The Camp Experience

Blue Ridge School, our current home, offers dorm-style accommodations. Campers share comfortable rooms with two to three other campers and one counselor. Each camper has access to a restroom, including showers, in their hallway.

Campers are assigned rooms based on age and friend requests. Campers travel in groups, or bunks, made up of two or three rooms. Each bunk includes three or four counselors, as well as several counselors-in-training. Boys and girls live in separate quarters of the dormitory.

This may come as a surprise to those accustomed to the cuisine of the typical summer camp, but our food is absolutely delicious. Campers enjoy professionally prepared meals by SAGE Dining Services®. Each meal is well-balanced and diverse, accommodating to just about any dietary preference or need. The rotating main course includes a meat and a vegetarian-friendly entree. In addition, each lunch and dinner includes a salad bar, sandwich bar (with a panini press) and pasta option. Lunches and dinners include dessert.

Due to the medically complex nature of the populations we serve, the kitchen staff is accustomed to accommodating a diversity of dietary needs (including, for example, the Modified Atkins Diet).

Not at all! We are experienced in accommodating campers who have food allergies, including to nuts, dairy and gluten. Blue Ridge School is a nut-free facility and a gluten-free food station is available at every meal.

Many campers are nervous about attending sleep-away camp for the first time. However, rest assured that our counselors are absolute experts at helping campers ease out of their shells and make new friends. Once all of the campers have arrived, the full camp participates in a series of "Get-to-Know You" icebreaker games, before joining in team-building activities with the respective bunks, helping them to learn the camp routine and meet their new bunkmates. Campers who are having difficulty connecting with others are identified early in the week and treated with individualized attention. Most campers who arrive with fears and unease end up excited about returning the following year.

Campers will be able to sign up for elective activities on their first day of camp. For each period, there will be two activities to choose from. To see a list of activities, click on the question above, or for a sample schedule go to "A Day at Camp" page.

As you probably noticed by looking at the page, "A Day at Camp," our schedule is pretty jam-packed with fun activities. However, campers also have plenty of 'chill' time to spend with their bunkmates and counselors. Each day, campers have about an hour of rest after free swim at the pool, which is often spent playing games in the bunk. There are also periods built into the schedule for hanging out and bonding with your bunkmates.

Camp is an excellent time to "unplug" from the everyday. As such, we advise against bringing electronics. However, campers are able to use their electronics at specified periods, such as during rest period. We should warn you that cell reception is poor and there is no camper WiFi available. Electronics must be left inside the bunk at all times.

We highly encourage letter-writing instead. Many campers arrive with pre-addressed envelopes to make sending letters home easy.

Whether rain or shine, we promise fun, fun and more fun at camp. Usually, we will offer a variety of indoor alternatives to the cancelled activities. In severe weather, we may plan for a special camp-wide indoor activity.

Click on question for a complete packing list.

Following the camp-wide evening activity, campers visit the medical staff if they have bedtime meds, and then return to their bunks to prepare for sleep. Lights out is at 10 p.m. on a typical night at camp.