Camp Champions is a beautiful camp for children of all ages located in Marble Falls, situated on the shores of Lake LBJ. Steve and Susie Baskin’s programs are “designed to be a BLAST for our campers and to embrace the growth opportunities of camp. The values we teach reinforce our mission of Growing Campers into Champions.” From water skiing to horseback riding, sports to crafts, climbing walls to archery, there are over 50 activities to challenge and delight campers. Schedules and costs may be found at www.campchampions.com
“The Four R’s are the foundation of our philosophy at Camp Champions. We believe every child has an inner Champion and we create a loving community in which every camper can flourish. Our campers grow in character skills like independence and confidence. And because there is an important niche in our community for every camper, we are consistently told that our campers are free to discover the best versions of themselves.”
Responsibility at camp starts with campers learning to care for themselves and their living areas. Campers must tidy their cabins daily and clean up after each meal. Clear rules with fair and understandable consequences are provided, stressing sportsmanship. These are excellent starting points for younger campers, with continued opportunities to teach older campers by talking to them about integrity and character.
Respect Campers are taught to respect each other, their surroundings, and themselves. "We begin by teaching them our tradition of saying "sir” and “ma’am”. Respect might start with our language, but it continues in all we do. We help them with their listening skills and emphasize respect for competitors. We believe that each camper is glorious and has a special life to lead."
Reaching out is one of the cornerstones of the community at camp. Campers are taught to help and encourage each other throughout the day. Campers help each other with the cabin’s responsibilities during inspection and meal cleanups. The High School Leadership Program is designed to teach the older campers to work with younger campers as mentors and leaders. An important focus at the beginning of each camp term is reaching out to new campers to integrate them into the camp community. Veteran campers do this by helping first time campers learn camp lingo, traditions, and showing them around the camp property. The counselors implement the “buddy system” to encourage returning campers to reach out to new campers who are still learning about camp life.
Reasonable Risks The challenge for parents and educators is to encourage “healthy risks". Those would include trying out for a team or performing music in front of an audience, not drinking or extreme dieting, etc. Camp is an ideal environment for taking healthy, reasonable risks - challenging but safe risks for all ages of campers. For a first time camper, simply coming to camp and having fun away from home is taking a risk. The High School Leadership program is designed to challenge and stretch - spend time out of their comfort zone, but do so in a safe and healthy way.
Camp Champions also offer additional programs: OUTDOOR SCHOOL EDUCATION is geared for students in grades 4-12 and offers a host of different courses, both academic and adventure-based, that allows teachers to customize a field trip.
LEADERSHIP PROGRAM is a customized experience that challenges classmates in grades 7-12 to work together and think creativity in order to be successful. Facilitators will craft a program to meet the unique needs of a student group.
CHAMPIONS CUSTOM-TAILORED RETREATS are great for a company picnic, a youth group retreat, or a girl scout service unit camp out. Champions Retreat will delight guests with amazing activities, beautiful hill country setting, and superb customer service.
Since 1967, Camp Champions has served thousands of students as campers at their summer camp. Realizing the importance of outdoor and away from home experiences, Camp Champions opened their Outdoor School in 1996. “Over the years, we have dedicated our time and our resources to spreading the camp experience to as many students as possible. We have worked with SCOPE, helping to send campers to local Texas camps. We have partnered with agencies and schools in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio to source deserving scholarship campers. But we know we can do more.”
Over the past 5 years, Champions has given out over $200,000 in scholarships a year for camperships. These assist families who have hit hard times and working with families who never would have dreamed of having a summer camp experience. “In 2012 we decided we had greater work to do, we needed to be more intentional about our contributions to scholarships at our own camp, and to our impact on a local and state level. Our 501(c)(3) became a reality in 2016, and we are looking forward to organizing our resources and ideas to focus on serving youth in Texas.”