2019 Summer Blog Kick-Off!

June 14, 2019

Greetings Tawonga families and friends!

Summer is finally here! A Taste of Camp campers arrive in TWO DAYS, our staff is ready to greet them and our beautiful site on the Tuolumne River is looking amazing. You know what all of this means … our summer blog is about to kick off! We are so thrilled to welcome over 1,300 campers to Tawonga over the next three months. Whether you will be tuning into The Pipeline (Tawonga’s blog) as a parent, alum or friend, please read on to learn what you can expect to see this summer.

Summer Blog Content

During this height of our program season as kids and teens join us for Summer Sessions, Teen Leadership Programs and Quests, you will be able to read daily updates from Camp, right here on the blog. Tune in for posts on activities and programs, photos of Camp happenings and stories spanning our broad at-Camp community of 200 staff members and over 300 campers per session. These posts will strive to represent an overarching window into our amazing Tawonga summer community. Subscribe here!

Your Child on the Blog

For the parents and loved ones of campers who are tuning in, we recognize that sending your child to sleep-away camp can be as much of a milestone for your child as it is for you. We hope that reading these posts will offer a glimpse into the magical Tawonga experience, as well as a connection to your children while they’re away from home.

At the same time, our intention is to capture authentic Tawonga moments while still providing an unplugged, immersive experience for campers, informed by our Screen-Free Policy (on p. 8).

Accordingly, we are only able to guarantee a photo of every camper once per week.

If you do not see your child on the blog after a week (and would like to), please email sam@tawonga.org, and we will make sure to post one as soon as possible. The other photos you see of activities and programs aim to provide a peek into what all the campers will be doing during the session (even if you don’t see your child in many of them)! Thank you for your patience and understanding.

While we do include photos of campers on the blog and on social media, we are sensitive to protecting their privacy, and only include their first names and last initials (if at all).

Following Posts

During full session days at Tawonga, the blog will publish two times: once around 2pm-4pm, and once more around 9pm-10pm.
The best way to stay current with Tawonga’s blog is to subscribe (if you haven’t already)! Simply enter your email in the field under ‘Follow Our Blog” on this page. Once subscribed, you will receive an email every time Tawonga publishes a new blog post (relieving you of the need to click “refresh”!).
Blog posts will not be shared by Tawonga staff on closed session Facebook groups; these groups are designed for parent-to-parent engagement. However, parents should feel free to post photos to these groups if so moved!
Several of our blog posts will be linked to our main social media channels. Be sure to follow Camp Tawonga on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Downloading Photos

Feel free to download photos you see on the blog. Parents and guardians of summer campers will also receive a digital album of photos from the blog once the session is over, and these photos will be a higher resolution than those you see on the blog.

A Note on Quests

You can check out “Notes from the Road” at the end of each Quest for photos and stories from these exciting outdoor adventures.

Who’s Behind the Blog?

Jenna Tessler is our blogger & photographer this summer, capturing beautiful photographs of Camp life and crafting blog entries to give you a glimpse of that Tawonga magic. Fun fact: Jenna is an experienced Jewish summer camp photographer – last year, she photographed for Camp Ramah. Together with year-round staff Sam Quintana, Summer Assistant Director and Casey Cohen, Communications and Operations Director, this blog team collaborates to bring Camp a little closer to you.

Please send your questions and any feedback about the blog to casey@tawonga.org — we would love to hear your thoughts. Here’s to an incredible Tawonga summer!