Maddie's Spring Hill Experience

Last Sunday we took Maddie up to Spring Hill Camp in Evart, MI. Spring Hill is the most amazing camp in the world, and happens to be a Christian Camp. As a consultant, I'm amazed at the way they run the place, the systems they have in place, the customer touch point they have and the way they have doing camp down to an art form. They have online systems that let communicate with your kid, see what they're doing via pictures and purchases at the general store, not to mention their onboarding processes.

It just so happens that Maddie had an amazing time and grew in her faith. The camp is like disney land. They have giant zip lines, ropes courses, climbing walls, skate parks, blobs, tubing and every other fun thing in the world. The cabins are everything from an old fashioned fort, tree-houses, bomber-planes, train cars, tee-pees, fire-stations and others. Everything the kids do the staff uses as an object lesson around their faith. The camp integrates faith and fun in a great way that is just right for their developmental levels.

During the pick-up, you're greeted by camp staff applauding you and cheering you from the time you pull in the parking lot and park your car, through to the check-out. They have this giant close-out ceremony where each group talks about what they learned and perform a quick song or skit.

From there we broke into smaller groups and got to meet Maddie's cabin leader. Maddie went with her friend Grace.
On the ride home, I heard as much about what Maddie learned about what she learned and how she grew in her faith as I did about all of the wild things they did. I figured she crash hard on the drive home and sleep the whole way. Maddie talked non-stop and sung me every one of the hundred songs she learned during the three hour ride home. Seriously, non-stop. I loved having the time of just her and I, with no-cell phone or music.
Maddie's cabin was girls from fifth to seventh grade. In the closing ceremony, their counselor passed out awards to each for a character trait. Maddie received the awards from maturity. At least one of us has received that award in our lifetime.