Dear Parents,
We told you back in August that "if you thought the past 56 years at Crestwood were exciting, you better fasten your seatbelts because things are only going to get better!" As soon as the summer ended, we got busy. For the 2012 summer we have added The High Flying Trapeze, Carousel, Ferris Wheel, Jumping Pillow, additional Sports Instructors, the Puppy Program, and many other facility projects to make Crestwood even more beautiful and user friendly. Today we are happy to announce the near completion of our beautiful new Amphitheater. We hope we have lived up to the hype so far.
With the help of your feedback through conversations, surveys, letters and e-mails, we have also spent countless hours discussing other aspects of the Crestwood program. We look forward to sharing more exciting news and improvements in the weeks and months ahead about our lunch program, special events, and other special programming.
You may or may not be aware of the visiting policy as it has been for the past few summers at Crestwood. Here is a brief explanation: Pre-School and Kindergarten campers have one scheduled visiting day during the July session and a show scheduled in the August session. For our older campers who are entering 1st - 6th grade, we have allowed parents to visit, at their convenience, between 10 AM and 2:30 PM. We call this "Open Visiting". The only restrictions have been no visiting on Fridays and that families may visit up to four times in an eight-week session and two times in a four-week session.
At this time, we would like to share with you our impressions of the "open visiting days" and a change for this summer.
· Frequent visiting works against one of our important goals, which is to foster independence in the children.
· There is a change in the group dynamic and the normal behavior of campers when they are being watched by their parents and even when watched by other parents.
· Our courteous staff of counselors, group leaders, specialists and lifeguards are often pulled away from leading and supervising the children in their group in order to speak to parents.
· Children, whose parents can not visit as often, may get upset.
· Kids love Crestwood the most when it is just Crestwood.
We believe that the majority of you agree with us for many of the same reasons plus a few additional ones including the potential pressure from your child to visit them at camp. A few summers ago, we sent out a survey to our families and over 75% of those who responded felt that a maximum of one visit per month was appropriate. Over the past few summers, we continue to hear similar feedback from you that we should limit visiting more.
In the best interest of the campers and their experience at Crestwood, we have decided to change the "open visiting" policy for this summer as follows:
· Six and Eight week campers will be allowed two visits.
· Four week campers will be allowed one visit.
· Visiting will be allowed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 AM to 2:30 PM.
· Parents are still welcome to come at their convenience. No appointments are necessary.
There will be no change in the visiting policy for pre-school and kindergarten groups.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at any time.
Sincerely,
Mark H., Mark T., and Jeff
