SummerKids youth hand a Camp Counselor a kindness card.

SummerKids youth hand Camp Counselor "Rainbow" a kindness card created on this staff member's last day. The kindness cards were created in their Sparks Club, which aims to spark and support friendship.

Summer programs have almost come to a close, but it’s never too late to reflect on what we’ve noticed at the season’s end: Something incredible has once again happened over the course of a couple of months. For starters, come August, the first-day camp jitters were long gone. The games became familiar, the songs second nature, and the air filled with the easy laughter of kids who’d found their stride and knew the ropes.

A table with lots of art supplies and kids making cards.

For many campers and program participants, this confidence came to be about more than mastering a craft, making the perfect paracord bracelet, winning a game, or even spotting a Sasquatch—it was about forming friendships that now feel like they could last a lifetime.

“Friendships are really important here at Camp Fire,” says Cadence, a veteran SummerKids camp counselor who spoke to the intention behind building connections. “We help nurture them through our activities.”

For example, she says, through Sparks Clubs, campers had a chance to choose daily what they wanted to do based on their interests or what activities “sparked” them. For those kids engaging around their sparks, they often built relationships with people who like the same things.

Sometimes, those Sparks Club friendships started with something as small as a kindness card—little notes campers wrote to brighten someone’s day, an activity Cadance led in one of her Sparks Clubs. Other friendships began with one or more campers including others in a cheerful conversation or an invitation to play.

Three campers holding hands in friendship on the playground.

At SummerKids, the bonds of friendship are real. Pictured here (left to right) are three campers, Avery, Karter and Clara.

The impact of friendships at camp? BIG!

“Kindness can spread trust and love between friends,” explains Karter, a camper who admitted she was nervous her first summer because she didn’t know anyone. Then she made friends with several other girls, and everything changed.

“When I’m with them, I feel happy,” Karter says. “And if I didn’t have them, camp would be… not fun.”

Clara, one of Karter’s friends, agreed, adding that if we didn't have friendships, "there'd be a lot of hatred...lonely (or loneliness) ... anger ... fights ... depression."

She and Karter, who've been longtime SummerKids campers, have grown their circle of friendship over the years to include other campers, such as Avery, a first-year SummerKids youth. In this way, Clara pointed out that she has learned kindness is contagious, with huge transformative potential that not only spreads to other kiddos but, in theory, could reach beyond the confines of camp.

"If one person starts being kind, then people would see how it impacts camp," she says. "Then if everyone started doing that, then soon the whole world would mostly be full of love and care."

Two youth smile as they hold a robot and the ipad for coding.

In Tech Tinker Team, Aiden and Lucy experienced the power of giving and receiving.

Such teaching moments of kindness aren’t always grand gestures—they can be as simple as noticing someone who needs help.

Case in point: “I saw the sad-face look,” remembers Aiden, a youth in Camp Fire’s Tech Tinker Team camp, who recounted how after mastering a robotics challenge with the help of his camp counselor, he overheard Lucy, a fellow camper, mention she was struggling to get her robot to perform the same mission.

“I thought I’d come and be a good helper,” Aiden reflected.

What happened with this help? For Lucy, experiencing that act of kindness—assistance from another camper—resulted in transformation and joy.

“I feel happy now that I can do it,” she told Camp Fire staff as she smiled about her newfound confidence in programming her robot to circle a chair, complete the challenge, and, once accomplished, earn the reward of free-building with gazillions of LEGO robotics pieces.

Two SummerKids male youth hugging and holding an Origami parrot.

Alister and Gavin have made fast friends at Camp Fire this summer, bonding over their shared Spark: Origami.

Meanwhile, for Alistair, a SummerKids camper who found a new buddy in an origami Sparks Club, the connection around folding papers quickly developed into powerful friendship—and he’s noticed this important fact!

“Friends are people you can count on—not people who go behind your back,” he says. “Me and Gavin liked origami. We started talking and had fun making ninja stars together. He’s very kind.”

Friendship at Camp Fire also means learning to collaborate around a common goal, such as in the case of participants volunteering through our Teen Service Challenge program.

“When we clean up something or build something, we all have to work together,” says Stella. “It brings us closer.”

Over time, that teamwork builds skills that last beyond camp, too, she notes.

Stella (front right in light blue) talks about the impact of gaining important life skills through Camp Fire's summertime teen programs.

“It’s helped me talk to other people at school or other camps,” she says. “It’s helped me in life.”

Some bonds stretch across years, such as in the instance of Stella’s friendships with several other former campers who also participated in Teen Challenges, doing community service projects and helping with SummerKids youth this summer.

Stella says, “We’ve grown through the ages together,” first as campers, now as helpers with SummerKids.

These moments—big and small—are the heart of what makes Camp Fire special.

By late summer, we’ve seen how the shyness of June has been replaced with shared jokes, inside references, and often plans to keep in touch after camp ends. Some kids may strategize to connect over the school year. Others make promises to meet again next summer, continuing their journey with Camp Fire.

Two girls read together on a mat on the floor.

Linden and Shelby (left to right) share reading and funny stories during some quiet time at SummerKids.

A number of them, such as Linden and Shelby, hope to make, whether at future SummerKids camps or throughout the school year, more unforgettable memories—including funny ones, which come up often in their conversations.

"There's a really funny memory...we went down to the bathroom, and Shelby was itchy, and I looked in her hair and there was a daddy longlegs in there!"

As Cadence puts it, “Kindness can sprout friendships and great conversations.” But at Camp Fire in particular, those conversations might not only spark friendly—and even funny—talk but also the start of relationships that last a lifetime.