WELCOME TO THE TOURNAMENT OF CAMPIONS!!
We are so excited to announce that this year we will be sharing with you all a summer long tournament style reality challenge show! Now, I know what you are thinking. I just read that four times and I still have no idea what this dude is talking about. No problem!! We will answer all of your questions below.
What is Tournament of Campions?
Tournament of Campions is a bracket-style, single elimination competition in which out-of-bunk staff members compete in all sorts of camp related team activities. Competitions can be strategy based, physically based, camp classics, or anything we come up with, as long as they are team oriented!
Who is involved? In what capacity?
This is where we get very excited. Not only are our out-of-bunk staff involved, but so are our in-bunk staff, the campers, their parents, and alumni! How do we do it? We bring camp to YOU!
Every Sunday, two out-of-bunk staff members will get paired up. They will then get to know each other better and find a team activity that they will be equally good at (or bad at). Once they have agreed upon an activity, they will draft a team. The next Saturday at Chufsha, the teams will compete against each other. The team members’ campers will come out to support their counselor and see an exciting event! Campers will not be required to watch during their free time, but we are sure they will want to!
You may be asking; I am not at camp, why do you say I will be involved? Most Fridays this summer, we will release an entire episode about the previous week’s activities. This will be a great opportunity to be a part of camp even if you are not at camp! Parents will be able to watch something that their children have seen live and can send each other mail about, alumni will be able to root for staff members from their same unit (or whoever you believe in most), second session campers will get to be involved in the camp culture before even arriving at camp, and first session campers will be able to continue rooting for their favorite teams even after they have left for the summer!
How do we keep up with it?
People on camp will get an opportunity to watch the events live at Saturday Chufsha, as well as watch the edited episode the following Saturday at brunch. Everyone at home will be able to watch the edited episodes Friday when you receive the Friday newsletter.
Throughout the summer, we will post stats and other interesting information about the competitors and their teams. Stay on the lookout across all GFC social media to stay updated!
How did this idea come to be?
As a manager, Ryan Hance is especially interested in relationships and perception. How do we view ourselves, and how do we view others? Since he was a camper, he would tend to find a disconnect between those shadowy figures that seemed to exist only in the office, and the campers and counselors that were running around the rest of the acreage of camp. Now that he is in a position to affect positive change, he worked hard on building this idea in order to engage our community and bring us all a little bit closer.
In reference to community engagement, this competition is designed so that camp leaders will be seen playing instead of working, reminding staff and campers alike that we too are human. In addition to our “play,” we will be leading teams of staff members. This gives us opportunities to engage with more staff at higher intellectual and emotional levels. As we continue to engage with more staff, we also engage with more campers.
We can’t wait for you – as the greater camp community – to engage with us on this exciting adventure this summer, and if you don’t know Ryan yet, I’m sure you’ll be seeing his face soon.