2021 Summer Blog Kick-Off!

Summer is here at last – hallelujah! Our (fully vaccinated) staff is fantastic this summer, and our beautiful site on the Tuolumne River is looking amazing. For all the parents, family members, alums and friends back home this season – our summer blog is ready for you!

Read on to learn what you can expect to see on the blog this summer if you’re tuning in:

Summer Blog Content

During this height of our program season as kids and teens participate in Summer Sessions, Teen Leadership Programs and Quests, you will have the opportunity to follow along for daily updates from Camp, right here on the blog. The goal of these posts is to offer a glimpse of the Tawonga magic and our mission in action. 

Tune in for posts covering activities, programs, our Tidbit series with the daily menu, staff spotlights and more, as well as weekly bunk photos and pictures of Camp happenings from our community of 200 staff members and over 300 campers per session.

Your Child on the Blog

For the parents and loved ones of campers who are tuning in, we hope that seeing these blog posts will offer a peek into the transformative 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 Camp moments while still providing an unplugged, immersive experience for campers, informed by our Screen-Free Policy (p. 11). As a result, 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 sarah@tawonga.org and we will make sure to post one as soon as possible. The other photos you see on the blog provide a representation of what all the campers will be doing during the session. 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).

Post Timing & Subscribing 

✅ During full session days at Tawonga (not the first or last day of the session), the blog will usually publish two times: once around 1pm to 3pm, and once more around 9pm-10pm.

✅ The best way to stay current with Tawonga’s blog is to subscribe by entering your name and email toward the bottom of this page, under “Subscribe to Our Blog.” Once subscribed, you will receive an email every time Tawonga publishes a new blog post (sparing you the need to “refresh”!).

✅  Blog posts will not be shared by Tawonga staff on Tawonga’s private session Facebook groups; these groups are designed for parent-to-parent engagement. However, parents should feel free to post photos, questions and more in these groups.

✅ Many (but not all) of our blog posts will be shared on our main social media channels. You can follow along on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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 higher resolution photos from the blog once the session is over, free to download.

A Note on Quests

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

Blog Team

Rachel Miller is our blogger & photographer this summer, crafting blog entries and capturing beautiful camper photos and snapshots of Camp life. Rachel works in high school admissions in the Bay Area and is happy to be spending the summer at Tawonga. While this is Rachel’s first summer at Tawonga, she attended camps every summer growing up and has worked at three other camps as a photographer and supervisor of teen programs. 

Together with our at-Camp Office Manager, Sarah Perna (who is a year-round staff alum), and Casey Cohen, Tawonga’s Communications and Operations Director, this blog team works together 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 a safe, fun and beautiful Tawonga summer!