My name is Ben and this is my first year as a international camp counselor at YMCA Camp Matawa! Woohoo! It is my first time doing anything like this, as England doesn’t have any sort of summer camp for any young children to get away from there home life and let themselves go and have fun.

The whole idea of a summer camp appealed to myself as I completed a first diploma in sport, where I had the chance to teach kids from ages 4 to 16. I had never been to America before, so Camp also gave me a chance to see a different way of living and to get to know new people from around the world. I didn’t realize how fun and exiciting this opportunity was until I arrived to a warm welcome once I got off the bus in Milwaukee and into the world of YMCA Camp Matawa.

At first I was very quiet and a bit jet lagged, so I didn’t understand that this would be my best summer of my life at the tender age of 22 ! I got the chance each week to work with different campers from different areas, different backgrounds, different ages and with so many different personalities that all got mixed together and became one cabin by the end of every week. This really did open my eyes to what I would like to do in the future and I got to learn a lot about myself and what type of person I am. I learnt so many new skills and I built relationships with each camper and counselor throughout the summer.

Camp Matawa is already classed as my second home and I want to give that sense of atomsphere to anyone and everyone that chooses to visit or stay at camp. I am so happy to have chosen this experience and that they chose me to continue the tradition of the YMCA and I always hold the four values throughout my life Caring, Respect, Responsiblity and Honesty.

This summer was very much my first at camp but definitely not my last !

Thank You

Ben Middleman

We just finished an amazing Frontier Olympics! The kids participated in seven different events with their cabins and they had tons of fun! The results are in and the winners are….

Cup Slide Challenge: Tie for first place between Hickory East and Esker East!
Bucket Pass Challenge: Tie for first between Hickory East and Hickory West!
Cup Stack Challenge: Esker East!
Matawa Trivia Challenge: Hickory East!
Football Toss Challenge: Tie for first between Hickory East and Drumlin West!
Marble Pass Challenge: Esker East!
Plunger Walk Challenge: Hickory West!

We’re looking forward to our campout tomorrow night! We’ll be learning about the constellations in the sky and going on a nature scavenger hunt. Don’t forget to check the Matawa website for pictures throughout the week!

Today the Trekker Village will be going on their camp-out. We are super excited for the foil dinners, smores, the games, and other activities. One thing that the staff appreciate about the campouts are the starry nights and the awesome reflections that we lead. The evening reflection is about differences. We pair the campers up with other campers that they may not talk to and they initiate a conversation and learn about each other. After, the buddies present their partners to the group so that we can all learn about each other. At the end of our reflections, the campers seem to have made new friends with their buddy and realize that they can be friends with anyone. They come to the realization that we shouldn’t pass judgement and that were all different. The Trekker Campout is where memories are made!

In the Spirit of the Trekker Village

We say KNEE to you!

Wow, we had an excellent start of the week! We had fun playing some new games, singing some songs, and building strong friendships quickly. As a village, we are all excited about the Trekker Camp-Out, Capture the Flag, our three activity periods, and the greatest race in the world. This is going to be an amazing week! Keep a look out for updates about the Trekker Village!
We Say Knee to YOU!
~ The Trekker Village

What an awesome! Everyone is making friends and building new friendships with cabin-mates, village-mates, and camp in general. We started the morning with our Monday “Routine,” where your camper(s) had cabin teambuilding, village teambuilding, and their swim test. After, we rocked the dining hall with many chants and cheers for counselors to do goofy things such as: kiss the buffalo, or sing the Barbee Song. Then we settled down for a nice, relaxing rest! From siesta, your camper(s) started their daily activities! Then as we say here at Matawa, “4:15 for the rest of your life” is our free swim, where the pool was hopping! It was a pretty warm day and it was nice to have a dip in the pool! Dinner time we had Matawa’s favorite meal, TACOS! Again, the dining hall was rowdy and we had good food and even better company, our cabin-mates. From dinner, we then had cabin activities, where your child’s cabin the opportunity to have an awesome time with cabin-mates. To cap the day off, we spent it playing our favorite camp, CAPTURE THE FLAG! It ended in another tie! What a day! Your camper(s) are off to bed and we are sure they are ready for some good sleep, ready for day two of the best time of their lives!

In the spirit of Matawa ~

Your Village Directors!

We have over forty campers in our village this week and it’s looking to be a great group! Yesterday we did some teambuilding activities to bring the kids together and they did great! They started off standing on a rope in a big circle. Without talking, they had to arrange themselves in order of their birthdays. We learned a lot about communication and how you can send messages to other people using your body language, even when you don’t necessarily mean to. They then moved onto a more difficult challenge: the cube. The village was split up into two groups, and each group had to get everybody through a giant cube without knocking it over. The catch? The cube was balancing on its’ axis, so the kids had to be very careful when they were moving through it not to knock it over! Afterwards, they talked about how they had to help each other by warning others when they were about to hit the side of the cube as they were going through. We discussed how sometimes we need to help others, because we cannot always see the challenges in front of us (like we could not see all sides of the cube as we were moving through it, and therefore were not aware when we were going to hit one side). All in all, it was a great morning! We learned a lot, and came together as a group as well! I am so excited for the week ahead!
In the Spirit of Matawa,
Lindsay (Frontier Village Director)

Last night at the Amazing Trekker Race, the girls of Spruce East, had to choose their fate! The easy side of the wall or the more difficult side of the wall. They chose the right hand and picked the easy side of the wall. The race went on with the girls taking a quick lead completing the wall. But the boys were quick to complete the wall and took the lead during archery. They causally jogged up to the dining and drew their best representation of YMCA Camp Matawa. Girls were still lagging behind. The boys finished their representation and then it came to the basketball courts, where the boys had their most difficult time. The girls caught up and moved to the balance beams (aka the Alpine Tower), where they took the lead. Soon they moved on to Matawa Lanes and bowled away the boys. They finished their Trekker cheer, and moved to the sand pits. The boys were right on girls tails catching up to take the lead. It all came down to the Gaga ball game, where the five boys beat the 11 girls in a game of Gaga Ball. The boys were victorious! Althought the boys won the Trekker Amazing Race, the village came together and sang our traditional daily evening song of “Friends.”

Tonight we are excited about having our traditional Wednesday night camp-out. The weather rock looks as if there will no rain or thunderstorms, so the Trekker Village will officially have their first camp-out of the year! So the Trekkers are in good spirits and we will have a great time making foil dinners, playing a few games, and singing some of our favorite camp songs. Also, we cannot wait to be looking at the stars to find our favorite constellations.

In the spirit of the Trekker Village,

We say, “and a knee to you”

We are currently in the middle of our superhero theme day, and boy has it been a blast! Andrew, our Trekker Village Director, and Lindsay, our Frontier Village Director, have transformed into Quail Man and Spatula Girl for the day. Evil Villains have stolen their loot, and unless the campers can find all of it, they will send Quail Man and Spatula Girl into the pond later this afternoon! The campers are about to start their search throughout camp for the missing coins in attempt to save Quail Man and Spatula Girl. Wish them luck, and remember to check the camp website for pictures early next week!

Hello to all from the pa-pa-pioneer village director! Today was a day full of fun and excitement for the pioneers. This morning we got together as a village and played a fun name game where we learned what super power each of us would have if our superpower started with the same letter of our first name. Then we paired up and each partner had to lead their blindfolded partner to an object just by talking. At first they found this hard to do because everyone was yelling at the same time – but behold they worked together and came up with the solution of taking turns! I have to say they are a pretty intelligent bunch! Our afternoon consisted of playing Sharks and Minnows and Blob Tag in the pool, followed by some parachute games which included Cat and Mouse and singing our village cheer under the “tent” we made. I don’t think I can count the number of times we have sang our village song today alone because we have sang it so many times – but it is so awesome to be able to cheer so loudly this week with two full pioneer cabins!!! Right now the girls are playing some John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt Lost and Found and the boys are on the A-Field playing kickball. They are all stoked for capture the flag tonight so hopefully the rain will hold off. I know I can’t wait to see how much fun we will have with the rest of our week!

Hello to all from the pa-pa-pioneer village director! Today was a day full of fun and excitement for the pioneers. This morning we got together as a village and played a fun name game where we learned what super power each of us would have if our superpower started with the same letter of our first name. Then we paired up and each partner had to lead their blindfolded partner to an object just by talking. At first they found this hard to do because everyone was yelling at the same time – but behold they worked together and came up with the solution of taking turns! I have to say they are a pretty intelligent bunch! Our afternoon consisted of playing Sharks and Minnows and Blob Tag in the pool, followed by some parachute games which included Cat and Mouse and singing our village cheer under the “tent” we made. I don’t think I can count the number of times we have sang our village song today alone because we have sang it so many times – but it is so awesome to be able to cheer so loudly this week with two full pioneer cabins!!! Right now the girls are playing some John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt Lost and Found and the boys are on the A-Field playing kickball. They are all stoked for capture the flag tonight so hopefully the rain will hold off. I know I can’t wait to see how much fun we will have with the rest of our week!