Holiday Home Camp takes pride in being one of the oldest Fresh Air Camps in the country, founded in 1887. Holiday Home celebrates it's 125th anniversary, which is a milestone this year. Camp has survived through some lean and uncertain years, but has been able to keep it's doors open to the underprivileged children who need a respite from their life in the city. To give to those 45,000 plus children the opportunity to share the beauty of a rustic setting on Geneva Lake. I will post the schedule of the activities in the Events page as they become available and they will also be posted on the HHCAAI Facebbok page.

The Holiday Home Camp Alumni Association Inc. celebrates this summer it's 25th anniversary with the mission of assisting Holiday Home Camp. We came together for the 100th celebration at camp to discover that the facilities at Holiday Home had become shabby due to many years of deferred maintainance caused by other major events such as the Village of Williams Bay informing Holiday Home that it had to pay a substanial amount for the required new water main that would be installed through camp property, erosion control projects at the waterfront and the installation of new sewer lines throughout camp. These costly projects took priorty over attempting to maintain other needed issues. Over the past 25 years the alumni have made a huge impact on assisting with maintenance of many of the facilities that needed TLC. We came together on the work weekends and made a difference by the time we departed on Sunday afternoon.... with aching muscles and exhausted, we traveled home with a good feeling inside knowing that we had given our all and we had helped... helped maintain a special place for children. I have a composite list of all the projects completed in each year with an estimated total donated materials cost of $80,000. This amount does not include any of the hundreds of labor hours to complete the projects. I will be presenting the list of projects to the Holiday Home Camp Board of Directors meeting in May.

I am pleased to announce that the Alumni Association will be "Adopting a Camper" for one week again this summer. We could possibly adopt two or three campers with your generosity by sending in a check or hitting the donate button for Paypal here on our website.  It's time to give back and what a better place to give to a child...two weeks at camp where they can be free from the worries and threats of their daily lives. Where they can be children who can experience the fun of having new friend and adults who they can trust while caring for them in a safe environment. Let us all chip in a few bucks to provide a dream for a child this summer.The cost to Adopt a Camp for one week is $460. Camp, like the campers that it serves, is always in need of help. Please check the "Holiday Home Wish List" for items that you could donate. I am sure that on the list there is something that you could donate, from rubber bands to passenger vans, you can help.

Tim and Susie McGill incorporated the Love and Logic training for the staff of 2011. The training was taught to accomodate participation with OWLS program enabling the staff to react proactively rather than reactively to behavioral issues. This paradigm shift resulted a very successful summer of "Respect, Responsibilty and Relationships" with counselors and campers. Only 2(0.5%) campers were sent home last summer in comparison to 29 (6.4%) during the summer of 2010. Child Development sessions for the counselord provided information on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the brief history of this cognitive growth theory. The end result of all of this was that the staff and over 400 campers had a great summer! As you are well aware that Holiday Home serves a very difficult population which provide constant behavioral challenges. I applaud Tim, Susie and the staff of 2011 for an outstanding summer of working as a community with the needy children who so desperately need to be cared for.

The mission of Holiday has remained the same, to provide a "Fresh air camping experience for underprivileged children of the city". Holiday Home Camp has the proud honor of serving children of need for the past 125 years. I ask you to become part of this proud tradition by renewing your involvement and participation in assisting children to enjoy the beauty of Holiday Home and have an experience that they will remember for a lifetime.

Become involved with Holiday Home in it's 125th Anniversary year as you are an important part of it's mission and history. I will keep you informed as to the "happenings". Please feel free to contact me at info@hhcalumni.org with any questions. I look forward to hearing from you. In the old days we didn’t applaud at camp, we gave HO HO’s (for HOliday HOme). I want to give Holiday Home Camp including all who are involved during this exciting time a GIANT HO HO!!!

Sincerely yours,

Bill Herron