How Can I Pay for a Session of Eagle's Nest Camp? | Eagles Nest Camp Blog | Summer Camp in the North Carolina Mountains | Eagle's Nest

How Can I Pay for a Session of Eagle's Nest Camp? Eagles Nest Camp Blog Summer Camp in the North Carolina Mountains Eagle's Nest

Paige lays out a great plan for how to send kids to camp. It takes some hard work, grassroots type hard work, but those who really want to go to camp can do it. This stretching and prioritizing can even be extended to the children who attend camp. Think in a creative and disciplined way.

My parents sent Allison and me to camp in 1986 and paid for it all. I was 11 and Allison was 13. The Nest changed our lives and I don't remember having a greater priority than getting back to ENC the following year. Beginning in 1987, we each paid for half. Back then that was about $600 of a $1200 tuition (ah...inflation). For a 12 year old that was a lot. It meant I deposited monies from grass cutting, baby sitting, birthday, Christmas, Valentine's, etc. Wherever the money was coming in I had to be thinking about getting back to Pisgah Forest for three weeks the following summer. I believe it shaped my sense of money, savings, and most importantly, how I came to remember special experiences. Every time I gave up buying a pack of baseball cards, I had to remember an underwater-recovery pry that Grant had showed me or a Lodge led by Bruce that taught me how to Rock to the Casbah.

I spent the next eight summers at this camp. I was a camper for four summers, JC (Junior Counselor) for two, and a staff member for three summers. When the days grew long 43 Hart Rd was where I wanted to be up through my early 20s.

Now I started much later than my children. George IV started at five and Kathryn will start in 2012 as a seven year old. Their earning potential is compromised compared to me when I was 12 and older, but it is time to start thinking about counting the cost. Right now we have budgeted for only Kathryn to attend in 2012, but maybe George IV should get to consider what he is willing to give up in order to return to Eagle's Nest.

These are conversations that will unfold this fall. I hope you will consider such talks. My parents were creative and optimistic about how to get us to camp year after year. I wonder if they knew this would turn out to be one of their best instincts as parents.

The first task in getting to camp is not to lead with "No, we can't possibly afford that." You don't know that until you have turned over a few rocks, had a few conversations, prayed a little, meditated, let it simmer. Practice patience and humility and Eagle's Nest can be a part of your future.