Dave Street has been going away to summer camp for nearly his whole life, most of them to Camp Waskowitz in North Bend.<\/p>\n
Street first attended Waskowitz as a fifth-grader as a camper, then he went back as a teenager to be a counselor. Today, he is the camp director of the Kent Parks Residential Camp at Waskowitz program, the only city-run residence camp program in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing against any other camp,\u201d he says, a grin spreading across his face as he leans in for the punch line. \u201cBut they can\u2019t do what we do. We do one week and we give it everything we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
Street, known to a generation of campers as \u201cMr. Dave,\u201d and a staff of 40, take 140 Kent fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders to Waskowitz for a week of swimming, hiking, camping and fun each summer. This summer marks Street\u2019s 30th year as camp director.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s group heads up from Aug. 10 -14 and Street says there are still openings available for kids who want to get in on the fun.<\/p>\n
Nestled on 372 acres in North Bend, more than 4,500 campers have spent time at Waskowitz over the past 30 years, many of whom, like Street, keep coming back as counselors when their time as campers comes to an end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed it as a kid and thought it would be a great thing to do,\u201d says Bard Hall, 31, now a counselor at the camp.<\/p>\n
Camp begins each year bright and early at 8 a.m. Monday at Russell Road Park in Kent. After a quick trip to Snoqualmie Falls, the buses pull into camp for orientation and cabin assignments before beginning group activities in the afternoon, such as the ropes course, which the kids will have to do blindfolded, something the camp calls \u201cacclimatization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can\u2019t see it, you have to feel,\u201d Street says.<\/p>\n
According to Hall, the process ties into a larger idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe relate it to life,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what\u2019s ahead, but you know people who do. There are a few things we do to sneak a little education in without the kids really knowing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A full day of activities await on Tuesday – including making a Washington State resin mold and the camp\u2019s \u201cOlympic Games\u201d in which each cabin creates its own country, flag and song – and separate overnighters for boys and girls. Wednesday has more activities which may include a hike to the nearby waterfall and then the annual Bigger Than Big entertainment show, which in the past has featured American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis and his band, Buckley country musician Blaine Larsen and pop-rockers the Presidents of the United States of America.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the camp hosts its water carnival and ends the week with Family Night, where parents join their campers and watch various skits, as well as the final campfire.<\/p>\n
On Friday, there is an awards luncheon and the buses roll back to Kent.<\/p>\n
Street praised the Waskowitz staff: \u201cI\u2019ll tell you this about my counselors,\u201d he says, \u201cif they don\u2019t get through to everybody, they feel destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo us as counselors, this means more than a summer camp,\u201d adds Hall, who takes a week of vacation from work to be a counselor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Camp Waskowitz<\/p>\n
Camp Waskowitz is a five-day, four-night residence camp open to all boys and girls entering the fifth, sixth or seventh grade. Cost is $295, which includes transportation, accommodation, supervision, meals, a field trip and a T-shirt. For information or to register call the Kent Parks Resource Center at 253-856-5030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dave Street has been going away to summer camp for nearly his whole life, most of them to Camp Waskowitz in North Bend. Street first attended Waskowitz as a fifth-grader as a camper, then he went back as a teenager to be a counselor. Today, he is the camp director of the Kent Parks Residential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":13287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13286"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}