The Magic Value of Camp Danbee

What is the Danbee difference? I think it starts when a family decides that Danbee’s commitment to instilling empowerment and community service values
becomes a differentiating factor for them from other summer options. As educators, all of us on the Danbee full-time team spend our year preparing for the next summer. The key word here is preparing. What that means to us is making a concerted and intentional commitment to a plan that allows our girls to change for the better. Everything we do at camp is threaded through the prism of “Will this make a difference in the life of a child?”  If the answer is yes, then we add it to our arsenal. Then we step back and observe, guide and role model the steps needed to make the magic happen.

Every girl leaves Danbee a different person from when they arrived. Every girl has their own unique tale about how Danbee impacted them. At the closing campfire we get a peek into that personal journey taken by our campers. When we ask this question every summer at the closing campfire: “What has Danbee meant to you?” All we do from there is sit back, pass the mic around the crowd, and soak in all the stories of positive impacts and life lessons their summer home has served up for them.

What we hear embedded in those amazing memories is the impact camp has had on each girl, each story different. And…by the way, not all lessons were born out of happiness. Some of the stories include overcoming obstacles through the years. These challenges included tackling homesickness, learning how to deal with people that can be unkind, learning to lose with class, sacrificing personal priorities for the betterment of the group, learning to forgive, and embracing people who are different from you.

What we know is that these reflections in their stories represent the raw materials that nurtured many of the positive outcomes that we hoped would accrue for them. These experiences are the foundation for campers to testify that Danbee helped make them:

• More resilient
• Other-Centered
• Kinder
• Self-Directed
• Confident
• Empathetic
• Self-assured
• Able to take criticism
• Learning how to be a good friend
• Able to collaborate better
• Able to communicate better
• Leaving with skills that will become lifelong and permanent elements of their DNA

In a nutshell, at the end of their Danbee tenure our girls leave more empowered than when they arrived. This list is by no means comprehensive or complete. Every girl can cherry pick from their own journey the things that will assist them in becoming the best version of themselves. To reinforce this reality here is an excerpt from a closing banquet speech delivered several years ago. MC’s Josie and Chloe shared their own unique and inspirational story about how Danbee impacted them. They said:

Danbee is a place that instills the confidence that allows you to be completely yourself. Each and every girl acts in a different way, looks different, and enjoys being uniquely themselves. This is one of the many reasons Danbee has become our summer home for the past 7 years. Danbee is truly our second home, it’s a place where we have developed the confidence to be proud of whom we are. Danbee changes everyone for the better. When I first stepped off the bus I was I so shy and afraid to step out of my comfort zone. Danbee helped me break out of my shell and become confident with who I am today.

As we always say: You may leave Danbee, but Danbee will never leave you.
And that is a good thing.