Buddy Families

In 2017, Week 2 of Shehaqua Family welcomed many people who attended camp for the first time. Almost 40% of all participants had never been to Shehaqua before. There was a chance that some of the new people would not feel connected to the Shehaqua Family right away. So the Camp Directors decided to try something new. They paired the 10 new families with 10 families that had been to camp many times before and ask the experienced families to welcome and take care of the new families. Each of the "old" families was given the letter you can read below. It was a success, and we recommend trying something similar if you have a lot of new participants in your program.

Shehaqua Buddy Families

Dear………………………………………………Family,

Week 2 of Shehaqua Family Camp 2017 is happy to welcome a record amount of first-time families! Almost 40 percent of all attendees are here at Shehaqua for the first time this year. Of course, we want to give them the best possible experience and make them feel welcome. We hope we can count on you—as a family who has come to Camp Shehaqua before—to help us make this happen.

We took the liberty to match your family with one of these first-time families, and we hope that you will be able to connect with your Buddy Family this week and help to make them feel at home at Shehaqua.

We will make an announcement at lunch tomorrow (Tuesday) and encourage Buddy Families to line up for food and have lunch together to get to know each other. This will be the only organized Buddy Family event, but we hope that you will find many other ways to reach out and connect and make sure your Buddy Family has the best possible experience at Camp Shehaqua.

Some ideas of what you could do for your Buddy Family:

• Visit their cabin when they arrive and help them move in
• Surprise them with little gifts (anonymous or otherwise)
• Show them the best places to pick blueberries
• Visit their cabin to say hello, share more meals together
• Ask them how they are doing, serve them a snack or drink
• Compliment them on something
• Stand next to them during singing and exchange a few words
• And more; just be creative

Your buddy family is the ………………………………………………... Family

They are staying in Cabin……………, Unit ……………..

Thank you for your hearts of giving!

Your Camp Directors