, and direct interpersonal interaction. Activities are structured by gentle and wise boundaries, emphasizing independent exploration and experience, but incorporating a range of "team building" activities that are kinetic, interactional, and just plain fun for the kids. For example, working with cabin-mates to organize inline by age and height, all while remaining balanced on log. Kupugani is also "intentionally" multicultural and, for example, each year features a "show and tell" where each camper may share an object or story that represents something they value about their identity. With the camp staff, ownership, and camper community representing a broad and diverse global community, Kupugani supports and celebrates inclusion.
Mealtimes at Kupugani feature balanced, simple, and generally tasty fare. For breakfast, there is always a main dish (pancakes, bagels, scrambled eggs, french toast, sausage links, etc.) as well as a bowl of fresh fruit and a cereal. Similarly, lunch and dinner include a main dish option (chicken, hamburgers, grilled cheese, vege and meat sandwiches, spaghetti, pizza, etc.) and salad, cooked and raw vegetables, and fresh fruit. Kupugani is a wooded enclave within a broader farming region and has a small, of-site farm plot where they raise some of the fruit and vegetables that make it to the table each day. For hunger between meals, an apple or a banana is always available. Both of my kids departed for camp, and returned home, well nourished and satisfied.
This year, I heard another camper giving a glowing narrative of a food related "camptivity" (campers each day choose some of the activities in which they'd like to participate by selecting a "camptivity"). "Cooking with 'Tash" involved baking cookies in the big, camp kitchen alongside camp co-owner/director (and school year elementary school teacher) Natasha, the sweetest, gentlest, and most supportive camp director you could hope to encounter.
The camp "cabins" are a bit fancier than those I experienced when I was a child attending a range of camps, but with similarly simple and rustic bunk-bed arrangement: geared to getting a good night's rest so as to be ready to hit the outdoors and join the main daily "camptivities." Bathrooms are close to the cabins (maybe 20 to 60 feet away, depending on the cabin) and far fancier than the latrines and cold water showers of my childhood-- the water is hot, the toilets flush, and the shower-stalls walled and curtained. The always well illuminated bathrooms are easy to find at night.
My daughter has enjoyed four years of Kupugani and my son looks forward to his second year. At pick-up this year, I was impressed as campers ranging from 8 years to mid-teens seemed genuinely moved and positively impacted by two weeks of Camp Kupugani experience. read more
