Amplify Kindness at Camp: Fun Ideas for Camp Management

July 17, 2024 (Updated July 8, 2025)

In our world of strong social media influence and divisive news, kindness can sometimes get lost. People often have short attention spans, making it easy to overlook kindness in adult life.

Most adults will go out of their way to give children a little extra kindness. It can be a warm and welcoming smile, a high-five, a fist bump, a word of encouragement, or some celebratory ice cream.

Kids know that special treatment or acknowledgment feels good. However, they may not instinctively know how to show the same type of intentional kindness to others. It's up to us to show and teach them how to keep those warm, fuzzy feelings going!

Camps across America are making a point of teaching children how to be kind in simple, high-impact ways at camp and beyond. Below are a few ideas about how to incorporate more intentional kindness into the camp experience all summer long!

Inspire Kindness & Compassion in Campers

If you want ideas for adding kindness to your everyday camp activities, here are a few to help you start:

✅ Implement a Camper Kindness Challenge

Create a challenge that encourages campers and staff to perform small acts of kindness and report any acts of kindness they witness around camp. Track individual, team, or cabin progress and issue rewards such as a badge, trophy, or special privileges.

✅ Add Camp-wide Kindness Initiatives

Organize projects that focus on community service or environmental stewardship, such as cleaning up a local space, planting trees, growing a garden to donate the harvest, or sending crafts or making regular visits to a nearby nursing home. 

✅Try Role-Playing Real-Life Scenarios

Role-playing can be an excellent way to explore common scenarios at home, school, or camp and help children learn how to respond in healthy, kind ways. By acting it out, you can challenge kids to find a way to end a disagreement or uncomfortable situation by addressing it calmly with kindness.

✅ Incorporate Mindful Journaling Exercises

Encourage children to actively write down how they feel (or how they suspect they made others feel) each day. This practice can teach children to be mindful about their daily interactions with others.

✅ Start by Building a "Wall of Kindness"

Dedicate a wall in a public area where campers can write and post notes about acts of kindness they’ve witnessed or experienced. This visual representation of kindness can inspire and motivate campers to continue spreading positivity.

Building Kind Staff: Strengthen Camp Culture from Within

Campers aren’t the only ones who can benefit by incorporating kindness into their daily camp life and learning initiatives. Here are a few tips on how to incorporate kindness into your camp culture and training for staff members:

✅ Build Kindness into Everyday Camp Policies

Develop and enforce policies that promote a culture of kindness, respect, and inclusivity. Ensure that all staff understand and are committed to these values and provide training on how to implement them in daily interactions.

✅Champion Kindness with Staff Recognition Programs

Regularly recognize and reward staff members who demonstrate exceptional kindness and compassion. Whether through formal awards, public acknowledgment, or small tokens of appreciation, these gestures show that kindness is valued at all levels of the camp.

✅ Offer Kindness-Centered Professional Development

Offer workshops and training sessions focused on kindness, empathy, effective communication, and conflict resolution. Providing staff with the tools and knowledge to foster a kind environment can enhance their professional growth and improve the overall camp atmosphere.

✅ Demonstrate Kindness Through Inclusive Programming Practices

Encourage all camp activities and programming ideas to be planned so that they are as inclusive and considerate of various campers’ needs or abilities as possible. By ensuring that everyone can participate —and feel seen, valued, and cared for at camp—you can naturally promote an environment of kindness and acceptance. 

✅ Start Peer Support Groups for Staff

Create small peer support groups where staff and counselors can share experiences, offer advice, and support each other. These groups can help team members manage stress and foster a supportive work environment where kindness is a core value.

Kindness Beyond Camp: Supporting Families & Communities

Even camp families and the community around your camp can benefit from a little extra kindness. Find tips on building a culture of kindness with camp families and community members with the tips below:

✅ Build a Camp Community with Kindness-Based Themes

Build a community online or in-person with open communications, regular updates, and feedback opportunities. This shows that a camp truly cares for its families and the community at large. Together you can generate new ideas to give back and amplify kindness surrounding your camp operations.

✅ Show Your Appreciation with Personal Touches

A kind gesture such as a mailer or handwritten note to donors, camp families, staff, and other members of your camp community for their contributions can go a long way! Or if you have facilities and the budget, you could host picnics, open houses, and special family-oriented events.

✅ Forge Local Partnerships to Help Your Camp Give Back

Collaborate with local businesses to offer discounts for families around drop-off or pick-up dates or to secure resources for your camp. If the cost of working with someone local is the same or comparable to a big supplier, it can be a wise decision to stay local. If your camp faces future hardships, those relationships with other local businesses can be real lifesavers. 

✅ Send Out Random Acts of Kindness

We often encourage campers to do random acts of kindness. Camps can do the same by sending a small gift to camp families, donors, or local businesses. A $5 gift card for coffee or a small freebie like candies, stickers, decals, or activity sheets can be an unexpected treat that makes an impression.

✅ Introduce or Expand Camp Scholarship Programs

Despite your best efforts to keep costs low, not all families can afford the cost of camp. You can help keep the camp experience more attainable by working with business partners and donors to establish scholarships or financial aid for families that need assistance.

Get Ready to Celebrate Camp Kindness Day!

By incorporating the types of initiatives outlined in this article, you can create a kinder and more compassionate camp environment. This enriches the experience you offer to campers, counselors, staff, donors, and your local community.

Each July, camps nationwide unite to celebrate Camp Kindness Day. This project was started by the American Camp Association (ACA) and its affiliates to encourage camps to band together and emphasize kindness through programming, social media, and most importantly—action!

From writing letters to local heroes to giving back through volunteer projects, Camp Kindness Day is a meaningful way to reaffirm your camp’s values—and connect with a larger community doing the same.

Amplify Your Camp's Impact with Kindness

Use Camp Kindness Day as a cornerstone in your camp management calendar. Highlight it in marketing, train your staff in advance, and plan special events that bring kindness to life in unforgettable ways.

This July, join other camps in flooding social media with #CampKindnessDay  to show how you're celebrating!

Looking for even more fun ideas to work kindness into your camp?

The ACA has a virtual backpack full of them! Plus, access official Camp Kindness Day logos and signup forms on their website by clicking the button below!

Final Thoughts on Kindness & Camp Management

Kindness isn’t just a soft skill—it’s a foundational piece of great camp management.

From enriching camper experiences to deepening staff bonds and uplifting your camp’s community presence, intentional kindness pays off in retention, referrals, and real relationships.

Whether it’s for Camp Kindness Day or every day, your camp can lead with kindness—and we’re here to help you do it!

PRO TIP! If you're an iCampPro customer, don't forget to use our Communications Tool to tell your camp families all about your efforts to make kindness a highlight of your camp experience! You can also use the Registration Portal to host a custom FAQ about your initiative or distribute links to registered campers about your efforts.