A Summer Like No Other*

Whew, the Camp Kudzu Team is getting ready for the upcoming summer camp programs. We have put together a lengthy guide to walk our camper parent families through the week—from check in to dining hall to cabin time to evening programs to packing light to check out. The link to the guide for campers was emailed last week to families attending sessions 1 and 2. If you have a camper attending Camp Kudzu on June 6th and haven’t received your parent guide, email me to request your copy. It has been a long and interesting path to get to having in person programs at Camp Kudzu. All of us are very excited about seeing our campers and families!

At my own home, we are big baseball fans. My son is playing Little League Baseball this spring and his height (he’s 11 years old and nearly 5’8”) has him parked at first base fielding balls thrown to him—even if they aren’t quite on target—because of his stretching abilities. I have been a fan of the game most of my life, and there have been many conversations about “the asterisk” in the sport.

A short explanation of what I am referring to would be that when there is controversy about the validity of a statistical record, it appears in the record book as the number written with an asterisk beside it indicating that that there was some conjecture about the number. I bring this up to say since my parents sent me to camp for the first time in 1975, I had not missed a summer of camp. During that time, I have been a camper, a cabin counselor, a lifeguard, a canoe instructor, a CIT director, program director, and a camp director over those years.  I had a streak of 44 consecutive summers being “at camp” as Camp Kudzu opened registration for the Summer 2020 Season. (Yes, that would make me mumble mumble years old.)

And then, it happened. As my dear friend Dan Mathews (COO of Camp Twin Lakes) remarks, the earth got hit by a truck. What all of us have gone through over the past 14 plus months is indescribable. It will take more time for all us to get back on the road and heal from this experience.

We are very fortunate for the energy, generosity, and spirit that has been part of keeping Camp Kudzu moving forward. I, like the rest of the Camp Kudzu Team, can’t wait for this summer to get started. As I look at the calendar, I can’t think of a time when I was more excited about camp to start.

It’s almost time! For me, it will be summer 46. Summer 46*, that is.

-Kat Shreve
Associate Executive Director