Find Your Daughter a Place to Play

School is out in many parts of the country. What will your daughter be doing this summer?

In the 4th grade, I took home the Justin Wynn Award. Given to one person in each school within our district, the award recognized outstanding leadership, citizenship, and sportsmanship.

That year, my win didn’t only come with an Oscar-like statuette and a huge brunch at a fancy hotel with leaders in the educational community, but I also got to go to the camp of my choosing - for FREE.

My win gave me access to various activities and opportunities for social development. At camp, not only were the majority of activities centered on teamwork, building confidence, independence, critical thinking, and empathy, but I also walked away with the ability to collaborate and problem-solve with my peers at a very young age.

As years went by, my summer camp activities were more focused on dance, as I spent the summers taking jazz and ballet. I was assigned to activities that aligned more closely with my interests and talents. What are your daughter’s interests? What has she shared that she wants to be when she grows up?

You can currently find a ton of camps available to your daughter: Band, Equestrian, Outdoor, Engineering, Space, Robotics, Religious—the list goes on. Not only can your daughter spend the summer developing leadership skills, but she can also find out if science is really as interesting as she thought it was. Or if she really wants to be a veterinarian, now that she has spent the summer at camp cleaning up all the poop.

My first camp led me to many days at the beach, but it was less time sitting at home and saying that I was “bored.”

It’s not too late to enroll your daughter, keep her active, and develop skills that will last a lifetime. Head over to the American Camp Association and find your daughter a place to play this summer.