Things are very quiet at Wohelo and we are still basking in our success and all the wonderful notes that parents have sent thanking us for the experience this summer (see below). Through all the challenges it was an especially magical year. Thanks to EVERYONE that made it happen, and YOU should feel proud to read the notes below.
A limited family camp finished off the summer of COVID. First week was four family groups and week two was just one! It was nice to have some friendly faces around.
This was all of us after unmasking this summer. But now let’s get excited about summer 2021 with both camps opening! While we won’t try to guess what will be happening in the world, we feel confident we will be able to run the full session program next summer as we did this year. We have opened full session registrations only for all campers at both camps. Registration link HERE.
We will reevaluate our season in October and may add more sessions at that time if the situation and our full session numbers allow.
We would be getting SOOOOO excited about the Wohelobration this weekend. But instead we will just dream about 2021 for that also. Everyone who signed up is automatically rolled over and new signups are welcome. HERE
Last day of camp above, maskless trunk moving:) Below a Frog looking forward to sunsets on the Little Wohelo Playground next summer.
PARENT LOVE LETTERS TO EVERYONE THAT HELPED US RUN THIS SUMMER!!!
-I just can’t take a moment to thank you and everyone at Wohelo who has worked so hard to make this summer work! My gratitude will last a lifetime.
-Seeing all those beautiful smiling masked faces is simply amazing… THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
-And thank YOU for keeping camp going this summer. I’m sure “my daughter” and all the girls are having a blast. What a gift you have given them this summer.
-Such a great update! It made my heart sing to think of the fun they are having. Thank you, Jennie and team!
-Oh this is truly the sweetest note that we could hope to receive! What an absolute treat it was to read that “my daughter” is having fun and sharing her infectious love for life, silly card games, new friends, nature and the world around her. Her time at Wohelo has been much anticipated and perfect timing in her life.
-Thank you for all you are doing to give “my daughter” and all of the campers a special and memorable summer! Please express our sincere appreciation to all of the staff and counselors. You all are working so hard to keep everyone safe and also make it a fun and meaningful experience. After a long and stressful spring, we are so grateful that she gets to have this time with all of you in this special haven on the lake.
-I can’t thank you all enough for choosing to move ahead and host the campers this summer. I know that it must be a tremendous amount of work but it is all paying off I am sure! Thank you for reaching out to us to share this fun news and thank you for all that you do there!
-Wahoo!!! Everything sounds so AWESOME
-We are so excited for everyone!
-Go Wohelo!!!!
-Thanks so much Jennie
-Give my girls some hugs for me!
-Love all the pictures!
-I just wanted to thank you for all you are doing. I have received two letters now from “my daughter” and she could not be happier. Thank you for giving these girls this summer. We, here in our household, are forever in your debt.
–This is amazing. Thank you SO much for sharing.It not only brings us joy to hear, it settles our mind. Please give her a hug from us and tell her we love her.
-Thank you for sharing the comments from “my daughter”. The letters we have gotten from her, along with the photos you post, all convey the wonderful time she is having with you.
Thank you for being so brave to take the challenge of this summer on and for doing such a phenomenal job.
You guys are also rock stars!
-Omg!!! What a great email. Thanks so much for letting us know. We have been wondering how everything is going. We are so happy she was able to go this summer. I think she really needed it and it sounds like she is thriving. We couldn’t be more pleased. Thank you for all the hard work you did to make Wohelo happen this summer. It truly seems like the most wonderful place to be in these uncertain times. Please give her a big smile and socially distant hug from us. We miss her so much. As you can imagine, the house is not the same without her. I miss her joyful energy and positive spirit!
-We are so happy that she is thriving at camp. Summer at Wohelo keeps her going for the rest of the year 🙂
-A big thank you to you and the Wohelo team for making this summer special, safe and fun for the girls.
-Thanks for the note! That’s great to hear. Camp is great for “my daughter” and we are very glad that Wohelo decided to stay open and that she got to go this summer. We thought it was worth the risk and nuisance of travelling during the pandemic.
-This is amazing to read. I’m so proud of her and couldn’t be happier that she’s doing so well. Based on everything we had heard, we thought this would be a great fit. But you never know. SO thrilled it’s working so well for everyone. Please give her our love!
-Thank you so much for your email Jennie! I can tell from her letters to home how happy she is! Not once has she commented on the restrictions in place due to COVID – I think she is just so happy for some normalcy and being with happy campers and counselors in the outdoors. I am so grateful to everyone at Wohelo for making this summer happen. We miss her but know this is the BEST BEST place for her right now! Enjoy the next few weeks!
-This is an awesome email to receive. I can tell that the counselors work so well with “my daughter”. She used to love swimming but stopped after she met one very tough coach. It’s because of the patience and kindness of the camp staff that she is able to love swimming again. I’m so grateful this camp has made her stronger. My purpose was accomplished. I believe that she will be very different after this, and she will grow so much from this experience. There are no words to express my gratitude. Thank you all for your support.
-Thanks very much for letting us know! Improving her tennis was one of her big goals for the summer. We can’t tell you how happy we are that she has been able to attend camp this year and how grateful we are that you found a way to make it work. It is the absolute bright spot during a time with precious few others!
-Oh, wow. Thanks so much, Jennie. That’s wonderful news about the tennis commendation (a perfect recognition for her!) and great news about the books. You are lovely to write. I hope all is going well for you. The success of this summer at Wohelo is hard to understate and we are super grateful.
-Oh Jennie, this just warms my heart to read, thank you so much! And I love that you all are in a bubble. I wish she could stay there all fall.
-Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this fabulous news!!! We are so thrilled to read this, and so proud of her for making the most of her precious time at camp.This was such a difficult spring for everyone — but it hit her particularly hard. Being 13 is difficult in the best of circumstances — but we found it can be near impossible at times in the midst of a global pandemic. Words cannot express how grateful we are to all of you that camp happened this year. Of all of the 100 or so “camp kids” we know back here in “our home state”, Our daughters are the only two who were able to attend theirs this year. Not an hour passes that we don’t celebrate this, and acknowledge all of the work and love demanded of all of you to make this happen. THANK YOU.
-Be well and have fun with our lucky girls on the shores of Sebago!
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I can’t go to sleep tonight without thanking you for providing such a safe and epic Wohelo summer. We drove 7 hours back to “our home state” and she did not stop talking and smiling and crying the whole way. We heard a play-by-play of seemingly every moment of camp from how she felt when she got there, to when she started to settle in, to the day-by-day breakfast lineup, to what she puts in her “the bomb” salad. We heard about new friends and old, all sorts of awards and a fake White Mountain boy named Matt. She even wedged her paddle into the front seat as we were driving to show us all the tiny details.
We always feel so grateful to Wohelo for providing these incredible life-affirming summers, but this one was really special. Among the thousands of things she said today, there are three things that really stood out. The first one I wrote down because I wanted to make sure to never forget it. She said, “I feel so strong when I’m at camp.” My heart practically burst because what could be more important for a young woman than that. She felt physical strength in swimming and canoeing and walking up and down all of those stairs, and emotional strength as she worked through various friendships and social situations. I know she will carry this strength with her always, and I will always be grateful to Wohelo for that.
The next thing she said that really got me was “I feel confident in my body at camp”. She spoke about all the body positivity among both the counselors and campers and how she finally felt confident in her bathing suit. She said there’s nothing more freeing that skinny dipping and jumping off the high dive naked, and she finally doesn’t feel self-conscious when changing in front of her peers. I told her it takes many women a lifetime to feel this way, so she’s so lucky to have gotten there at 15.
Lastly, when I asked her what was the highlight at camp, she started to tear up as she told me her greatest memory. She explained what a big deal it is to make a fire without matches, and how one of her friends did this to pass the highest nature award. “my daughter” watched her friend accomplish this while holding hands with another friend. When the girl finally made fire, She said they were all screaming and crying. I was very surprised and also moved that this would be her greatest memory. How wonderful that her best memory is witnessing a peer’s success. I was really floored by this.
I have watched “my daughter” transform little by little every summer. 5 years ago I dropped off a late-blooming kid who could not even stay at a friend’s house overnight. Today I picked up a young woman who didn’t want to leave her favorite place on earth. In her own words, today she is strong, confident and a supportive friend. I mean…what more can a parent ask for? I can never thank you enough for all you do to make Wohelo the magical place that it is. We will always be grateful to you and the entire Wohelo staff. We just somehow got so lucky to stumble into this perfect place. Thank you.
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“my daughter” and I just had a little chat about how great camp was, I wish I had been able to record what she said because it was so much more elegant than what I’m about to write, something to the effect of “We were able to escape Covid and be in our own little bubble but we were also able to escape thinking about Covid all the time, and thinking about all the stressful things going on in the world. We were able to be together with our friends, in nature, on a beautiful lake. We were able to be normal.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You did it. You did it full of magic, and grace, and love.
My daughter thrived this summer and I know this year will be filled with stories about all of her amazing experiences. At the end of this discussion she said, “And now it’s just over and I’m sad.” I explained that it isn’t over, that this summer shaped her, made her stronger, and all those experiences are a part of her and she can take them everywhere. And she nodded and went back to watching a video about making vegan recipes. 🙂
Thank you for everything–from the bottom of my heart, thank you to the entire staff.
-Job perfectly done!
-Thank you so much for a great summer. “my daughter” had the best summer! Love hearing to all her stories, all the fun she had and all her friendship stories! Specially this summer when we all stay pretty much home I am glad she had time to be outdoors and to disconnect from everything that is going on. Thank you to you and all your team!
-Congratulations to all of you at Wohelo for successfully opening and completing a summer session in 2020. This remarkable accomplishment was not due to luck – it was due to incredible hard work, planning, and competence on the part of you and your Wohelo team. I know with certainty that her experience this summer was beyond priceless, and it would not have happened without your supreme efforts. You have succeeded in an effort that most camps i did not even attempt, and for that you all deserve tremendous acclaim. We are so thrilled to be part of the Wohelo family!
Enjoy a well-earned rest, and we hope that next summer will be a return to “normal”.
-Thank you for your courage, planning, and hard work to make this summer happen!
-What a precious gift for “my daughter” and the other campers, after (and before ) months of social isolation in front of a screen.
-Congratulations on keeping the Wohelo tradition going during a global pandemic. Whatever happens during the rest of 2020, I hope you are proud of this tremendous accomplishment!
-Refresh, refresh (which I didn’t do once this summer, not once!) but this time refresh only on the message of gratitude. I am blown away by what you all put together and pulled off and made work and made safe and made real. “my daughter” surely is forever changed by this summer. In May, all we saw was what wasn’t, what was lost; today ends an extraordinary time of what was possible, what actually worked. Amazing. I miss “my daughter” like no other, and I can’t believe how hard it was not to be able to be there seeing her under the centuries of trees there. But as much as I’m dying to see her when she lands close to midnight here tonight, I would keep her there on your shores if I could. This summer was something very special. Thank you so, so much.
-I just wanted to thank you again for the amazing and difficult work you all have done. To take on the project of actually running camp this summer and then to pull it off so brilliantly….what an accomplishment! I am so grateful that “my daughter” could be a part of it — in the water, in the wind, in the sun, in the trees and in laughter — rather than spending the summer sitting here in “our home state”. She said it was one her most favorite summers yet. This happy, positive experience will make a huge difference in her mindset as she approaches the coming school year.
-We are safely back in “our home state” after a mad dash up and back. Wanted to write to say thanks for all your normal hard work and for all the extra things you did to make camp possible in the age of COVID. I don’t guess we will ever really know all the time you spent figuring out the requirements and implementing them in a successful way. For that, we are ever thankful.
-“my daughter” had an amazing time and the stories keep coming. Looks like she has latched onto to new friendships in ways she hasn’t in the past and we are grateful for that as well. New skills, new friends, fresh air/water, lots of laughter, and more than a few tears make for a good summer at camp.
— I write today with a heart full of gratitude and respect for you and the incredible experience you provided “my daughter” and so many other girls and young women this summer. I know that I was a thorn in your side in the run up to camp as “my husband” and I did not have confidence in anyone being able to pull off a summer of fun and love for kids this summer. I am sorry for adding stress to what was an already stressful time. I also know that you can appreciate all that was racing through our heads as parents as we struggled through the decision process.
“my daughter” had a summer she will never forget. it is my sense that this was not only a fantastic summer given COVID, but that actually there was much done that made it just an overall fantastic Wohelo summer. The intimacy of the group, the tiny cabins, the amazing counselors, the progression from cabins only to unit pods to whole camp gatherings….all of that made it a summer like no other for these girls. Your drop off and pick procedures, health protocols, how-to videos, all of that made a difference to us as parents which allowed us to relax and watch our girls be kids and campers!
So few kids had the opportunity to experience pure fun, intimate in-person relationships and learn and develop new skills this summer. You made that happen for “my daughter” and for that we are grateful. We are back in “our home state” now after seven glorious weeks in Maine ourselves, and are staring down a long and confusing fall. I’ve told “my daughter” that at every hard or discouraging moment this fall, she must channel her time on Sebago Lake — that it will provide light and love to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Thank you for bringing the best of Wohelo to our family in an otherwise trying time.
