Making a Cabin Request - New Camper Blog Series

New camper families – welcome back! It’s another Tuesday, which means another week of our New Camper Blog series.

With the weeks counting down until the end of school, we know camp is on the brain for many of you! We’ve been getting lots of calls at our office as you are starting to prepare for camp - it’s an exciting time! A big thing you will need to do before the summer is to fill out all of your camp forms. You can access those online, and the majority of the forms you fill out right there in your account (all due May 1st!). Today we are looking at one form in particular…

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Let’s talk about cabin requests specifically. One of the forms you will want to fill out is our Greystone Cabin Request form. At Greystone, girls live in a cabin with other campers from their same grade. Every once in a while we will have a cabin that spans two grades, but the majority of our camper cabins are set up to house one grade group.

Cabins are made up of 8 – 12 campers and either one or two counselors. When we are putting together cabin groups, it is like a big puzzle! We look at every camp grade individually (sometimes this includes over 100 girls!), and we then look at each camper individually within that grade. We want to find the best possible cabin group for your daughter – that is our number one goal when we work on cabin placement. We want each camper to love her cabin and love her counselor(s)! As we are working on cabin placement, here are some things to know:

  • We try our best to honor all double cabin requests (you request a friend and that same friend also requests you).
  • We allow up to two requests from each camper. You can request a hometown friend and a camp friend, a hometown friend and your Penpal, or even 2 camp friends. For our new families, it will most likely be a hometown friend and a Penpal, as you haven’t made camp friends…yet!
  • Make sure to request your Penpal if you’d like to be with her. You should have already received the name of your Penpal, and if you’d like to be in a cabin with your Penpal, let us know on your Cabin Request form.
  • Many new camp families don’t have a request. This is normal! If you’re new to Greystone and don’t know anyone attending, no need to worry. Many families are in this same situation. We will find your daughter a great cabin group!
  • We will not put lots of girls from the same hometown in one cabin. We want girls to meet new friends and for camp to be a new experience. Because of this, we won’t put a huge group from the same place in a cabin.
  • We look at cabin groups from last year and try to switch things up. We want every summer to be a new year, so we won’t put an entire cabin group back together again. This is great for our new campers – every year, the group is new, so being brand new to camp isn’t that big of a deal – everyone is experiencing something new on the first day!
  • We try to place your daughter in the perfect group for her. You fill out quite a bit of information before you come to camp, and we take in all of it when considering each camper for a cabin. We want each group to be a good mix of personalities, but also a place where every camper will feel like she has a friend.
  • If you don’t want to be with someone who is requesting you, let them know! It is so much better to talk to a family ahead of time than disappointing everyone on Opening Day. We don’t keep cabin requests confidential, and we will be honest with all groups involved if there is a cabin request question. Avoid this disappointment by being honest ahead of time!
  • Have twins? Make sure to list the twins as a cabin requests on your Cabin Request form, if you want for your girls to be together. We don’t automatically assume you want them together – you need to let us know.
  • You’ll find out your cabin assignment on Opening Day…it is one of the most exciting parts of camp. When you arrive, our Staff will greet you at your car and tell you your cabin assignment. It’s fun!
  • You may not know anyone, but don’t worry. Our counselors do a great job of helping the group as everyone gets to know each other. In no time, our new campers feel like seasoned campers and will have some great camp friends!

We also have a great parent video explaining the Cabin Placement process, so make sure to check it out (and make sure to watch our other parent videos too!).

Have any questions about cabin requests? Let us know! We know your daughter is going to love her cabin this summer!!!

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