Guest Contributor: CAMP HARBOR Director, Seth Fangboner

My mother loves to tell stories. One of her favorites dates back to my first summer at our local nature camp. I would come home each afternoon gushing about my amazing camp counselor. In the eyes of this bespectacled five year old, there was absolutely no one cooler. I would regale my mother with stories of his athletic achievements and expertise with pipe cleaner crafts. Needless to say, expectations were running quite high when my mother finally met said camp counselor. As it turned out, this legendary figure who I had built up to such great heights was, in fact, not a seven-foot tall, near-otherworldly being, but simply a high school student with his first summer job going through what could best be described as a Peter Brady-esque voice change.

But that’s the magic of summer camp. For those six or seven weeks each year, everything just seems extraordinary.

With the exception of one season spent as a professional horse blanket washer (…a story for another time), I have spent every summer since I was four at camp. I have been a camper, a CIT, a counselor, a director, a camp coordinator, and the proud parent of my own little camper. My wife sometimes accuses my son and me of speaking our own language when we get home from camp. We talk to each other in some word scrapple of half-told inside jokes, fond remembrances, and guttural laughter.

But that’s just the magic of summer camp. Camp is the place where memories are made. A place where friendships are formed and where interests are sparked.

Camp is the place where you tell the same joke at every opening and it still gets a laugh. “What do you call a cow with no legs? [Pause] Ground beef.”

Camp is the place where you drape toilet paper on those endlessly patient counselors who then proceed to parade down a makeshift runway like it’s Paris Fashion Week.

Camp is the place where Ms. Harris first teaches you those “Cupid Shuffle” steps you will later use at your aunt’s wedding.

And camp is the place I hope to see many of our Harbor students this summer.

Camp Harbor is truly an extension of what we do best here at The Harbor School. In congruence with our mission, Camp Harbor encourages discovery, inquiry, and creativity. Our summer program is packed with art, drama, science, and team-building activities. The magic starts June 25th and runs through August 10th. Make plans to join us!