Director’s Reports

“The fun is in the doing”

August 3, 2026

“The fun is in the doing”

August 3, 2026

Kingswood is not a sports camp per se, although tons of activities could be labeled as such over the course of sixteen hour waking moments of each day. Any lad who loves athletic competition can find it here.

That said, “winning,” while fun and desirable for everyone, is not the main purpose of our camp. One time, many years ago, Kingswood triumphed versus a big camp on Lake Winnipesaukee and I heard their coach yell at his charges, “You will be running laps for days.” Truly laughable by our standards.

Here’s another memorable story from a ways back: At dinner announcements, a Kingswood coach went on for quite some time naming the stars of the afternoon game and describing terrific plays made by various boys. “How much did we win by?” I inquired of the coach. “Oh, we got clobbered ten to nothing.”

Variations of that speech are offered every day at Kingswood and my ears are always perked for such commentary.

No boy is ever to be made angry or embarrassed as Kingswood stresses the “doing” as our first principle. Yesterday’s all-camp meeting focused on the topic of challenging one’s comfort level and being open to trying new things, risky as that sounds.

I fell in with camper Marcos yesterday evening and he reported having failed to get up on water-skis in three tries. “Your brain will work out the details tonight while you sleep,” I encouraged him. Much more often than not, day number two of any activity harkens improvement.

Look, we don’t believe in false praise, but lots of good can come out of difficult circumstances. That concept was stressed in yesterday’s gathering.

Oh boy, four additional photo albums have just been posted by Sara after her sports pics of August 2. Indian Pond is our favorite fishing haunt where some lunkers have been hauled in. “Always fun, regardless of the catch,” insists Todd, “Earl Angler,” by nickname.

“You can see the actual summit of Mt. Moosilauke from our shoreline” we tell them. That means, of course, that you can see Kingswood from there. For certain you take a heavy garment with you to that weathered sign at 4802 feet.

The north slide of Mt. Tripyramid is an exhilaration of the highest order. It looks dangerous but is not, unless one is truly reckless in wending his way upwards. I am so envious of these young people, having done this hike myself in 1973.

The Week 5 counselor photos album now is complete. I have commented on the first part of this album in a previous blog. All of the photos, however, seem to offer the same refrain: “The fun is in the doing.”