Kids Rule

At Camp WaterColor, every day is kids' day.

by Melanie Radzicki McManus
photography by Jason Wallis

As small girl with long, brown ringlets appears in the doorway, a chorus of young voices cries, “Alex!” Bypassing her friends, who are sitting at a low table and coloring, Alex bounds over to camp counselor Logan Wilson, flies into her lap, and tightly wraps her arms around her, grinning from ear to ear. Wilson, who is now cradling Alex in her lap, returns the five-year-old’s hug as another camper scoots around Wilson’s back and begins trying to pull the counselor’s long, blond tresses into a ponytail. The other counselors working with Wilson—Collier Broadaway and Collin Jones—are soon besieged by many other tiny bodies, and it is quite clear that every kid in the room is thrilled to be here.

“Here” is Camp WaterColor, a popular day program developed for the children of visitors and homeowners in WaterColor, a resort community in Santa Rosa Beach named the 2006 top family resort in North America by readers of Travel + Leisure Family. Opened in 2003 when the resort was two years old, the camp is designed for kids four to twelve years old, and camp “stays” come in half-day or full-day increments. Each day generally has a theme around which activities are centered, such as Beach Blast, Weird Science, and Outdoor Explorers, although most sessions also include arts and crafts and outdoor play. Full-day sessions offer swimming, too.

Unlike many kids’ camps, Camp WaterColor is open seven days a week in summer, six days in spring, and Wednesday through Saturday the rest of the year. Attendance is capped at forty, and there is typically an eight-to-one kid-staff ratio. No minimum number of kids is required for camp to open. “We never want to turn even one child away,” says Amy Smith, the resort’s programs and events manager.
Although Smith is fairly new to Camp WaterColor, she’s totally impressed with the four-acre campus. The headquarters building crowns the property, featuring a spacious lobby, classroom, and kitchen. Extra-wide double doors open off the classroom onto a playground, while another set of double doors leads from the lobby to a pool. A soccer field lies beyond the pool, and a smaller plot of grass near the playground is reserved for games such as dodgeball. “In a lot of resorts, recreational programs like kids’ camps are an afterthought,” Smith says, “so they’re crammed into some extra space like a conference room or outdoor pavilion. Not here.”

Stephen Hilliard, vice president of resort and club operations at The St. Joe Company, says the camp was designed to be a major component of the resort, not merely a glorified baby-sitting service, so programming is carefully developed. “We give families the ability to come to a resort, and the adults can do adult things and kids can do kid things,” he says. “Parents want their kids to enjoy arts and crafts, sports—all in all an active, fun learning experience.” At Camp WaterColor, fun is never a problem.

Today’s theme is Sports Roundup; shortly after the kids arrive, they’re corralled into a waiting van and driven to the resort’s tennis center. Pint-size rackets are handed out, and counselors begin gently lobbing tennis balls to their charges. The kids scramble around the clay court, swinging rackets and shouting gleefully every time they hit a ball. Amid the darting bodies, one tiny girl remains still. Standing on the court with her head sadly drooping and a tennis racket limp in her hand, Stella Thomas, age four, is clearly not a happy camper. Jones immediately notices and takes action.

“Stella!” she calls out gaily. “Come over here with us!” Stella slowly walks over to Jones, who quickly scoops her up in her arms and helps the tot hold her racket steady enough to hit a few balls. Just as Stella starts to smile, everyone darts off the court to take a water break, and Jones is swarmed by campers looking for help getting a drink. Stella finds herself standing alone on the grass and, close to tears, climbs into a giant Adirondack chair, which nearly swallows her small body from sight. But again, Jones spies her.

“I’m going to grab Stella,” she calls out to Broadaway and Wilson while gently dislodging a camper from her lap. “She’s not having the best day today.” Soon Jones has Stella on the prowl for stray tennis balls as if she’s on an Easter egg hunt, and the four-year-old is smiling again.
“The staff here is amazing,” says Margo Fogelman, Alex’s mom. In large part because of the staff’s great rapport with the campers, Alex and her seven-year-old brother, Matty, begged Fogelman to sign them up for camp every day during the family’s month-long stay at WaterColor this summer, and Fogelman readily complied.

The kids soon tire of tennis, so it’s back to Camp WaterColor to play some outdoor games until lunch. The afternoon features miniature golf just down the road, followed by the big finale: swimming in Sand Hill Pool. One of five community pools, it’s known to the kids as the “frog pool” because it sports three gaily decorated frogs spitting arced streams of water.

The pace at camp has been quick today, yet not rushed. There’s been enough time to spend on each activity, but not so much time that the kids get bored or restless. “The busier we keep them, the fewer arguments,” Wilson says. It’s true; the dozen or so kids at today’s camp have been together five hours without even a slight disagreement—which is, frankly, pretty amazing.

Tomorrow, Smith says, is Crazy Chefs’ Day, always a popular offering at Camp WaterColor. About two dozen kids have already signed up, twice the number as at Sports Roundup. When camp opens the following day, the kids start off stirring small bowls of cake mix and water, which the counselors take into the kitchen, transfer into small loaf pans, and then bake. Meanwhile, the campers play various games, and then begin creating their second food item, monkey bread.

The cakes are eventually ready, and each camper is handed a loaf. Bowls of colored frosting are set on the tables, along with sprinkles, gummy bears, and Oreo cookie bits, and the kids are instructed to frost and decorate the cakes using their fingers. Henry Adams, age ten, swipes an entire hand through a bowl of green frosting, then across the top of his cake. A thin layer of frosting gets deposited on the cake, but most stays on his fingers. “Whoa—NICE!” he grins, surveying his frosting-coated hand before carefully standing gummy bears atop his cake.

Next to Henry, Emerson Buck, age eleven, has slathered so much frosting on his cake, it’s oozing down one side. On top, the frosting is totally obscured by a thick layer of sprinkles, gummy bears, and an enormous Oreo chunk. “This is going to be one delicious cake!” he says happily, surveying his handiwork. As the boys begin taking monster-size bites out of their cakes, the girls are still painstakingly decorating theirs. “You don’t have to be so neat,” Henry mumbles through a mouthful of cake, but the girls ignore him.

Camp Lead Cami Ellis pauses for a moment to enoy the sight of the children decorating their cakes. Big grins—and copious amounts of frosting—are spread across nearly every face. “I love kids, and I love kids’ camp,” she says. “I would work here every day if I could.”