Week Six 2013

The week was much cooler than most of our summer, but we hardly noticed it with all the fun we had at HPR! We heated things up at Arts & Crafts by making homemade Lava Lamps! It was really fun and very colorful! Traditional camp also had an extra sweet treat this week when we made ice cream in a bag. Tasty!

The Middle Schoolers had their second 2 night overnight of the summer and it was an incredible time! They canoed down the river from Interstate Park all the way to William O'Brien State Park. They worked hard, but played just as hard and made a lot of memories!

Our special Friday theme this week was created and led by our own LITs and they did a fantastic job! The theme was Holiday Day and we had some really creative costumes and activities. We had crazy Christmas Dr. Seuss Who hair, trick or treating, and a search for a leprechaun's pot of gold!

If you haven't heard yet HPR is rehearsing for our annual musical at the end of the summer. This year is The Lion King! The production will take place on August 8th right at 3pm and everyone is invited to attend the show! If your camper is involved in the production, but doesn't normally come on Thursdays they are asked to attend Thursday as a normal camp day for a full day of rehearsal.

If that wasn't enough HPR has started our annual Penny War fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Ask your campers about the rules and find your loose change and bills to donate for a great cause! Any checks should be written out to the American Cancer Society and not HPR.


We're coming closer and closer to the end of a fantastic summer, but there is still plenty of fun in store for our campers! If you want to see more of our fun check out our Facebook Page!

Week Five 2013

As many of you know, Week Five was a HOT one!  In order to stay cool, we had a lot of waterslides, water balloon fights, car washes, and installed our special video camera at the drinking fountain to monitor how many times campers filled up their bottles! ;)

Highlights of Week Five for Traditional Camp included cooking over the fire at Nature Camp Craft, creating reactions at Science, playing hockey for Sports Field and passing a ton of levels at Tennis!  Additionally, our afternoon activities gave kids plenty of great opportunities to spend time with their counselors and fellow campers.  We held a spa day and gave campers blue facials, went on trail rides around the trails at HPR, and exploded pop bottles with Mentos!

The Kindergarten campers experienced plenty of "Wet and Wild" activities of their own as they spent time with the LIT campers "fishing" in the ocean and making rainbow fish out of computer discs and colored foam.

The Middle School campers made Hobo dinners over the fire, canoed on the St. Croix in preparation for their big canoe trip during Week Six, and constructed a "Mission Impossible" obstacle course that they led blindfolded campers through!

The LITs made tie blankets to donate to the Children's Hospital and spent a lot of time working with their younger camper groups during morning rotations and group time.  As always, they enjoy their time spent with the Kindergarten campers and are looking forward to this coming Friday, which they are in charge of planning!

We ended the week with a Lumberjack themed-Friday.  We flipped pancakes, raced to pound nails into stumps, played on wooden skis for team building, and learned how to tie a timber hitch to haul wood!

We also had our own Lumberjack Day Parade! The floats were incredible and the competition was fierce!

As we begin Week Six, we cannot believe we already have to say goodbye to a few two week campers.  We're excited the heat index is a liiiitle better this week and are already gearing up for Bonkers on Friday!

If you like what you see, you should take a look at our Facebook Page!

Week Four 2013

We definitely took advantage of the beautiful weather this past week at HPR and filled our days with as much excitement as possible!  Concluding the week with our Overnight and the Camper Variety Show reminded us of how lucky we are to be able to hang out with such fun, talented, and creative kids.  As we say goodbye to a few campers this week, we are hoping they have enjoyed their time here at HPR and we look forward to seeing them again next summer.

Traditional camp spent Week Four making pizzas at Nature Camp Craft, passing levels at horses, learning drills and playing games of basketball, and making scientific observations in the chicken coop.

Our resident game maker, Matt F, who brought us the Hunger Games, has worked his magic again and created the Colosseum.  This large afternoon game involved canoes, dodge balls, a go-cart, face paint, and plenty of exhausted campers and counselors! 

The Middle School program did something special this past week as campers rotated between our 4 counselors and participated in smaller, more specific activities.  Highlights include 3-D drawing, map-making, learning about New Orleans and Mardi Gras, and yard games.  The boys of the MS program also visited Good Samaritan and created their own programming for this visit.

The LIT campers spent much of their week working with the traditional campers, as they were scattered around camp to lend a hand and learn about the joys and difficulties of being a camp counselor.  Additionally, they built birdhouses with the Kindergarten campers as a part of their buddy program.

The Kindergarteners spent this week learning about animals.  They were decked out in safari vests, made out of paper grocery bags, and safari hats, from a paper bowl and plate, and found monkeys and gorillas all over camp!  They also worked with the LITs and built birdhouses, as mentioned above.

 We finished out our week with an "On Broadway" theme Friday and the Camper Variety Show.  We saw talents like singing, dancing, gymnastics, and musical instruments.

We are excited to greet new faces this week and are looking forward to a stellar Week Five!!

Want more Pictures? Check out our Facebook Page!

Week Three 2013

With only three days this week, we worked hard to pack as much fun and excitement into each day as possible.  By the looks of many campers and counselors alike at the end of the day today, it seems we have succeeded! :)

Campers experienced many Fourth of July-themed activities this week, including creating liquid "fireworks" at Science, writing our own HPR Constitution, and creating our own American flags.  In addition to these holiday activities, many campers were able to ride horses out into the pasture this week (a change of scenery for both the campers AND the horses!), participate in NASCAR races around the mound, and continue the exhilarating hunt for even more fairies around camp! 

The LIT campers, well-rested after last week's overnight, visited Feed My Starving Children on Tuesday and prepared enough meals to feed 75 children one meal a day for a year!  The LITS also spent Wednesday with the Kindergarteners preparing fake snot as a part of their health-themed week.

The Middle School campers visited Good Samaritan on Wednesday and participated in many off-site bike trips to canoeing and nearby parks for sports activities like speedball.  Lucky for the rest of us, they also cooked extra banana coffee cake for many of us to enjoy in the garage!

As mentioned above, the Kindergarteners participated in many health-related activities this week and searched for germs all over camp!  They participated in a scavenger hunt for "good" and "bad" foods, handed out "glitter germs" and then finished off the week getting cleaned off in human bubbles.

We sent off the campers with a camp-wide line dance to Bruce Springsteen's "American Land" on the tennis court and are excited to see what next week has in store!

Have a safe Fourth of July and we'll see you next week!

 Want to see all of the fun? Check out our Facebook page photo albums!

Week Two 2013

Wow! What a week! Week Two was so much fun and may have been our busiest week yet! We had so many exciting things going on I wouldn't be surprised if our campers slept the entire weekend to catch up! Especially our Middle Schoolers and LITs who came back from a two day overnight at William O'Brien State Park. They worked hard, played hard and made a lot of memories. 

The theme of this week in Faith building was Kindness. Campers had the chance to say mean words and hit a cardboard person with paint. We all apologized and wiped some of the paint away and learned that saying sorry is excellent, but using kind words instead of mean ones is always better. 

We also had a Wild West themed Friday full of line dancing, steer roping, cow milking and lots of cowboys and cowgirls! We loved seeing everyone's costumes!

Our Kindergarteners enjoyed a transportation themed week, building cars, going to "car washes" and "drive-in movies", and learning about many different kinds of vehicles. Look at those smiles!

 Our 3rd annual HPR Hunger Games was also on Friday. Campers had the opportunity to volunteer as tributes and compete against more than 100 other campers and counselors for the title of Hunger Games Champion. It was an adventure with lots of drama and excitement! We ran, we hid, we conquered! It was a huge success!

If that wasn't enough, we had a counselor talent show to showcase all the great talent our staff of counselors have. Campers had a fantastic time seeing their role models get up in front of everyone, some were funny, some were amazing, but all were inspiring!

It was a huge week, but if you still want more, check out all of the memories on our Facebook page!