Oreo Games and Camp Food

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I want to take a moment to give a little shout out to Camp Orchard Hill, a small little camp  in Dallas, PA (yeah, that’s not a typo… there is a Dallas in Pennsylvania. It’s about 30 minutes from Scranton).

As you can imagine, I have been to quite a few camps. I limit my speaking to twice a month away from my family, but with about half of my engagements being camps or retreats, that’s still about 12 camps a year (that’s a lot of camp food). Camp Orchard Hill (COH) stands out in the crowd for several reasons:

1. The leadership – these guys are legit. They care about the kids’ spiritual transformation, and they also want the kids to have a good time. I’ve been at camps where “program” was too heavy. I’ve been at others where the spiritual impact is minimal. This camp provides fun and spiritual transformation.

2. The food- yes… most camp food stinks! But at COH, Lisa is in the kitchen making food that you’ve never tasted at a camp! I’m not kidding. The kids really notice.

3. Activities- these guys provide activity options nonstop. (this is especially great for middle school) Even during lunch they run little “Up Front Games” in the cafeteria. Kids loved it. This last weekend a game called OREO HEAD was a big hit. I’ve seen this game on my site before, but had never seen it done. It was hilarious.  A kid gets an open faced Oreo stuck to his head, and without using their hands, they have to contort their faces to maneuver the Oreo down to their face and mouth. Funny stuff.

I’ve bragged about camps before. You’ve heard me brag about Timberlee (East Troy, WI) in several podcasts, and I’ve also bragged about Redwood Alliance on the West Coast (also great food). I have to add Camp Orchard Hill to the list of my favorites. Funny… their facility is actually small (they are growing- building some new facilities right now) … nothing fancy. They can only handle small groups- just a couple hundred kids. But I find that the “camp experience” is so much more than cabins and fancy dining halls. Leadership means everything.