About

We’re glad that you’re considering Pine Island Camp for your son! The first step is to fill out the application. We will be in touch within a day or two to schedule a 1:1 meeting with our director. We meet with all new families to ensure each boy’s readiness for camp, and to answer your questions. If your son is ready for Pine Island, his application will be accepted.

Committing to a summer away is difficult. There are countless reasons why a boy may be nervous to make the leap of faith to attend Pine Island. Most nine- to fiftteen-year-old boys are not ready to make this decision. The benefits of independence, making new friends, and entertaining oneself without screens are difficult to grasp for potential campers. If you are interested in your son attending Pine Island, we recommend following these steps:

1. Attend a Zoom or in-person gathering with returning families and our director. These are terrific opportunities to build excitement about camp.
2. Ask us to connect you with a returning family. Our camp families are happy to meet with new families to help form friendships before camp begins.
3. Regardless of your son’s hesitation, it’s well worth meeting 1:1. We can help bring the joy of being a camper at Pine Island to life, and address your son’s specific reservations.

The book Homesick and Happy by Michael Thompson is an excellent read. It can help parents to see the time away at camp as a gift rather than a burden. Many parents feel they’re doing their best for their children by keeping them close. Childhood is short, and they don’t want to miss any of it. We understand. But boys who spend their summers at Pine Island learn and grow in ways that they can’t with their parents. They learn to advocate for themselves and take care of themselves. They make friends from around the world, are introduced to positive role models, and become a part of a community that accepts and welcomes them as they are. Pine Islanders return home more confident, resilient, and filled with stories and experiences that are all their own. Parents repeatedly tell us that the six weeks of separation brings them closer as a family. After sharing letters throughout the summer, they reunite at the end of each season, refreshed and renewed, with new stories to share.

Fortunately, there are no ticks on Pine Island, and a gentle breeze ensures very few mosquitoes. However, there are ticks and mosquitoes in the woods throughout New England. On trips and during mainland activities, we ensure that all campers use bug spray, on skin and especially on clothing. We use effective and safe DEET-free bug repellents. We have regular tick check protocols for boys doing mainland activities, at Whitehead Island, and out on other trips, and we also perform periodic camp-wide tick checks. It’s part of life in New England – wear bug spray and check for ticks.

If we find a tick attached to your son we: 1) remove it; 2) record the date and the area on the body that it was attached; 3) begin monitoring for symptoms of Lyme disease – this continues throughout the summer; and 4) call you. If it appears that the tick has been embedded for some time, we will take your son in immediately for medical attention.

Hand-written letters! Each camper’s “ticket” to dinner on Sundays and Wednesdays is a letter home. A mail boat comes to the island six days a week to pick up and drop off mail. For many of your boys, this will be their first experience writing letters. Our counselors will help boys who need assistance writing letters, but it’s helpful to start talking about this at home before camp.

While some boys enjoy writing long, descriptive letters, many parents have received one-liners, often along the lines of: “Please send cookies. Thanks.” If you’ve received a letter like this, or you know your son can be less than forthcoming with his thoughts, please talk with him before camp about the things you’ll hope he’ll write home about. It may be helpful to send him to camp with a list of ideas written down in a notebook you send with him to camp, or taped onto the inside of the lid of his trunk. (For example: What activities have you been enjoying? What ranks are you working on? Have you gone on any trips lately? What have you been doing during rest hour? Are you having any problems? If so, have you mentioned them to your counselor or Sumner? What solutions are you working on? What has been your favorite meal so far? And so on.)

Remind your son that letters don’t have to be long and eloquent. They can be in the form of a (hand-written) text, or a cartoon, or a simple drawing with a caption – anything that conveys a bit about what he’s been doing and/or how he’s been feeling.

Finally, pre-addressing envelopes with your home address and the addresses of friends and loved ones is helpful. You can also draw a template of an envelope in the front of your son’s notepad – anything to remove potential roadblocks to writing a letter. And once camp begins, you can help your son by modeling the type of letters you hope to receive. Letters to and from camp are treasures!

The majority of our summer staff members were campers at Pine Island. Almost all the rest are referred to us by current and recent staff members. Our director visits colleges that have produced top-notch counselors for Pine Island, where he meets and interviews prospective summer staff. All staff undergo state and federal background checks, and we speak with all references, regardless of how well we know each person we hire.