Parents

It can be a difficult decision for a family to enter their journey into the world of summer camp…we are here to help. We can assist with your questions about summer camp and with your decision to choose a camp. Camp Otterdale may be the right fit for your family or perhaps a colleague camp within the Ontario Camps Association.

When you decide to send your children to Otterdale, parents become part of our Otterdale community too. We encourage you to let us know what your hopes and goals are for your child’s experience at camp. Available on the Otterdale website is a form (Parents Communication Form) which is a direct communication route between you and your child’s counselling staff and the Directors. We feel it is important for you to let us know directly what you would like your child to achieve. For example, you may want your child to pass a certain swim level, achieve an award at canoeing, make new friends or swim the lake. The form also allows you to keep us up to date with any recent issues that occurred before camp that may be relevant to their camp experience and important for us to know about.

During the camp session we encourage you to utilize the camper email service (Bunk 1) to send mail to your child during their stay. We also welcome your call or email to the office if you want to check in and find out how they are doing. If we can’t tell you right away, we will talk with their counsellors and get right back to you.

We are all accustomed to the tools of convenient communication. At camp we deliberately restrict communication via text and phone to enable direct interactions with peers and engage campers with their camp community. We know this is difficult but we ask campers and parents not to pack cell phones or other data devices. Remember, contact us if you want to check in and see how they are doing!