Camp Journal

It’s out! It’s up! It’s there!!!!

19th October 2011

Stop Press!!!! The 2011 Souvenir book was released this week!
Head to the Souvenir books section (in the ‘about the camp’ dropdown menu) for the 2011 souvenir book!!! Are you in any action pictures? Can you spot your mates? Thanks once again to all those who made 2011 a summer to remember and I hope you have fun reminiscing with the souvenir book! Enjoy!

Everybody say ‘fromage’!

12th September 2011

After a considerable amount of time spent sifting through the hordes of photographs from this summer we’ve finally managed to whittle them down into three photo galleries of the very best shots of all our activities and all our campers throughout summer 2011. Simply click on the following link and have fun trying to spot yourself and your friends and let the reminiscing of your amazing summer at Camp Suisse begin- https://www.campsuisse.com/en_page/photo-gallery

OK, reminiscing over… it’s time to start looking forward to summer 2012! Not only will the UK be hosting the Olympic Games but Camp Suisse will indeed be in full swing for another action packed summer of fun and adventure. With our very own Camp Suisse Olympics again on the cards it will surely be a summer not to miss! Take a look at next year’s dates below and we hope to see you at one of the international sessions in 2012. 

SESSION 1

Saturday 30th June – Friday 13th July

SESSION 2

Saturday 14th July – Friday 27th July

SESSION 3

Saturday 28th July – Friday 10th August

ONE WEEK PROGRAMME

Saturday 28th July – Saturday 4th August

Operation clean-up is almost over

21st August 2011

Well, that’s it. 3 months after the arrival of our first members of staff in May, the week of intense cleaning performed by our elite members of staff is now drawing to a close.

Hands have been dirtied, floors scrubbed and plenty of sheen applied. The floors have been mopped using the tears from our lovely members of staff who are all-too reluctant to wave goodbye to Torgon. (It is worth mentioning that the floors have also been mopped using proper cleaning products!)

It’s with a heavy heart that we’re packing up the last remaining things from our centre here. 2011 will go down as a landmark year for Camp Suisse because of the introduction of our third session, yet instead of saying goodbye, we’re saying “See you soon!” We know how quickly the next 9 months will pass before we can once again be re-united with our lovely centre here at Torgon.

The remaining staff helping get the centre spick and span have been demonstrating their versatility at the end of the season. Activity leaders have become artists of the highest calibre, Group Leaders have been scrubbing, Kitchen staff have the kitchen looking pristine, whilst all other members of staff have been performing all those other bits and pieces that inevitably escape our attention until the very end of season!

The final message must be one of thanks though. From the very first school groups, through the THREE international groups right up until the arrival of the mighty T&DFC, it’s no exaggeration to say that we couldn’t run without each and every one of you. So a huge thank you from the heart to you all, and we hope to see you all soon!

The musical group, ‘The Streets’ once sang “Dry your eyes mate” and this message is particularly appropriate to the staff here who are crying their hearts out at the thought of leaving Torgon. One thing is for certain though, the tears will be replaced by smiles once the prospect of a return to camp looms ever closer!

T&DFC on Tor(gon)

17th August 2011

Almost immediately after the departure of the international sessions, Torgon welcomed the ‘free-scoring’ T&DFC to train and play against some of the local teams whilst also enjoying the (belatedly) good weather here. As fate would have it, no sooner than the international sessions finished the good weather began, for the sun is now shining and the temperature guage is now pointing well above the 30 degree mark.

Taking care of the footballers has been an absolute pleasure so far, and they were kind enough to teach some of the remaining staff a lesson in how football should be played (despite the heroics of Taff, who tried to single-handedly salvage some pride!). From the perspective of the staff members, it’s a huge change to have gone from dealing with the kids in a loco parentis manner to then having teachers supervise the children, but it’s providing us staff with an invaluable opportunity to clean and polish the centre that has taken a bit of wear and tear over the last 3 months.

As far as the end of season cleaning and servicing is concerned, leaps and bounds of progress have been made here at the Gold Test Centre. the mountain bikes have all been serviced and stored by our expert activity staff and other equipment has been serviced and then put into storage for the next summer. Whilst it’s quite a sombre experience to have to clean away all the things that we used during the summer, we are currently reminiscing about the good times had on the equipment during the summer months for 2011.

One thing is for certain: the next time that the equipment is used for the 2012 season, it will be done so in a bigger and better manner than this year, along with the promise of more new, exciting things for Camp Suisse! 

After dark!

16th August 2011

This summer our evening activity program has undergone a major overhaul and revamp. In a bid to inspire, enthuse, challenge and broaden the horizons of our campers we’ve taken a long hard look at our evening entertainments and added a selection of new activities designed to achieve this goal.  

Montreux Jazz Festival

Carlos Santana, BB King, Sting, Paul Simon and… Camp Suisse? Yes, this year’s 45th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival made its way onto our evening activities schedule. The older campers from Session 1 enjoyed an evening trip down to Montreux to soak up the atmosphere of the annual jazz festivities. With the backdrop of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, there was no better way to spend the evening. Campers enjoyed the free live music from both the official stages and the street artists, whilst dotted around were an array of other artists from painters to dancers and all that’s in between. Music wasn’t the only attraction, as all the senses were engaged with stands all along the water front selling a range of ethnic products to a massive variety of international food and drink. A truly memorable evening was had by both campers and staff alike. 

There’s been a murder!

A murder mystery night designed and executed by our staff was among the big hitters on this year’s evening program. After dinner campers were led up to the sports hall to the scene of the murder of our activity leader Joe (we’re glad to say that it was all in the name of fun and games and Joe is fortunately still with us!). After a short visit from the local inspector, he set teams of our own inspectors on the trail of Joe’s murderer. Who done it? Was it Stacey the cleaner, Rachel the night guard, Anna the chef or any of the other Camp Suisse staff suspects? Teams were sent to investigate 6 suspects, if the teams managed to complete a task set by these suspects they became privy to more clues that could lead them to the culprit. By the end of the investigations most teams had managed to work out that it was Stacey, with the mop, in the sports hall. To reassure campers that no crime had actually been committed, the ‘deceased’ Joe made an appearance at the end to put to bed any doubts.

2 minute movies/Flash mob

As a way of challenging the creative side of our campers we put a task to them to create a two minute version of a well-known film. 4 teams, armed with a camera and a couple of group leaders had an hour to decide on a suitable film, choose which iconic or recognisable scenes would be shot, who would play which role and at which locations they would film. After much discussion, costume making, speedy script writing and multiple rehearsals teams had 15 minutes to capture their winning shots. Some of the films included Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Lion King and High School Musical, all of which were edited and played on the big screen during the disco. Continuing with the film theme, we subsequently set campers the task of creating a flash mob style video (flash mobs, for those not in the know, consist of groups of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment and/or satire). This time armed with a camera and a sound system loaded with the song ‘We speak no Americano’ by Yolanda Be Cool and Dcup, campers were pre-taught the accompanying dance and tasked with making short flash mob clips of them doing the dance in whatever situations they could think up. At one point this resulted in the song being put out over the restaurant sound system and campers/group leaders getting up to dance along. 

Put on your dancing shoes

This summer was all about trying something new and tapping into those hidden talents of our staff members. Once it came to light that we were amongst some very talented dancers, the train was in motion to organise an evening of dance classes to pass on these skills to our campers. We gave campers the option of attending a salsa class, a hip-hop class, a Scottish dance class or, for those campers (of whom most, I must add, were mostly male) too cool for dance class, martial arts. The classes went down a treat, evidenced in the proceeding days as we saw campers continuing to try and master their new moves around camp.

These new actvities complemented the existing ones a treat, but it has to be said some of the old ones are the best ones!

How did this year’s Camp Mentors fare?

15th August 2011

This summer we’ve been delighted to welcome back ex-campers Anat and Alex onto the Camp Mentor Program. Here’s what they had to say about their summer 2011 experiences as Camp Mentors:

After nearly five weeks jam packed of constant work and fun, my time as a camp mentor has come to an end and to be honest I’m completely gutted! Being a mentor is brilliant; you are practically the same age as the older campers but more like a member of staff, so you make really good friends with both campers and staff alike, acting as a link between the two. As a mentor I got to take part in the activities, my favourite probably being Parc Aventure, even if I did get stuck! I’ve had the most amazing summer being at Camp Suisse, I’ve made so many fantastic friends and gained so much experience I don’t think I could’ve gained anywhere else at my age. My co-mentor Anat also played a massive role in my enjoyment here, she was absolutely outstanding and perhaps the most enthusiastic person I have ever met. All the kids and staff adore her, me included, thank-you Anat. I’m really glad I got the chance to be a mentor and hope I get to come back again next year.Thanks Camp Suisse, it’s been awesome.- Alex.

This summer we welcomed Anat to camp as the first ever recipient of our sponsorship scheme, aimed at widening participation in our Camp Mentor Program. With all her expenses covered all she had to do was make sure she turned up on time and ready for action for the first day of camp. We had a sneaky feeling that Anat was going to excel in this role, and boy were we right about this one! Here’s what she thought of her time as a Camp Mentor:

After receiving the sponsorship I waited impatiently for my summer adventure to commence. Now, after it has ended, I can say that being a mentor, for me, was a major and wonderful change – from being a camper to being a mentor. I found myself in the opposite position- having responsibility, knowing what’s going on and what the schedule is, guiding the campers, learning more about how Camp Suisse operates, having to make decisions and being a good listener to the campers. In addition, the Hip-Hop dancing class I held was a great opportunity to use the skills I’d gained. This whole experience has greatly aided my personal development and the benefit from being exposed to all the members of staff I can’t begin to describe in words; being amongst these unique people, learning from them and their experience and simply being able to approach and talk to them about everything, as friends, was a golden experience. Having a co-mentor, Alex, was simply amazing; having someone with the same job description as me, as fellow-rookies we were able to share all of our experiences and think about how we could get more involved. Being away from home in such an enriching environment and being exposed to people from all ages, nationalities and backgrounds was so inspiring and I feel like I have matured a great deal and learned a countless number of things. I just can’t find the right words to describe this adventure that has not yet sunk in. It has given me so much experience, helped me shape my character and will accompany me throughout the next years.- Anat. 

I think it would be a fair summation to say to that this year’s program has once again been a great success. From our point of view the Camp Mentors are an invaluable resource who bring a completely different dimension to the dynamics of camp life. From their point of view it’s a chance to grow and develop in a safe, supportive atmosphere that is culturally and linguistically like no other. The program will most certainly be open for applications for a third year in summer 2012, for any enquiries please contact us at info@campsuisse.com

Suranna’s Stepping Stone Appeal

14th August 2011

As you may or may not know, we here at Camp Suisse are the very proud supporters of the Andrew Woinarski Schools Foundation. A charity very close to our hearts; the foundation, set up in the name of a very dear friend and ex-colleague, continues the work begun by Andrew in schools during his travels to Thailand and Laos. The foundation, now in its sixth year, has gone from strength to strength led by his sister Alex and brother-in-law Tony with the support of an array of sponsors and fundraisers.

Now somewhat of a Camp Suisse tradition, each year we do our best to inform campers about the foundation’s life changing work and offer them the chance to give what they can in support of those children and teenagers in Thailand and Laos much less fortunate than themselves. To this effect, over the past three summers Camp Suisse campers, along with contributions from us here at Camp Suisse, have raised a heart stopping total of 3000 Swiss Francs (£2000/$2500), an outstanding effort I’m sure you’ll agree! And a sum very much appreciated by the foundation and its beneficiaries. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have donated so kindly to this cause and appreciate your continued support. 

The projects set up and supported by the Andrew Woinarski foundation make this, we believe, a truly worthwhile cause to support. As a small snapshot of the fantastic work they do- to date they have constructed four new schools and have raised enough funds for work to begin on two more in 2011!

This year we’ve taken a break from our usual charity work in order to turn our attention to a very pressing cause a little closer to home but still very close to our hearts. Four year old Suranna Louise Gleeson suffers from Cerebral Palsy Diplegia which affects her legs and is caused by slight damage to the brain where the signals do not go from the brain to the muscles in her legs. She can’t walk without aid and she therefore has a Kaye Walker to help her get around. Her parents have been made aware of an operation in the US called Selective Dorsal Rhuzotomy (SDR). The operation has been performed on over 2000 patients with a 100% success rate, the only catch being that it comes at very high cost and is not available in the UK through the NHS. Suranna’s parents have resolved to raise enough money to send her to the states to have this life changing operation; totally a sum of £50,000 (flights, accommodation, operation and physiotherapy). This summer at Camp Suisse we are aiming to raise £5000 towards Suranna’s Stepping Stone. Read on to find out what we’ve been getting up to in order to reach this goal.

Fundraising Classics

We came into this task with all guns blazing and having an endless supply of ideas flowing from a creative, motivated and generous staff has made our goal a whole lot easier. Our staff led activities have included some of your classic fundraisers, such as guess the number of sweets in the jar and name the teddy bear, to name but a few.

In other areas, Rosie from the activities team had the idea of setting up an out of hours bracelet production line; in the end, after a little instruction and a few dropped threads, she had well over 15 members of staff, both male and female, creating a range of wonderful coloured bracelets which were sold to staff and campers alike. 

Our charity bingo and casino nights, much of a camp tradition, saw the generosity of our campers come to the fore. The request of a small donation of whatever they could give to participate in the event was met with generosity.  

Donate-a-day

A less conventional but very effective idea was the donate a day’s pay, which saw our generous staff offering up a hard earned day’s pay towards the cause. Thank- you to all those who contributed.

Team Racoon

An undercover, covert hit-squad comprised of several group leaders (headed up by Ryan, for those of you seeking revenge!) received small payments from campers and staff to get one over on members of the Camp Suisse team, all performed and taken in a good natured manner of course. As an example of some of their revengeful undertakings, Jonjo’s group all chipped in to have him tied to a chair whilst they pelted him with water balloons to get him back for his bad jokes at the dinner table. Once the word got around about team racoon there was no stopping them, as they received attack orders from all over. A price was placed on Camp Director Richard’s head which inspired many to reach into their pockets and donate. A total of well over 200 CHF was raised to put Rich through the punishment better known as ‘The Breakfast Treatment’; he was subsequently strapped to a chair while all those who donated took it in turns to cover and smear him with water, orange juice, chocolate spread, baked beans, flour, eggs, jam and marmalade, all topped off with a sprinkling off cornflakes. Needless to say he’s still finding baked beans in places he didn’t know he had. What a good sport and what a great laugh!

Everest in a day

Our activity team put their heads together to come up with an active way of raising money for Suranna’s fund that would appeal to their love of the outdoors. The result of much deliberating was ‘Everest in a day’; to climb the height of Mount Everest (8, 848m from sea level to summit) on our 8 metre climbing wall in one day, each member of the team putting in 100 climbs during the day. In fact, not only did they achieve this height, but they went above and beyond equally a total height of around 12, 000 metres, and not only that but they fit this in around their normal camp duties. A massive well done and thank-you goes out to our activities team!

With a few weeks still to go we are well on our way to reaching the target of £5000.

The end is in sight

12th August 2011

The end of our brand new Session 3 has finally arrived as we sit here reflecting on the summer of 2011 with very happy memories. Before moving on to the future though, one final ‘activity’ must be explained – the Camp Suisse Disco!

After the individual presentations for awards gained within their various colour groups, all the campers gathered together in the restaurant for the presentation of Session three’s KING OF CAMP! The mood was one of nervous excitement before the announcement that Avery had won the prestigious award, joining John and Sam for this year’s camp royalty. Particular mention must also go to the PRINCESS OF CAMP, Hannah, as she impressed the staff throughout her stay on Camp.

No sooner than the awards were handed out, the disco began with a mixture of classic pop tunes, new dance music and even some inspiring dance moves brought out without the help of music. ‘The worm’ made its way to the fray at least five times, and did not fail to disappoint on every occasion. The staff were certainly shown up by the campers in terms of their dancing ability, which meant that even an off-the-cuff rendition from ‘Just 4 men’ faded into insignificance when compared to the skills on show.

Unfortunately though, as the inspirational Nelly Furtado once said, “All good things must come to an end”, and I believe that she was talking about Camp Suisse when declaring such lyrics. For Thursday night rolled into Friday morning, which meant an early breakfast was in store for our campers along with a coach trip to either Geneva airport, or a surprise venture into Geneva for the campers who were to depart in the late afternoon.

Tears flowed, laughter dried up and the centre here at Torgon soon became eerily quiet after the final campers made their way back home after an unforgettable stay at Camp Suisse. All that’s left to say is a HUGE thank you to all the campers for making the season so enjoyable both for the staff and the other campers. It quite simply couldn’t have ran as smoothly without such wonderful kids and we here at Camp Suisse would love to see you all again next year.

Mission Day!

11th August 2011

After having successfully navigated their way through the 5 battle stations, the teams had their points added up, which were all totalled up in order to buy more materials for the final challenge. 

The final station brought back all 5 battalions to take part in the ultimate challenge; to successfully design a rocket that would be both fuel-efficient and aerodynamic. A variety of rockets were built during the allotted time period, with varying levels of success. Though it originally seemed that the 

contest was going to be a closely-fought encounter, team Charlie stepped up at the end and completely blew the competition out of the water with their final effort. Their rocket soared through the air with all the grace and poise of an albatross, leaving team Charlie with an undeniable victory.

Choose your own adventure day by Zeke, Yellow Group

10th August 2011

I woke up ready for a great day with one thought on my mind – ping pong!  Just as I finished getting ready, the Group Leader came in and woke up the rest of my room mates.  Then I was off heading up to the centre to play ping pong before breakfast.  After playing a few matches I sat down to eat.  Breakfast was exceptionally good because there were home made granola bars to accompany the normal breakfast buffet.  
My first activity of the day was sport (I had selected tennis) so I walked up to the court with a couple of friends who were also doing tennis.  For an hour and a half I warmed up, played singles, doubles and ‘King of the Court’.  Sweaty and exhausted I strolled back to camp for my French lesson.  The majority of the lesson was dedicated to practising the skit our class was to perform at the talent show that evening.  It was well-rehearsed by the end of the class so feeling satisfied I walked to the mountain biking meeting point.  It was time for the real fun to begin!
It was ‘Choose Your Own Adventure Day’ at camp.  There were four exhilarating activities to choose from to do during the afternoon; indoor climbing and ghyll scrambling, outdoor rock climbing, mountain biking or nature art.  For me, the answer was clear.  The fastest, muddiest, most intense and extreme activity wins and so naturally I picked mountain biking.  After taking a minibus ride up to Plan de Croix I enjoyed a quick pack lunch and got suited up for mountain biking. 
Once I received my bike, I gave it a thorough check as demonstrated by the instructors.  Then I rode around a few warm up trails at Plan de Croix before the whole group gathered together and we started heading down the mountain.  After about a minute of speeding down the road, we branched off and rode for about 15minutes up hill on a gravel path.  That section finished as a huge downhill section begun.  The trail was wide, rocky, muddy and had sharp turns… Perfect!  I zoomed down it at a fast pace.  We re-grouped several times during the downhill section before ending up at the church in Torgon.  Next we had to bike all the way back UP the mountain from there!  I was placed in the fast group which meant we took the short but very steep route.  When we finally reached camp my legs felt like they were going to fall off however, the mountain bike session was only half way through… we were just stopping at camp for a rest and some afternoon tea!  After re-hydrating and re-fuelling everyone got back on their bikes to begin the next uphill section.  We rode through the forest, past the football and all the way to the picnic area.  Once we all arrived we starting riding down the trails at the picnic area.  These trails were much narrower than the ones before.  They were only wide enough for one bike, were very steep and had lots of tree roots as obstacles.  There were four mini-sections of trail like this so everyone had to wait their turn to tackle the task.  After everyone successfully completed these mini-challenges, we cycled as a group to the football pitch to have a go at the jumps… I even managed to get a little bit of air with my jumps!  Finally, we took a forest trail with more tree roots before returning to camp and handing back my bike.  
It was time for me to head back down to the chalets for shower hour.  I showered first and socialised with my new friends in my room until it was time for dinner.  At 6.30 dinner began – there were two choices of menu and I chose a delicious pork stew, potatoes, cheesy garlic bread and salad.  Once I finished it was time to prepare for the evening talent show.  After watching a few of the other acts I dressed up myself as Cinderella and it was my time to shine.  It was indeed incredibly fun!  Once the talent show finished I played some more ping pong with my friends and, for the last time that day, sauntered down to the chalets for a well deserved sleep!