A Week in the Life of a Camp Woodie Camper

OTHER CAMP WOODIE STORIES

Tour of Camp Facilities A Look at Camp Activities Camp Woodie and SCWA Professional Instructors at Camp

We are often asked: “What will my child be doing at Camp Woodie?” We decided to put together a description of the daily activities from beginning to end. Of course, if you ever have any questions please feel free to call the office at any time, and remember to keep an eye out for up coming specials.

Day 1- Sunday
Campers begin arriving around 5 pm. We have a table set up in the lodge where parents can meet the director, assistant director, and some of our staff. At this time parents can turn in any missing paper work, finish any necessary payments, drop off bows, buy raffle tickets, deposit money for canteen, turn in any medical information, ask any questions that might be on your mind, give any special instructions, receive grouping information, and spend time looking around the lodge. After completing check-in, parents accompany their sons or daughters to the assigned sleeping area where they can un-pack, meet some counselors, and spend some time with their kids before departing.
Around 6:00 we gather all of the campers in the main lodge and review Camp Woodie rules and guidelines, see if anyone has any questions, discuss some of the things that will be going on during the week and then have a pizza dinner sponsored by Papa Johns.  After dinner, we all get to know each other and have all group activities for about an hour.  Afterwards, we head to the campfire ring for the opening night campfire.  Following this meeting, campers receive a snack and head for their bunks and prepare for bed. We turn the lights out at 10 pm.

Day 2 – Monday
Everyday we wake up at 7 am, have breakfast at 7:30 am, and start field activities by 8:00 am. Monday is the only exception where we have a general gun safety review for all of the campers immediately after breakfast.  We then get into our groups and start our activities.  Campers could start their camp week at the 5 Stand, Skeet Range, 22 range, Archery, Walk Through Sporting Clays and many more!  Each activity is designed to last approximately 1 ½ hours.  
Activity 1 begins at 9:00 running until 11:00 and we taught the campers how to build their own survival tent/sleeping bag combo.  Lunch is a well-balanced meal that the campers continually enjoy.  Lunch runs until 12:30 where we break for activity two.
Activity 2 ends around 2:15 and we have canteen at this time.  Activity 3 begins at 2:45 and will run until 4:15.   Activity Four begins at 4:15 and ends at 5:45.  We break for an awesome dinner and began evening activities at around 6:30.   We do a second canteen at approximately 8:30 and get everyone back to the bunks to prepare for bedtime. Lights out at 10:00 pm.

Day 3 – Tuesday
We will basically follow the same schedule each day with the following exceptions. Tuesday’s have traditionally been Wood Duck mornings where Stuart Cochran, head waterfowl biologist of SCWA, comes in the morning for an hour to teach the campers about what makes our camp mascot so unique.  Stuart usually gives them some Waterfowl I.D. tips and brings some live ducks in for them to actually see what he is explaining.   In the evening, the Charleston Retriever Club has been coming out to show us the difference between a beginning dog and a finished dog.  Those dogs can fetch the paper and read it to you!  Afterward we play the most intense game in the world called Tubeicide.  Tubeicide is played either in our mud pit or on our soccer field and it is indescribable.  Look for pictures to be posted.

Day 4 – Wednesday
We still adhere to the same basic schedule; however, we usually have two special guests visit us on Wednesday’s.  Jim Edwards of SCDNR takes the kids and teaches them some amazing facts and concepts, as well has having a live animal show. He is a wonderful addition to our curriculum and the kids love to see what he is going to be doing that day. Marc Ackerman of Swamp Thing Calls also comes on Wednesday’s to put on a duck-calling seminar for all the campers.  Marc is dedicated to passing on the art of duck calling to our campers but he always warns the campers that their families at home might be as enthusiastic about their duck calling practice.  Wednesday culminates in a traditional game of capture the flag out on our Island. The campers really get involved in this by dressing up in their camouflage and putting their woodland ninja skills to the test.   Afterwards we have a snack and lights out 10:00 pm.

Day 5 – Thursday
We start our morning off in our Camp Woodie Woodsman/Woman Contest where we shortly revisit all shooting venues.  At these areas, we keep score of all broken clays and sunk arrows.  Though this is a camp wide competition, we stress to everyone to strive for their personal best and not worry about anyone else.  Afterwards we eat lunch and go down to the campfire ring for a duck calling contest and maybe a group activity called Action Jackson.  With the time we have left, we have a Wacky Woodie Olympics where activities can sink their counselor in a canoe, the decoy throw and skinning the snake (not literally).  We also have the kids perform a little camp love by helping us give the camp a quick clean.
Our cook prepare a great dinner for the families of the campers which starts promptly at 6:00 pm. Parents begin to arrive around 4:30 and should proceed to the check out table where they can receive any refunds and check their son or daughter out. Parents will then have time to pack up their children’s things and get ready for a wonderful dinner. Thursday evening is also the time for our awards ceremony.  The counselors come up and present the cabin awards where each camper is given a title like Best Archer, Wing Shot, etc.  The director will then award the winner of our Camp Wide Competition and bring up the campers who distinguished themselves during the week.  The ceremony ends with each camper getting a prize in a drawing.  After the ceremony, we say our good byes and take the memories away of another great week at Camp Woodie. 

Descriptions
Canteen: Canteen is a time for campers to do several things. They get to purchase merchandise (money that you deposit on day 1, please do not let your kids take money with them) including Camp Woodie hats and shirts, calls, and other miscellaneous hunting and fishing items. This is also a time for them to socialize with other campers, have a snack, drink, and most definitely, a chance to cool down.

Activities: There are several basic activities that make Camp Woodie so special, however we are constantly trying to add new activities at every opportunity.

Skeet Shooting - Campers have an opportunity to shoot skeet on a high house, low house, regulation sized skeet range. Campers are challenged with many different shooting angles that provides and excellent opportunity to practice their shooting techniques. Counselors are close by providing guidance and support to help each camper become better and safer shooters.
Walk-thru Sporting Clays- Definitely the most challenging of all of the activities. It consists of a ten station walk-thru course (in the woods) putting campers in all sorts of shooting situations. Counselors provide instruction on the tougher shots and stand by for safety and questions. Campers are faced with singles and doubles coming from the front, back, overhead, and side-to-side, each simulating real hunting situations in the field.

Five Station – Probably the most popular of all of the activities, the five station is simply that, five positions that simulate six different shooting situations. Campers see overhead, straight up, left to right, straight at them, and the rabbit. After spending some time with the basics, we often play different types of shooting games at these positions allowing campers to experience new things.

Rifle and Pistol range - Most of the time we only allow campers to shoot 22 LR’s at this station, however, some advanced camp weeks shoot hi-powered rifles or pistols. At this location, campers place targets on the range and practice the finer points of shooting, since there is not a lot of room to miss with a rifle.

Archery – The archery range consists of a 25-station walk-thru 3D course. Campers shoot at a variety of targets as small as a skunk to a full-sized standing black bear. They will begin this activity shooting on the range and then proceed to the course when they feel comfortable with their bows.

Fishing – We have several ponds stocked with bass, bream, crappie and some feisty catfish. We try to provide every camper with an opportunity to catch each of these either from our dock or along the edges of the pond. We often do cast net demonstrations, and seining during this activity.

Boating – A very important activity to everyone. Campers are taken out on the Bullington pond where they learn all the ins and outs of canoeing. They are challenged to accomplish some of the many difficult tasks often faced when canoeing. Some of the advanced campers spend some time fishing out of the canoes as well.

Nature Trail – We also have a beautiful trail that starts at the Woodie roost and winds all the way around the big pond back to the VIP Cabin, during which campers have a chance to experience many of nature’s wonders.

These are considered the staples of camp, however, we have so many other activities that intertwine amongst these larger ones, and we could never list them all. Several times during the summer, new opportunities are available, and we jump right on them, not to mention all of the wonderful professional instructors that come to camp each summer. These change on a regular basis but a camper can feel confident they are going to meet some neat people. The preceding has been a short glimpse into the days of what we do at camp, but please remember that you can call anytime to ask questions that are more specific. We look forward to meeting you in the summer of 2008.