Warrior Camp

from $100.00

For 9-12 year olds  

July 15 - 19, 2024

Day Camp Hours (Monday-Friday, 9am – 4pm daily, with 8pm pickup on Thursday)

TUTITION $265

The Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity; the heart of valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship.

 ~ Morihei Ueshiba

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Join us for five days of adventure in the Green Mountain National Forest! Under the guidance of experienced outdoor educators, kids ages 9 to 13 will explore the woods, splash in streams and swimming holes, and ascend to the summit of Grass Mountain (3100 ft).

Along the way, we will build community bonds, engage in social and emotional learning activities, and make connections to the natural world. Music making, mindful movement, and wilderness skills will be woven into exciting games and spontaneous play. Daily activities will include a balance of high-energy physical challenges and self-reflective council check-ins.

Activities Include:

  • Cultivating aspects of self (part of social community, as emotional being, as intellectual being, as part of natural world)

  • Building a holistic, healthy lifestyle  (Love, think, grow, feel, share)

  • Body-Mind Connections: Meditation, breathwork, stretching

  • Meeting physical challenges with Grit!

  • Spontaneous play and wonder

  • Head out and spend all day in the woods

  • Way of Council and Leave No Trace principles

  • Fire building

  • Shelter building

  • Spontaneous Music making

  • Stalking and Tracking

Campers should prepare to spend the entire day outside, rain or shine. 

They will need DAILY:

  • Comfortable (broken-in) hiking boots

  • Backpack

  • Water bottle that holds at least 1 liter

  • Hearty lunch and snacks

  • Swim shorts and towel

  • Rain Gear

  • Mask

  • Change of weather-appropriate clothes and socks

  • River Crossing sandals (Tevas, Keen’s, Chaco, etc)

 


On Thursday, we will have a cookout and campfire to celebrate summitting Grass Mountain. Campers should be picked up no later than by 8pm on that day.

I call myself a Peaceful Warrior… because the battles we fight are on the inside.

~ Socrates, from The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

Cost is $265 per camper.

Send your camper daily with a packed lunch.

To register your child, fill out the registration forms and make a deposit (required).

Questions?  Email Tracey: traceyforest@spirithollow.org 



A note about gender

While all of our camps are open to all genders, often girls gravitate naturally to Goddess Camps and boys to Warrior Camps. Our goal is to assist in the healing of our culture, not to ‘segregate’ or be gender essentialist. However, we find value and depth and a lack of self-consciousness in a ‘circle of sisters’ or a ‘circle of brothers,’ where young people feel a sense of freedom to share openly in a space held by mature adults. For example, although it is important for both boys and girls to learn about consent, it needs to be addressed in different ways for girls than it does for boys due to the toxic cultural norms we are attempting to transform.

By inviting girls to gather together with women, we create a safe container to explore their deep connection to the Ancient goddess cultures and reverence of the female, to talk about body image and break down “false beauty,” cultivate the divine feminine, and discuss issue around their self esteem, consent, and menstruation as well as teach them skills to be empowered and self sufficient.

By inviting boys gather together with men, we create a safe container to explore emotional intelligence, discuss what a true warrior is, explore earth stewardship, feel safe to express the full range of emotions and how to respect others’ boundaries with the intent of releasing the lineage of unhealthy traditional “male” roles which are pushed on boys and young men from countless modern and historical sources, as well as teaching them skills to be empowered and self sufficient.




STAFF

Ryan Long, M.Ed

is a Santa Barbara, CA-based educator who leads children’s programs related to service learning, spiritual ecology, and community building. Using tools like the Way of Council and Leave No Trace principles, he works to center environmental stewardship and inspire a love of nature. He serves on the board of Creekspirit Wildlife Foundation and co-created Warrior Camp at Spirit Hollow which has been running since 2013.

Noah Forest 

has been attending Spirit Hollow camps since he was in his mother’s (Tracey Forest) womb.  He grew up in Spirit Quest and Warrior Camps, became a junior counselor, and now, at 20, he is a full-fledged staff member for his second summer.  He knows these woods like the back of his hand and is a gentle and compassionate leader. A 2022 graduate of Burr and Burton High School, Noah is Wilderness First Aid Certified, has worked at the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, as a Crew Leader at the Dene Farm in Manchester, served on the Sunderland Energy Committee and has a passion for regenerative food systems. He has interned in permaculture with Ben Falk of Whole Systems Designs and has worked at the Round House Bakery and Clear Brook Farm

Noah is in his sophomore year at Hampshire College.