Ever wanted to go surfing, but you weren’t able to make it to the ocean?  Now you can surf at KP!  We have purchased a wakesurf board for the upcoming summer.  You get up the same way as wakeboarding, but after you are up, you drop the rope and surf in the wake of the boat.  This will be a great new challenge for campers already comfortable with wakeboarding, and a fun new adventure for those who want to try something new. We can’t wait for you to hang ten on Panther Lake this summer!

Another new addition we are excited about is carpetball.  Carpetball is a simple but addictive game that is played with billiard balls.  Each player starts with 5 balls and you roll the cue ball down the table and try and knock your opponents balls into the pocket before they knock in all of yours.  Play it once and you’ll be hooked.  A big thanks to the maintenance department for building KP our very own carpetball table. Look for it this summer near the volleyball court.

We are taking the best of school recess and bringing it to camp.  We are creating a space on the lower tennis court for four square!  This will surely be a hit during free time, and we are currently dreaming up new ways to incorporate it into current camp activities.  Extreme four square anyone?

Wow! We are super excited about all the new activities that we’ll be doing at camp this summer. We know you will be too! Are you curious? Here’s the scoop on what we are adding for this summer.

Paddleboarding is all the rage these days. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, we have purchased several paddleboards for campers to try out. It will be great to look down into the water and see all the fish, turtles, and other cool wonders of nature. Bonus points to campers who find sunken treasure!  Really, you never know. 

As many of you know, we like to go big at camp. Over the years, we have added Giant Jenga, Giant Chess, and Giant Connect-Four. So obviously, we are excited to welcome the new Giant’s Ladder into our family of giant activities. So what is it, you ask?  The Giant’s Ladder is the newest addition to the High Ropes Course. Campers age 13 and up will be able to try out this new element. Two or three people must use a great deal of teamwork to make their way up the ladder as it swings and sways, while they try to climb up the rungs that are several feet apart! Difficult, but wicked fun! (See One in Action)

After many requests from campers over the years, we are very happy to announce that we will be offering Yoga as a regular activity. Yoga is a great way to take a step back and relax while enhancing strength and flexibility at the same time. We are looking forward to seeing our campers amaze us by contorting themselves into some crazy positions. Okay, maybe not at the beginner level, but someday!

 Some of our big purchases for this summer include our very own Dunk Tank and Cotton Candy machine. Nothing quite makes a carnival like munching on some tasty, sweet cotton candy and taking turns trying to dunk the counselors. We will also be purchasing a new Inflatable Rolling Log attachment for the Blob, which had worn out last summer after having been enjoyed by campers for many years.

Get ready for a 5^th period revolution! We are gearing up to offer some very exciting, creative and new options. For those campers who prefer a low-key afternoon activity to do with friends, we will now be offering a Craft Option for EVERY 5^th period. One of the many crafts we will be doing is Leather Tooling- for the first time ever at KP! A very popular craft, we expect that campers will be lining up to create their own personalized wristbands and make a lot of cool gifts for mom and dad.

Get ready for another summer filled with new, exciting activities to try. We can't wait to see everyone!

For the third straight year the Maine Conservation Corps., (MISSION STATEMENT - accomplish conservation projects, create conservation employment, provide conservation education, and engage conservation volunteers) is continuing to help us improve our mountain and hiking trails here at camp.  Our current focus this fall has been on smoothing out the existing trail that runs from archery all the way to the end of the camp road.  Merritt Foster (our in-house trail building guru) has been working very hard to expand our trail system over the past few years and we are excited that this will make for a better mountain bike experience for all skill levels. 

Get ready to sign up for mountain biking and hit the trails!!

 As the countdown to the beginning of the camp season begins, David and I decided it was high time to test out our brand new foam machine along with the work crew staff. First, we filled a 55 gallon barrel with water and foam solution, and THEN, we turned on the blower. Foam was shooting everywhere from the foam cannon! There was a huge 3 foot deep pile of it after only a minute or two.  Jonathan, David, Michelle, Jake, and I all jumped in and we were amazed at how much fun it was! The foam was so thick that at times that we couldn't even see each other, so we had to do a "buddy check"! We tried playing a few games like dodgeball and soccer. We also made foam sculptures and gave David some great "foam hair". We are so excited to think of all sorts of new games that we can play using foam and we can't wait for you to get here and help us try it out!

After numerous requests, THE ICEBERG (more commonly known as “The Aggrocrag”) back by popular demand! Yes, we can hear you cheering from across the globe. For those of you that don’t know, The Iceberg is a 14 ft tall, pyramid-shaped, inflatable climbing tower. It is the very definition of the word “extreme”!  The Iceberg is so big that it is visible from outer space (JK)! Even Alan has reached the summit and taken the plunge, though he admitted it was tougher than running camp or getting Bob to wear a shirt with sleeves.

Not wanting the the Iceberg to outshine the Blob, we decided to add a new “Walk the Plank” attachment to the Trampoline. The “Walk the Plank” attachment is 8 ft tall and will be great to use as an extra tall diving board. Since it will be pretty tricky to maintain your balance for very long, Jean is excited to use it for special camp activities like foam noodle jousting competitions!  However, we are pretty sure that if we encounter any pirates at camp, as has been known to happen, they may have some big plans for using “Walk the Plank.”

Just a reminder, you will need to be at least a level 4 swimmer to use the water toys since they will be in very deep water. We can’t wait for you to try these out!
 

Giant Connect 4
As you know, every year we spend a lot of time looking for new and fun activities to do at camp. After the overwhelming success of Giant Jenga and Giant Chess, we are super excited this year to be adding a new GIANT connect four game. It will be approximately 4 feet tall by 8 feet wide! How cool is that?! Also, due to the incredible popularity of the Giant Chess game, we are going to add a second chess table so that more campers will have an opportunity to play.  

New Low Ropes Course Element
We are excited to be adding a new low ropes activity this summer called “The Whale Watch”. The whale watch is a very large platform that is similar to a teeter-totter that requires a group to use teamwork to perform certain tasks on it while balancing.

Foam Machine
Be prepared for our new foam machine (which also doubles as a foam cannon) this summer. David and I are already coming up with creative new activities involving this wondrous invention. It could be anything from dance parties to new X-Games.

Stained Glass & Wire Jewelry
For all of you art lovers out there, we have some new activities for you too! We will now be offering a stained glass class at camp for the first time ever!  Learn to make stained glass items like suncatchers, picture frames, keepsake boxes, and more!  Also, we know that jewelry making has always been a big hit with campers. To add to our program, this year we will be introducing wire jewelry-making, which is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. 

Don’t be surprised if you see a few new carnival games this year and there may be a few other secret projects in the works as well! This is going to be a great summer and we can’t wait for you to try all of these new activities and tell us what your favorites are!

Normal 0 Normal 0 Golfers rejoice, for there is now an opportunity for you to practice your short game here at Kingsley Pines Camp. Over the winter, the maintenance crew installed a beautiful chip and putt at the end of the soccer field. After long days of continuous play, golf pros Dave, GW, Carl, and I found that it was the most fun and challenging course we have played in our entire careers. You will have your...

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The construction of our new golf putting green is well on it's way. Merritt and John have been doing a bang up job preparing the site for chipping, putting, and driving. We are sure that this will be a extremely popular activity. We will also have the ability to turn the green into a 9 hole mini golf course! I'll post some more pictures when it's completed.

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We are very excited to announce a much anticipated program improvement for next summer --- Kingsley Pines Golf .Currently, we are in the process of installing a giant putting green, sand bunker, surrounding areas to chip onto the green, and a driving range with practicedriving nets. This means you do not have to leave camp to master your golf skills. We'llstill be playing at an area golf course onceevery activity week (until we install our own 9 holes, ha!). Completion of the course should be...

Read More "New Golf Chip n' Putt with Driving Range"