Virtual UU Kamp via the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix

Woohoo! The UUC of Phoenix has graciously opened their online UU Kids Kamp to UU kids across the country!  What a great opportunity for our kids to meet and create friendships with other UUs and to see that our denomination is so much larger than just our congregation.  Register today! https://sites.google.com/view/uukidskamp/about-kamp-2020_1?authuser=0

For rising 1st – 6th graders

We are offering 90 minutes of social-focused programming Mondays-Fridays, in a safe secure online space. Campers will be able to interact with their friends and play the same camp games we love, adapted for online play. We will get campers moving, talking, and thinking with their friends. 

Each camper will be joined with 4 other campers to form a squad. Each squad is led by one of our amazing Teen counselors. We have limited the size of groups this year to make sure that every camper gets the individual attention and social connection that has always made camp fun. During the 90-minute day, teachers will cycle into each squad’s zoom and lead them in activities. Squads will work as a team as they navigate different activities and challenges. It is the same kid-centered counselor led format that has always made camp successful.

Check out our promo video for a live demonstration: https://youtu.be/KHvxvWcAgu4

For Parents

At its most basic, camp will offer 90 minutes a day of structured activity for campers for the entire 4 weeks of June. That’s 90 minutes where you can breathe knowing your child’s interactions with their friends are in a safe and caring space. Our counselors will check in with you at least once a week to listen and help with any issues that your child may be facing during the month. This is NOT a typical zoom camp where kids are expected to follow along with prescribed and fixed activities. We want to give your child a chance to connect with other children and staff at camp. Dancing in front of their desk at home like a goon during the drum class is just the icing on the cake.

We recognize that many of our camp families are facing a scarcity of funds for necessities, let alone luxuries. No kid should miss out on camp, and so, there is no enrollment fee for Kids Kamp 2020. The brains behind this year’s Kids Kamp are made up of the youth members of the Kids Kamp Council. These kids know better than anyone what works and doesn’t work with Zoom interactions as they have spent the last 2 months as the test subjects in the giant Zoom social experiment. From their experiences, we understand how vital it is to keep Zoom room sizes small to allow for genuine communication with their peers. With their advice, we have reset the size of groups to half the traditional size to ensure that each camper has enough space to connect with their friends and staff. This change, while essential to provide genuine social connection for our campers, effectively doubles our staffing needs. The total budget for camp this year is $30,000, primarily for fair wage compensation. With anticipated enrollment, that works out to a little over $675 for a 5 day camper for four weeks. We anticipate that some campers cannot pay their tuition for a multitude of reasons. Instead, we ask that you give what you can to subsidize camp so that it may be a possibility for every camper. Every dollar you put towards our $30,000 goal will ensure that the kids we know and love have an opportunity to see their friends and get lost in the play of camp.