Canadian Adventure Camp is a North Ontario coed sleepover summer camp for kids located on a beautiful private island in the wilderness lakes region of Temagami. Founded in 1975, it provides acclaimed programs to children from around the world! Visit site: http://www.canadianadventurecamp.com/ Canadian Adventure Camp 15 Idleswift Drive Thornhill, Ontario, L4J 1K9 Canada info@canadianadventurecamp.com

1. Summer Camp Challenge:

2. The rock climbing wall is both a metaphor and real-life challenge.

3. It signifies both a physical feat that requires strength, endurance,
and flexibility, and a testimony to the growth that kids
who attend overnight summer camp go through
on their way toward becoming young adults.

4. Most kids cannot climb
the rock wall
when they first show
up, but in just 4 weeks,
many do.

5. During the course of it,
they go through
a few phases.

7. Upon first spotting the rock wall
it seems like nothing more than
an insurmountable task.

8. Sure, the older kids can do it,
but not all of them.
Some of the counselors can, too.

9. This is an amazing accomplishment
that only truly incredible people can do.

10. However, this point-of-view changes
when someone quite normal does it.

12. Nothing helps someone succeed
like seeing another person
complete a task …

13. … especially if it's someone who
they should be able to do things
better than.

14. At coed summer camp, boys see a girl climb,
and then they are all suddenly like the runners
who followed Roger Bannister into the glory
of running sub 4-minute miles.

15. By being exposed to new groups of people
and challenges that are not present in their daily lives,
children find that when they go to camp they are doing
things that would have been otherwise unimaginable.

16. This is transposed in all aspects of their lives.

18. When children get to the top
of the mountain (or rock wall)
they get a different outlook on life.

19. Everything that was a certain way
before they achieved this feat
is no longer the same.

20. Something in them changes
from what they knew
they couldn't do into
an endless list of open possibilities.

21. The view from the top
is really different.

23. Among the many great success stories
of those who have climbed
the rock wall is David Katz.

24. David grew up in NewYork City
and is the younger brother of Matthew Katz,
whose accomplishments are so long
that listing them here would make this piece
unreadable.

25. Always standing in the shadow
of such an amazing sibling, it was hard
for little David to see the opportunities
one can only spot in the sunlight.

26. However, one day at camp,
away from his big brother's influence
and glaring spotlight, he decided to attempt
the rock wall.

27. Naturally, he was not able to ascend
the great beast on his first try, nor the
second, but counselors and campers alike
began rallying behind him, cheering him on,
and suddenly it was as if his success
was their own.

28. Encouraged by this esprit de corps,
David spent many hours working his way up,
meeting small goals of climbing
to just the next grip on his way
to the ultimate goal.

29. And when he did, the entire camp
came together for a grand celebration.

30. David Katz has since climbed
greater mountains (Columbia University
being one of them), but this first one
is the one he remembers as truly
the ultimate challenge.

31. Let your child have the summer camp Rock ClimbingWall
experience at CampWaltWhitman.

32. Learn more at
www.campwalt.com

33. Camp Walt Whitman
1000 Cape Moonshine Rd
Piermont, NH 03779
603-764-5521
cww@campwalt.com