We all have a camp origin story, so we sat down with Jules from Camp Ton-A-Wandah to hear all about hers on this episode of MyCamp!

Jules started her first summer at Camp Ton-A-Wandah when she was 7 years old, and she stayed for two weeks. She grew up at camp, where she went through the CIT program and became a counselor assistant. Jules was a counselor for 2 years after that, and spent about 12 years total at camp. After college she had a few jobs that took her out of camp for a while, but now she’s back as the Associate Director of Camp Ton-A-Wandah! This is her first summer as the Associate Director, and Jules is looking forward to seeing the staff create relationships with each other, similar to herself and her friends when they were on staff.

Camp Ton-A-Wandah was founded by Dottie Haynes in 1933, as an all girls camp in the mountains of North Carolina. The camp is still in the Haynes family, and serves about 200 girls per session. Their core values are community, curiosity, and creativity to create young women of substance. One of their traditions rooted in these values is the Candle Light at the end of each session. The girls light candles during a quiet, peaceful time, to represent the founder and girls they have lost through the years. The counselors speak about what Camp Ton-A-Wandah means to them, as they place their candles in the water. Jules also mentioned some other fun activities that she loves at camp! She loves the meal competitions, specifically the waffles competition during the last morning at camp!

Jules is so excited to share her experiences with the staff this summer! We loved hearing about the history of Camp Ton-A-Wandah and Jules’ camp origin story during this episode of MyCamp!

Want to support Camp Ton-A-Wandah? Go to their site at https://www.camptonawandah.com/ and donate to help upgrade facilities and equipment.

Check out more of our My Camp podcasts and other camp materials on our Happy Camper Live website. You can also find us on YouTube at Happy Camper Live and on Instagram @happy_camper_live.