Camp Palawopec

I would have given more than 5 stars if I could. This place is special. You can feel it the moment you drive up the 1-mile-long gravel driveway. You are greeted by the most fun energetic staff ever. Then you see the breathtaking grass field called the valley. If you are lucky you can see the morning fog lingering in the valley and smell the campfire embers from the night before. Then they grab your stuff and hike up the hill to your home for the summer. The most quaint and beautifully rustic cabin. The cabins have names like Black Snake Lodge, Fox's Den, Deer trails, etc. It is truly what every kid dreams of. You can tell right away that not only will it be a fun time for your child but they will make friends for life. It is more like family than fellow cam mates.I went here as a camper and then work there for many years in the late '80s and early '90s. It was my happy place. I loved it so much that my daughter started going and now she is on staff. It is her happy place too. 40 years later I am still in touch with my summer family from my time there. I heard a psychologist once say we can teach our kids almost everything to prepare them for life, but there is one thing it is impossible to teach our kids......independence. Camp introduces your child to independence at an early age and makes them a more well-rounded independent being later in life.

This is an absolutely wonderful place with all the things that you want in a camp. The directors are good, down-to-earth people devoted to giving campers outstanding outdoor experiences like canoeing, hiking, backpacking, swimming, archery and singing songs around a campfire at night. The staff are kind, generous and enthusiastic, which really is crucial for the ultimate camper experience. A big part of the reason is that they are instilled with the core values of Camp Palawopec.Both my son and my daughter attended as kids, then came back to be counselors. They have learned manners, hard work and outdoor fun. Fitness and responsibility, and a sense of wonder and adventure. Kids these days need time away from electronics, they need to spend more time in nature, and this place, a beautiful emerald valley nestled among the hills of Brown County, Indiana, is is the ideal camp.

I was a camper at Camp Palawopec for 2 years. I had been to other camps and none of them came close. Some made you sign up for classes that you took all week long. Others had set agenda that everyone followed. And rules! Palawopec was different. And it continues to be different. As a kid, I was immersed in a world of possibility as each day offered something different: swimming, fishing, horse rides, mtn biking, caving day trips, canoe trips, kayaking on the lake, crafts, checkers tournament, backpacking, rock climbing, and many many more. It's an all-inclusive, overnight camp for boys and girls ages 8-13. Campers stay in primitive open air log cabins for 1 or 2 weeks or more in concurrent sessions. Some sessions are co-ed while others are specific boys or girls. After suffering through years of school where everything is designed to assimilate, Camp Palawopec celebrates the uniqueness in all of us and encourages individualism. Don't like the twelve activities offered that day at morning announcements? No problem, grab a counselor and head off to do your thing! With a camper-to-staff ratio of no more than 2-1, there's always someone around to help each kid find their outdoor passion. This is where Palawopec excels. I spent 13 summers there, under Mike Nickel's leadership, working my way up to co-director and can attest that this camp does change lives. Many of my fellow staff alumni have gone on to work in the outdoors, environmental science (myself included), as well as become successful in many other lines of work. Typical day at Camp Palawopec: Breakfast bell rings at about 8am. Kids wake up and head down to the dining hall for pancakes, french toast, cereal and juice. Next they return to their cabin to make their bed, brush teeth and get ready for the day. Everyone gathers at flagpole for morning announcements and activities. Some of the options mentioned above take place every day, as well as many others, including overnight backpacking trips, field games, archery, and a high ropes course. A few hours later it's time for lunch and everyone has a big appetite after an active morning. Campers get a chance to rest in their cabins after lunch for about 30 minutes. Then the bell rings out across the valley and that signals that it's time for SWIM! Everyone puts on their bathing suit and runs down to the sand beachfront to start swim session. Multiple lifeguards, a buddy system and swim tags ensure a safe environment. The lake features a floating high dive, a wooden raft, kayaks, a zip line across the lake and a rope swing. It's a great way to cool off on a hot summer day. Just when your appetite starts to grow again, we head down to the commissary after swim for a snack or cold drink before hearing what afternoon activities will be offered. Finally, we head back to flagpole to take down the flag and head down to dinner. After that is an all-camp evening game in the pasture such as Capture The Flag, Ultimate Frisbee, or softball. One more snack at commissary tides everyone over for the upcoming evening campfire that winds down the day. Wooden benches at both a lakeside and hillside campfire ring are a great place to hear kids and counselors play guitars, banjos, drums, and flutes. Kids are encouraged to get up and tell stories, act out skits and sing along. We end each day of the 10 week summer by singing Taps and the kids, worn out from another day of adventure head back eagerly to their bunk for the night with their counselors. There's a reason Camp Palawopec has been hosting campers for over 50 years. Camp Palawopec changes lives. I encourage you to let it change yours!

I am 15 and I have been attending camp palawopec since I was 10. This span of time is an amount of time where kids really become the person who they are. I can tell you without a doubt that camp palawopec is the reason that I am the person I am today. Camp palawopec gave me courage to stand up for what I believe in and just be myself. I think these things are quality a that every kid should have. The environment in the valley is one that makes you feel as if you are home. My very first week there I found myself with more confidence that I had ever had. I made friends I had never imagined I would have. I am the person I am today because of the amazing place that Mike Nicholas has created. Camp palawopec is a place where I think every child in the whole word should be. Camp palawopec encourages kids to be them selfs grow, as human beings, the experiences and people I have met are once I will never forget. This place offers some many things that every person should have in their lives. So I find myself waiting all year long to return to my favorite place in the whole world The Valley.

It is a place where you let your inhibitions go. And run around in summer. Happy to just be apart of this wonderful place.