WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!!!!!!

Gift Certificate is valid for the two week session, June 21 - July 5, 2010 session of Resident Camp for Children entering 3rd - 10th Grade.

VALUE IS $2,600!

Plus, receive a Catalina Island Camp shirt, sweatshirt, hat and water bottle to start your camper off on the right foot!

What is Catalina Island Camps?
The Catalina Island Camps summer camp program is built around our mission and the unique marine and land environments of Howlands Landing.

Boys and girls entering 2nd through 11th grade participate in one to four week sessions. Our program is designed around a two week session and nearly two-thirds of our campers attend for two-weeks or longer.

What is the Camp Philosophy and Mission?
We believe that the summer camp experience develops every child into a better person, a better student and eventually a better adult.

Our mission:

Catalina Island Camps develops life long skills through fun and unique outdoor experiences in a community that cultivates respect for self, others and the environemnt.

As a result of being at camp, each camper will develop:

• A positive identity
• Social skills
• The value of being a contributing member of a positive community
• An appreciation for the natural environment

Campers accomplish these goals by participating in camp activities and being actively involved in camp life. An important part of the CIC experience for every camper is belonging to a cabin group. Cabin groups are the focus of activities, special events and camp life. The cabin group is where campers make friends, help others, share experiences and cooperate in activities.

A cabin counselor and an activity instructor lead and live with each cabin group. Younger camper cabins may also have a Counselor-in-Training as part of the cabin staff. The staff guide and create the camp experience for up to ten campers. Spirit and camaraderie are high as new friendships are made and each part of the day brings new challenges and opportunities for fun and growth.

Who are the Camp Staff?
Catalina Island Camps' staff is dedicated to the safety and growth of each camper. Year after year camp evaluations highlight the importance of staff in a camper's experience. Senior staff members are at least 19 years old or have completed their first year of college. Many of the staff members are college graduates with experience working with children and in camps. All counseling staff is first aid and CPR certified. Waterfront staff is lifeguard trained and all instructors are experienced in camp activities.

Recruiting staff is a major part of our off-season work. Each year we have more applicants than we have jobs because of our attractive location and our returning counselor rate. Staff members are screened carefully by the camp directors for experience, skills, character, personality, and leadership ability. Each candidate completes a thorough application, a two-part interview process, and background check. We contact references to confirm the strengths of each applicant.

The staff arrives one to two weeks before camp for orientation in CIC procedures, policies, camp activities and counseling skills. Our goal is to build a staff team that works together to provide a positive experience for our campers. Throughout orientation, the leadership team focuses staff on the needs and abilities of campers, on how to work with groups and individuals and on how to deal with situations they might encounter during the summer.

What is the history of Catalina Island Camps?
Catalina Island Boys Camp was founded in 1926 by University of Southern California football coach, Gus Henderson, on the former sheep ranch of the Howlands Family. For years, boys came each summer for eight weeks. Catalina Island Girls Camp was a separate camp at another location on the island until the 1970s when the two camps merged to become Catalina Island Camps. Today boys and girls come from the greater Los Angeles area, California, Arizona, Nevada and across the United States, Mexico and other countries for fun and friend-filled summers.

Summer Camp Program

How is the camp program designed?
The Catalina Island Camps program is designed around a two-week session. During the first week of camp, campers have fun while they become comfortable with the facility, people and camp program. During the second week of the session, they grow and have fun through living with others, participating in a positive group process and being part of the camp community. The CIC program blends individual success with group participation.

Our program intentionally gives campers the opportunities to grow and learn new skills as they participate in their cabin group, the camp community and camp activities.

What do the campers do the first week of camp?
During a camper's first week at CIC, activities are scheduled by cabin group to provide an introduction to each activity. There are four 80-minute activity periods each day, two after breakfast and two after lunch. In addition to scheduled activities, campers have time to play sports and relax with their friends. Each day finishes with an evening activity, either with the whole camp together or in smaller, more reflective groups. Campfires, games, movies and dances are some of the highlights of an evening program.

What do campers do the second week of camp?
During a camper's second week at CIC, they choose their own activities and get to know more campers in the larger camp community. Campers start the week on a one night overnight and participate in Badgework Wednesday through Saturday. Campers are still part of their cabin group at meals and during evening programs.

Campers participate in an overnight on Monday and Tuesday of the second week. The 2nd through 5th graders stay in camp (they love being the only ones in camp!) for special overnight activities. The rest of camp goes on one of three or four overnights. Campers select an overnight that matches their interest based on location, program and type and length of hike. Campers sleep under the stars, help prepare meals, learn Leave No Trace outdoor ethics and get to know campers from other cabins. Hikes range from 3 miles to 15 miles. Four-week campers have the option of a day trip to Avalon instead of a second overnight.

On Wednesday campers begin their Badgework. Campers give their five top choices for activities to their counselors who create a schedule for each to include as many of those activities as possible. The two-week session culminates on Sunday with the Awards Banquet where campers are recognized for Stars and Award Burgees and closing campfire with many great CIC traditions.

What is Badgework?
Badgework is an opportunity for skill development in specific activities. It is also a time where boys and girls of all ages come together to do activities, increasing their circle of friends at camp. Badgework activities include sailing, skin diving, water-skiing, wakeboarding and kneeboarding, kayaking, climbing, ropes course, archery, gardening, tide pooling, riflery and photo journalism.

Each activity has four levels of skill development (white, red, blue and gold). Campers earn stars as they develop new skills in each activity. Campers can place their stars on their “CIC Year Pennant” (a triangular flag) they receive for each year they attend camp. As campers earn more stars they are awarded "CIC Award Burgees" (a two pointed flag). CIC Year Pennants and Award Burgees are suitable for flying on a flagpole or hanging on a bedroom wall. Hung together, Year Pennants and Award Burgees create a history of the camper's years at CIC.

What if a camper doesn't want to participate in an activity?
At Catalina Island Camps we use the philosophy of Challenge by Choice. While we hope that the activities at camp will be exciting to all campers, our experience is that some campers have hesitation towards one or more camp activities. During staff orientation camp staff is given many tools for encouraging campers to participate in activities.

Campers are never forced to participate in camp activities. We do have a minimum standard of participation for all camp activities, which includes putting on any equipment used for the activity and following the basic instructions of the instructors. Usually, through positive encouragement and preparation to participate, campers will try an activity. Our instructors are trained to allow a child the option to not participate if the camper has gone through the minimum standards of participation.

What do you teach about the environment?
Catalina Island is a fantastic place to develop an appreciation of the natural environment. Our nature program focuses campers' attention on the unique ecosystem of Howlands Landing. We stress the connections between plants and animals and the relationship between humans and the environment and our need to be stewards to preserve our special place in the world. Campers also participate in composting and the vegetable and native plant garden.

Our relationship with Jean-Michel Cousteau and the Ocean Futures Society has brought to CIC the years of experience and knowledge of one of the world's leading supporters of the ocean environment. Catalina Island Camps school year Catalina Environemntal Leadership Program is part of the Ocean Futures Ambassadors of the Environment (www.aote.org) Together, Ocean Futures and CIC are working to open eyes to the secret world of the ocean, so that the next generation will protect this precious resource.

Catalina Island Camps also teaches campers to use daily practices to reduce, reuse and recycle. Living on an island, we are acutely aware of what materials we bring into camp and what trash we ship back to the mainland to go into landfills, what resources we use on the island and what efforts we can use to minimize our ecological footprint.

Pleaes email jackie_chs@hotmail.com if you would like to view the DVD that outines the exciting details of this fabulous camp!

Click here for more information:

http://www.catalinaislandcamps.com/