Letters
Links with home are very important. They are your expression of love and support for the experience your child is having. They furnish security in knowing that everything is alright at home. Please write to your child at least once a week and preferably two to three times. You may even want to send letters ahead of time so that your child will have a letter waiting for them when they get to camp. You can also leave a couple of letters with us on opening day.
Give Camp’s address to other friends and relatives too (please include the camper’s cabin number once you receive it on opening day). You don’t need to write long letters; just a postcard or note with something positive. Please do not discuss home problems or over-emphasize how much you miss your child (that can also produce homesickness). Simply write frequent, newsy dispatches, supporting your child’s experience at camp and asking questions about camp.
If you receive troubling correspondence from your child, please contact us so that we can help. On our part, we will try to get the campers to write home. Remember, campers are busy and forget to write home. You will also receive a postcard from your child’s cabin counselor that will tell you how they are doing in the cabin and what classes they are taking. All of these handwritten letters home, including the homesick ones, become treasured keepsakes. Please note that our local Post Office is the last on the line and mail can be slow to depart from and arrive to Pisgah Forest.
Telephone Use and Contact with Camp
Telephone Use and Contact with Camp: Telephones and parents’/guardians’ voices endanger the child’s total independence in one fell swoop. Hearing that loving and concerned voice on the other end of the phone is simply too much. Therefore, we don’t allow telephone contact with the child except in cases of emergencies. We will, however, deliver important messages from you. Personal cell phones for campers are not allowed at camp. Please do not send a cell phone with your child for their use while at camp.
We want to keep parents and guardians in the loop and are very accessible. Please call or email us when you need to connect or would like an update. We enjoy talking with parents and guardians about their child’s experience at camp. You can contact the Camp Director, Paige Lester-Niles at paige@enf.org.
Visiting
We know parents and guardians love to participate in, observe, or be part of our children’s experiences; however, we have found that visits to camp by parents and guardians can be disruptive. We do not allow campers to have visitors, and ask parents and guardians to experience and observe camp through letters, pictures posted on a photo platform called Pixevety, and conversations with camp leadership. You’ll also have lots of stories to look forward to at the end of the session.
Care Packages (NEW in 2022)
We know that parents enjoy sending care packages to their children; however, we believe that kind letters from loved ones are more meaningful. To create a community that is equitable and sustainable, we have adopted a non care packages policy. Any care packages will be held in the camp office until closing day. Please inform family and friends of this policy. If your child left an important item at home, please contact us at camp.
Photos and Web Updates
We are happy to provide digital photographs of camp activities through a portal on our website. Eagle’s Nest is continuing to partner with Pixevety, which is a consent-driven photo platform designed to protect photos and privacy. Pixevety allows us to organize all of our camp photos on one platform to be accessed safely and securely by families. On Pixevety, families will be able to search content and download photos. As we get closer to the start of camp we will send out information on how to login to Pixevety and view photos of your camper. We also update our blog frequently. We know that families enjoy seeing pictures of their children. While we will do our best to update the pictures every few days, we are occasionally unable to do so because of timing, internet access, and our need and desire to spend time with the campers. We try to be very unobtrusive in our picture-taking as we find picture-taking can be disruptive to the experience. Please remember you are only viewing a “snapshot” of life at camp and a photo of a leg sporting a band-aid or a picture of a studious child are all part of daily life and not a sign of distress. Your children are in the hands of caring, capable professionals dedicated to your child’s daily wellbeing.