How MKDC Builds Relationships

One of the most important goals of MKDC is to foster healthy relationships between campers of different ages.

At school, children are separated by age and rarely have the opportunity to interact with kids from other classes. At our camp, we have brought back some of that “one room school house” feel by allowing the age groups to mingle on a regular basis. We do this in a number of ways:

Whole-camp flag time
End-of-day whole-camp activities
Special “big buddy & little buddy” programming

There are many benefits to combining age groups:

Older children begin to develop leadership skills and feel increased confidence when they have the opportunity to be “experts”
Younger children look up to the older campers as role models
Campers who are only children learn to interact with children of other ages
Cooperation skills are more fully developed

By the time our campers are in their last year (age 12), many have already developed the characteristics of a good leader. These campers are encouraged to apply for our Leader-In-Training program. There is nothing more rewarding for us than to see former campers take this first step to becoming the next generation of counselors.

Camp professionals recognize the value in inter-generational relationships. Here is a fantastic article from the director of Centauri Arts Camp: Bridge The Generation Gap

How does the multi-age setting benefit YOUR camper?