We are pleased to announce that starting next summer, Camp Takodah will construct a new village of six cabins, build a new bathroom facility, clear a new athletic field, and open a second waterfront on Cass Pond to support a change in our summer format.
This new village will allow us, for the first time ever, to run separate camping programs for Boys and Girls all summer long.
For many years, our split summer format has been an obstacle for dozens of families, and has left us vulnerable to conflicts with growing school years, snow days, sports, and vacation commitments. Many families have been unable to work with us based to our inability to host both their sons and daughters in the same weeks.
While we are eager to serve more families, it’s important to note that our plan is not to go co-ed. We hope the 2012 North Village will be the first of several villages built to allow us to continue serving Boys and Girls Camp populations separately. Our alumni and current campers have told us clearly that they prefer separate Boys and Girls programs–so that’s what we’re going to.?Want to learn more? Read on…
Our Plan:
- Session 1: June 24 – July 6
- Session 2: July 8 – 20
- Session 3: July 22 – August 3
- Session 4: August 5 – 17
- Mini Camp will take place the week of August 5 – 9th
- Short Term Camp will run from August 11 – 17th
- Family Camp to run the week of August 19 – 24th
- Our co-ed Adventure Camp programs will continue to run all summer long
Registration will open for summer 2012 on closing days of all 2011 camp sessions. We hope you will join us for this exciting new chapter of Takodah’s story!
Frequently Asked Questions:
How will the program not be co-ed if boys and girls are on the same site at the same time?
Our goal is to develop separate, concurrent programs that give boys and girls a meaningful gender separation. Scheduling boys and girls separately at arts & crafts, swimming, sports, cabin activities and evening programs will be a reasonable task given the changes to our site. We are confident that with different arrival times, meal times, and program separation, we will be able to preserve all the core elements of a Takodah experience: the friendships, the character lessons, and the candlelight and CT ceremonies that celebrate them. Boys and girls camps have some very different traditions, activities, and songs, and we are confident those will be preserved, too.
Will campers share parts of the site?
Initially, yes. We picture that in the long term, sharing facilities like maintenance, the camp office, the health lodge, and the ropes course will make sense. In the initial summer, and perhaps for several, campers will have to share activity areas like Hobby Nook, some courts, some field spaces, the Craig Dining Hall and even Lodge spaces like TPAC and Memorial Lodge. Again, we plan on separate boys and girls programs using these spaces at different times. This would mean eating in shifts in the new dining hall.
Could my camper interact with boys/girls?
Given our site, it’s impossible that boys and girls will not be aware of the opposite gendered camp just down the road, but our goal is to minimize interaction. We want to carry on with our past traditions, and minimize any temptations to “display” for the other gender.
Will you run the “South Camp” (current site) as normal for boys and then girls, and just use the new Village for the other gender?
To some extent, yes, but this will depend on our enrollments. We expect to have to sensitively use some of the current cabins in a flex model for a few years. We work to accomodate all enrollments, but still strive to keep a meaningful separation between boys and girls.
How will this development be paid for?
The Cheshire YMCA’s board of trustees are excited about the plan and the new business model, and have agreed to fund the first step: construction of the new village, bathhouse, and waterfront. After that, additional enrollments and donations will determine how we move forward!
What will the new cabins be like?
We are currently considering cabin units that look much like our current cabins, but with front porches and higher roof pitches. We are also considering erecting some yurts – round tent-like structures that might drive some new excitement amongst our campers.
Where will the new village be?
We are considering locations to the north of Takodah’s current Ropes Course, and around the north end of Cass Pond.
Can I get involved with a gift?
Yes! We hope families and Alums will be excited to name a cabin, yurt or even a program building to honor family members, past Takodah staff, or others. To learn more about contributions and naming opportunities, contact Camping Services Director William Therrien.
What will change after 2012?
We hope an enrollment boost in 2012 will allow us to keep developing the second camp with more cabins and program spaces, and that this development might allow us to start removing some of our oldest and most worn cabins at the current camp. This will also allow us to keep moving toward our vision of separate boys and girls camps on the same site, with the possible long term additions of courts, more field space, and even moving our Maintenance facilities out of central camp to the periphary of our property.
Can we sign up for more than 4 weeks?
Campers will be able to attend Takodah for 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks. There will be a 1-week Mini Camp/Short Term option for first-timers.
Can you give some more info on reasons behind the changes, and the process?
Many Takodians will recall hearing announcements in the Whispers newsletter and the Takodah Alumni News in 2008 that we were exploring a site development plan that would allow Takodah to serve Boys and Girls populations all summer long.
For those new to this concept, and those who could use a refresher, the decision to pursue concurrent camps was prompted by a number of factors. For years, we have known that Takodah’s separate Boys and Girls Camp format presents a challenge for many families. Our nine-week summer has often overlapped significantly with school releases in June, especially in years where snow days are a factor. Boys campers who make all-star baseball teams have to choose between camp and finishing their season. We know that girls campers interested in high school athletics often must choose between mandatory pre-season trainings and staying involved with the Cabin 1, Leader Corps, and Leader-in- Training years.
Just as significantly, our format has long been an obstacle for new families. Families with girls that typically vacation in August wind up looking to other camps. Families with boys that travel over the Fourth of July holiday have no August option available. Finally, we have known for years that many parents with both sons and daughters would prefer to send them to camp at the same time. We offer no such option with our current format. During the 2007 and 2008 marketing seasons, we know over 50 and 70 families spoke with our Director and Registrar, informing us that Takodah would have been their preferred camp had we better fit their schedules.
Despite strong programs, great staff, wonderful alumni loyalty, incredible volunteers, and some of the best return rates in the industry, Takodah’s enrollments have been stagnant over recent years. In fact, over a ten year period, enrollments have dropped overall by 260 youth, including a 50% drop in Mini Camp and 90% drop in Adventure Camp. Takodah and Wisconsin’s Manito-Wish YMCA are the last two YMCA camps in the nation to offer a split camping season. While we have been proud to attract enough campers to our program to keep operating, the format has proven difficult to work with for many families and has left our business too vulnerable during lean times. More importantly, every empty bed is a missed opportunity to serve more campers. Too many kids are having to settle for other camps due to scheduling problems.
In response, since 2004, the Cheshire YMCA’s Board of Directors launched two different ad-hoc committees to study the issue: How to best best meet our mission of developing friendships and character lessons at summer camp, while driving stronger enrollments and revenues to allow us to reinvest in our aging facilities. Both committees reached the same conclusions: that we should shorten our season to eight weeks and move to a model that serves boys and girls at the same time. Yet rather than recommending Takodah move to a co-ed format, both committees agreed with many staff, parents, alums and campers that serving boys and girls separately was a core part of Takodah’s identity. Accordingly, they recommended that we should work to hang onto the separate Boys Camp and Girls Camp programs by opening separate, side-by-side Boys and Girls Camps that would run all summer long, despite the concern with added costs.
The Cheshire YMCA’s Board of Directors voted to approve this concept and moved ahead with an exciting site development planning effort, which gave us a blueprint for possible side-by-side North and South Camps to be developed on our current properties.
These plans were moved to the back burner with a corporate transition during the 2009/2010 seasons. But the urgency of a format change did not ebb, with sluggish enrollments in our Mini Camp and Boys Session 1 programs and three years in a row of snow day conflicts. After much discussion this winter, the Cheshire YMCA’s Board of Directors approved a staff recommendation to move to a concurrent format for summer 2012, and the Cheshire YMCA’s trustees showed their support for the plan by pledging to facilitate a loan for the construction of a new village.
This fall, we will begin construction to include six cabins or yurts, a bathhouse (twins), an athletic field, and a second waterfront. This construction will give us the essential elements to support side-by-side Boys and Girls Camps.
Families will be able to enroll for one-, two-, four-, and eight-week involvements. Takodah will be able to reach twice as many prospects in a typical season, and our enrollments should be able to grow in response.
