It’s time to start preparing for this year’s Young Women’s Camp.  I thought I would write about our 2014 camp for any of those Camp Directors out there looking for ideas.  Our camp was AWESOME!  We had fabulous leaders, a great camp, and super fun activities.  Our theme was “Treasure the Truth”.  It was fun to use the idea of “treasure” for inspiration.  As you scroll through this post you can click on each section for more ideas – I didn’t want this to turn into the world’s longest blog post.  I hope you enjoy learning about our camp.

Our camp is a traditional camp in the mountains with a lodge and cabins.  We had access to a small lake and canoes, rock wall, archery, BB guns, volleyball, swimming, hiking, and crafts.  Below are ideas we added to enhance camp.

This is our camp logo.  Click HERE to download a high resolution version, you are welcome to adapt it to your needs.

Each level was a Gemstone based on a Young Women Value.  Click HERE to download all the gemstone printables.

1st Years: Diamonds, 2nd Years: Sapphires, 3rd Years: Gold, 4th Years: Amethyst, YCLS: Emerald, Leaders: Fire Opal, Nurse: Ruby

Every level received a lanyard based on the color of their level with a gemstone name tag.  Click HERE for more pictures of the lanyards, tutorial, and printable name badges.

Attached to the lanyards was a camp itinerary and a camp song book.

I love reading other camp’s itineraries – here is ours.  Click here for the PDF.

When we got to camp we had a treasure hunt where the girls received their bandanas, itineraries, songbooks, and other camp goodies like CANDY!  I went into LA and bought colored lace the colors of the values.  I cut them into triangles.  They were super cute.

The Young Women Camp Manual has been around for a while and I know some years girls don’t even bring them to camp.  I wanted to breath new life into the camp manual so we turned them into scrapbooks or smash books.  The treasure hunt ended in the lodge where we had tables set up and tons of scrapbooking & paper crafting supplies.  The girls got to decorate their camp manuals!  I had also printed out photos from the past few years.  The girls were encouraged to carry their manual with them at all times at camp.  Throughout the week we had handouts and quotes they could glue in their manuals.  This is mine:

I put tabs on the sides so I can easily find each level and other requirements.  Mine is loaded with pictures.  I love looking at it!!!

I think the girls had fun with this project!!

I love the lanyard idea because throughout the week the girls received pins for different devotionals or activities.  It was so fun to see everyone’s lanyard at the end of camp!!

Name Badges – I made these by gathering streamers – click HERE for the tutorial and printable.

When we kicked off our theme on the first day, we introduced our “Treasure Board”.  The leaders had made this before camp.  It’s a HUGE frame with a collage of material treasures.  The goal during the week was to cover the material treasures with spiritual treasures.  By the end of the week the board was covered with religious pictures, quotes, and uplifting pictures.  I love the idea of visualizing what our heart treasures.

T-Shirts – We tried to save on cost by not having official camp shirts.  We gave each level a white V-neck shirt and they were to create their shirt based on their value gemstone.  I love this idea!  It was so fun to all the creativity!

Of course I tie-dyed the leader’s shirts

The YCLs did a kind of reverse spray paint technique

The 4th Years did an ombre inspired technique with words on the back

The 3rd years had gold 3s on the back and their name in cursive gold sequins

The second years did a tape/paint technique

The first years had a diamond ring printed on the shirts

Crafts: Our crafts were the best so far.  Again, money was tight.  We asked for donations and then created crafts out of what we received.  The girls had a BLAST!  Click HERE to see all the crafts we made.

Meet Gemma Diamond our Camp mascot.  Every evening at dinner the stake leaders did a silly skit/dance with Gemma.  Gemma got to go home with a different level each night.  She brought with her a letter, something for each girl to wear, and an owl pin to add to their lanyards.  The first night she brought tiaras, the second night large YW paper medallions, the third night capes, and the fourth night missionary badges.

Here you can see Gemma at the end of camp – she really learned a lot!

Here is a sample letter from Gemma.  If you are interested in all the letters, click HERE

We had “Treasured Value” rotations where the girls rotated listening to an uplifting message based on a value.  At each rotation they received a handout to put in their camp manual and a gemstone bead to put in their bottle necklace.  The necklaces were really cute, but many of the girls played with them and they broke.  I would hand these out at the end.  But I love having a bottle necklace with the value gems in it!

In the lodge we had an area designated for “Treasured Sisters”.  This was to replace our traditional “Secret Sisters”.  Instead of shopping and bringing gifts to camp, we drew names at camp and encouraged the young women to make something for their sister at camp.  The sisters were not secret and the girls introduced themselves at the beginning.  For the most part it worked, some of the girls were shy and didn’t approach their sister for a few days.  We were inspired by the Frozen movie’s Elsa and Anna 🙂  Click HERE fore the treasured sisters form.  Every day we had paper and pens where they could write notes and we had a little item they could give their sister, like candy or a pin.

I typed my own certification table so we all could keep better track.  If you would like a copy click HERE

One night we had a Faith Walk.  I have seen many versions of this but ours was AMAZING!  We had 5 vignettes around the camp. A Nephite woman who was there when Jesus came, Mary the mother of Jesus, the blind man who Jesus healed, the young Joseph Smith, and the woman who touched Jesus robe.  Many of our actors also sang a song that went with their character.  The young women were asked not to talk while they walked on the journey.  It was very powerful.  We lit the whole camp with paper bag lanterns, 500 to be exact.  And then at night we turned them all off, and we liked them so much we turned them on each night!

Camp was amazing and I did not want to come home.  The young women in our stake are so AWESOME!  The Sunday after camp we have an awards night and slideshow.  All the families are invited, we watch a slide show of all the pictures.  Then each girl who completed her certification received an award.  We give them a level charm that they can add to a bracelet or necklace, a certificate, and a camp photo to add to their manual.  Click HERE  to download a generic certificate.  I like that the certificates are smaller so they can be glued into the camp manual.

If a girl has completed 6years of camp she gets a gold or silver pinecone to wear alongside her Young Womenhood Recognition Medallion.