Have you ever tried to carry a book bag full of gold-painted rocks somewhere?

No? Not your thing?

If you haven’t, a small heads up. It does not end well for the book bag.

This is Gold Rush. And Gold Rush means scattering painted rocks all over camp. The kids spend the day hauling them back to trade in for “money” they’ll use at Casino Night later on.

The bags get heavier and heavier until, somewhere along the way, a seam gives out. And when that happens, it leaves behind a big pile of rocks to pick up and a small pile of ruined book bags.

Before we got started, something was bugging me about this.

The Part I Tried (Incorrectly) to Fix

I’ve seen this story play out before, and the bags kept ripping. So I did what seemed obvious. Floated the idea that we just buy good bags for the kids to use. All matching. Sturdy ones, made for the job. Solve the problem once and move on.

I got shot down on the spot by returning staff.

The thing I was missing is that the bag is the point. Kids show up to Gold Rush with the bag they chose. Some of them have been thinking about which one to bring since last summer. It’s theirs, and it carries (literally and figuratively) their whole plan for the day.

Hand them a better bag, and you’ve “fixed” a problem nobody wanted fixed.

What Kids Are Actually After

Watch them during Gold Rush and you realize they were never chasing the best setup. They wanted the one they’d thought about themselves.

To them, a torn bag acts like proof. They showed up with their own thing and went all in until it gave out. It’s not a badge of honor, but it’s personal.

My instinct is to reach for the upgrade, the version that won’t break. Theirs is to grab what’s already theirs and go.

More than one of you has probably wondered why you sent your kid off with a perfectly good book bag. This is why. Ownership is the currency that matters here, and a kid will take their own bag over a better one every time.

The staff understand this. They get the point.

But this isn’t really a camp thing, either. What a kid treasures is rarely what we would have chosen for them.

So this summer a book bag might come home with a seam that didn’t survive Gold Rush prospecting.

It might look like a casualty.

It’s actually the souvenir.

It’s part of the memory.

You got this,

Jack

PS - Check out Instagram, where we are posting daily about what's happening at camp.

And, if you have someone you think would be a good fit for a summer at K&E, they can schedule a call to talk to me. I'll answer any questions.

114 Eagle Pond Rd, Wilmot, NH 03287
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​