We encourage you to send mail to your child during the camp session. Especially for newer campers, mail is reassuring and fun to receive. Please keep notes cheerful and encouraging, and focus on activities at camp. Mail is delivered each full day at rest hour. We encourage you to send postal mail, and also offer e-mail for your convenience. New this year, our camper email system is included in your online account for a small fee. Please note, campers don’t have computer access, so if they respond, it will be by USPS mail. When sending USPS mail to camp, please address it to:
“Camper Name”, “Unit”
Camp Killoqua
15207 East Lake Goodwin Road
Stanwood, WA 98292
One way camper email is available for purchase within your online registration account. This is only to send messages to your camper and they will NOT be able to email back. Please direct any questions after registration to the Camp Fire Office at 425-258-5437.
In the event of a personal/family emergency where you need to reach a camp director after hours, please call our on call phone: 425-239-6515.
Outside of camp, you may be used to contacting your child by cell phone. At camp, we have a “no cell phone” policy. Aside from being expensive, and easy to break or get stolen, cell phones may prevent us from helping campers settle into camp, since they may try to talk to you instead of our staff. When kids come to camp, they – and you – are allowing our staff to be their primary caretakers. This is a great act of faith for a parent, and we intend to earn and keep that trust. Sending a cell phone is akin to saying to your child that you haven’t come to peace with them being in our care. It also prevents them from truly settling into the special world we create at camp.
We work diligently to partner with parents. Should your child have a challenge adjusting to camp, we will call you to explain the situation and request your advice. You can help by talking with your child before camp and telling them that there is always someone to whom they can reach out, whether it’s the counselor, unit coordinator, an activity leader, nurse or even the director. We specifically introduce campers to many staff on the first day, to help them feel comfortable. We appreciate your assistance!
We take the safety and well-being of our campers seriously. During camp, safety and respect are emphasized in our activities. After camp, even though campers are not under our supervision, we remain concerned about their safety. Because campers now use the Internet, cell phones, and text messaging, we appeal to you as parents and guardians to help us maintain a safe environment for your child. Please review these details; we hope you will share them with your camper, too.
Social networking sites (snapchat, instagram, facebook, tiktok, etc) and other communication between campers can be a positive extension of the camp experience. When used responsibly, these sites are great places to exchange camp stories and keep in touch with friends. Since we emphasize positive and respectful communication at camp, we ask that campers continue to be positive and respectful in their correspondence. This includes using appropriate language and always acting in a non-threatening manner. If the rare circumstance arises that your child receives a threatening message and you suspect the sender is a fellow camper, please contact camp administration immediately.
Campers often develop positive mentor relationships with camp staff, and may want to keep in touch after summer. We have set up a communication format that benefits and protects both campers and seasonal staff. Here’s how it works: If your child would like to contact a staff member, please help them write a letter to that person, and mail it to the address above. We’ll forward the letter to the staff member, and encourage them to write back. Staff responses are mailed to camp, and then forwarded to you. This system keeps communication linked to camp after both campers and staff are no longer on-site. It also encourages campers to write letters – a skill we feel is important for kids to practice. We ask seasonal staff to not communicate with campers via the Internet, phone, or in person, since this is not monitored by camp. Please help us support this policy, for the security of both your child and our staff members. Summer camp is a special experience, and these measures keep it that way all year.
