Students at Philip W. Sugg Middle School went to Camp Kieve in Nobleboro, Maine the week of March 6-10. Students were involved in learning activities all day and night. The entire seventh grade class went and had fun hanging out with friends while learning to trust and respect each other.
The Kennedy family established Camp Kieve in 1926. Kieve is an educational foundation. Leadership Decisions Institute (LDI) is a one to five day school program that helps kids to make good choices. LDI has been a part of Kieve for 25 years and is still going on today. Camp Kieve is located on Lake Damariscotta. Students wake up at about 7 a.m. and eat their breakfast at 8. There are six classes during the day from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Each of the 6 classes are one hour and focus on wise choices and healthy decisions. After classes are over, the students have snacks then attend 2 choice time periods that include Ga-Ga, a game, drama, baseball, etc. Next is supper and a planned evening activity. Lights are out at 9 p.m. The classes consist of Decisions, to help make wise choices in life. Adventure, where student go out on the ropes course to learn to trust their supporters. Relationships, where students are taught what kind of good friends there are, Communication Skills, where students learned about different behaviors and reactions that people may have, and Solo, where students go outside and focus on the three R’s (Rest, Relax, and Reflect) and the three S’s (Solitude, Silence, and Stillness.)
Students have three meals a day and three snacks a day to have enough energy for all the activities. The cabins are well heated and have indoor plumbing. The cabins hold 15 and that includes one staff member. The cabins are not co-ed. Girl cabins are on one side of the camp and boy cabins are on the other. There are about eight cabins total. Some of the recreational activities are tennis, ropes course, wall climbing, baseball, and canoeing with lifejackets.
Students enjoyed their week at Kieve. We all had fun and really enjoyed the ropes course. There were many new and different things to try out. All of them required a support team to trust that they would be safe. Some of the commands were “Ready, Climbing,” “Climb Away,” “Falling,” and “Fall Away.”
We would all like to go back. We liked our camp counselors and had a great time. We will continue working on skills we learned back at school.
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