It’s hard to be a girl sometimes, let us help.
I recently read this blog from “A Mighty Girl” on girl’s confidence and started reflecting on being a girl in general. We women have to walk so many lines in life. Be pretty but not too pretty, stand up for yourself but don’t be demanding, make sure to support yourself but don’t forget to get married. The article I read gave the statistic that by age 8 girls are 30% less confident than boys the same age.
I remember being 8. I was quiet, shy, and a little afraid of everything. People who meet me today may be shocked to learn that, as I come off very loud and definitely not timid. What happened between then and now 20 years later? Camp Foley happened! I went to camp every summer from 6 to 16, and it truly shaped me into the strong (loud!) person I am today!
What can camp give your daughter?
Resilience
Growing grit has been part of our mission for a long long time. At camp growing grit doesn’t always mean you win the game or earn the award. But it does mean that you got back up and tried again and again.
Sometimes our hardest job as parents and teachers is letting our Kids fail. But it is important for us to let them because failure will always be a part of life, we will all fail in big and small ways throughout our lives. The beautiful part of summer camp is it gives your children a safe place to fail. Here campers will try lots of new things and they will not automatically be perfect at any of them.
The best part is after campers are introduced to a new skill or activity, it is up to them to CHOOSE to keep practicing and get better, campers can always sign up for something new and move on. But when presented with a challenge in a safe environment, almost always I will see campers, especially our girls, rising to the occasion.
Confidence
A very important skill that more and more girls struggle with. Confidence is the belief in yourself, that if you put your mind to something you can achieve it! Confidence and resilience actually go hand in hand. Confidence made you try something and resilience made you get up and try it again. Kids gain confidence at Foley watching themselves achieve goals. The most important part of this is that these goals were set by the campers themselves. When a child is given the tools and opportunity to set and achieve goals, they learn what the process of creating goals and following through on them looks like. Girls can leave Camp Foley thinking the sky is the limit!
Independence
The ability to think and act for yourself. To rely upon yourself and trust yourself to make the right decisions. Camp is the ultimate source of independence, just think about it! Kids are leaving their parents to come and live and sleep and eat in a completely new environment. Camp proves literally at the end of day 1 that campers are capable of caring for themselves and being away from family. Many past campers come back as alumni and tell us that camp prepared them for so many other aspects of their life, like moving into a college dorm room or traveling overseas alone. 
Final Thoughts
Camp is the place for the girls in your life to learn important skills that will set them up for success for the rest of their lives. Take it form a camp girl who can absolutely attest to this! I would not be the person I am today without Camp Foley, and I continue to work as the girls AD because I so strongly believe this is the best place I can be to help mold girls into the best versions of themselves. Check out our dates and rates, and you can register HERE. See you this summer!