In “The lunch part!”
Poppy Copeland doesn’t hesitate when she’s asked about her favorite thing at Ferncliff and the people that help make it happen.
Her brother Cub grins and adds, “Dinner’s better than lunch.”
Poppy laughs, “I’m talking about the cheers.”
Every day before lunch, campers gather with their color teams to invent chants before heading into the dining hall. For Poppy, those moments of singing and cheering with her friends are what she remembers most.
Cub can’t wait to add his list.
“Capture the Chicken. Gaga Ball. Morning swim. The Aqua Park.”
Soon they’re talking over one another, finishing each other’s stories, and laughing about camp traditions. Poppy remembers arts and crafts and cheers. Cub remembers games, adventures, and campfires. Each recalls Ferncliff through a different lens, but together they paint a picture of a place they both love.
Watching them, it’s easy to understand what their mom, Sarah, means when she says, “It’s kind of like they’re best friends. They’re pretty close.”
By the end of each week at camp, Poppy and Cub are exhausted. They’re asleep before the drive home is over, worn out from days spent swimming, creating, exploring, singing, and making new friends.
“They are just beat,” Sarah said with a laugh. “It’s good.”
But what stays with her isn’t how tired they are.
“They want to recreate that stuff when they come home,” she said. “That’s the core memory.”
The cheers are sung again. Camp games find their way into the backyard. Stories about counselors and new friends are told around the dinner table. The week doesn’t end when they leave Ferncliff.
Sarah has watched something else grow each summer, too. She has seen both children return home with more confidence and has watched Cub eagerly embrace overnight camp. She treasures the counselors who create a place where children feel safe enough to try new things, make new friends, and simply be themselves.
“It’s a testament to how comfortable they feel,” she said.
After trying another camp, Cub’s conclusion was simple.
“I want to go to Ferncliff.”
Sarah understands why.
“You can’t recreate this someplace else.”
Soon, their youngest brother, Wolf, will be old enough to make Ferncliff memories of his own. Until then, he’ll keep hearing Poppy and Cub tell about lunch cheers, Aqua Park adventures, campfires, and games with names that only make sense at camp.
For the Copelands, that’s Ferncliff’s lasting impact. Camp doesn’t stay at Ferncliff. It comes home. It lives on in backyard games, songs sung around the house, family conversations, and stories retold long after summer ends. One week at camp becomes part of the other fifty-one weeks of the year.