Summer is nearly here! If you’re not thinking about church camp now, you’re already behind. (No, we’re not being dramatic. There is a little bit of pressure here.)
For group leaders, there are a lot of elements to juggle — payment installations from your kids, figuring out travel, making sure your middle schoolers won’t escape during camp. At Uth Stuph, we’ve been providing group leaders with summer camp shirts for decades, so we’ve seen it all. We wanted to put together this little listy-list of things to keep in mind for your group.
Custom T-Shirts
Whaaaaat a custom shirt company saying that shirts are important for church camp?! How shocking!
BUT WAIT! Don’t click away yet! There are some practical reasons to invest in custom group shirts for camp. First, there’s less of a chance you’ll lose your kids around the campus. If you know what shirts everyone wears for certain days, you’ll be more likely to spot them around. Second, if kids come into camp with some really cool shirts, they’re less likely to blow the week’s food budget in the camp store on shirts they’ll forget they bought in a year. Thirdly, camp is one of those events that bring in a lot of kids who might not be familiar with the ministry. By having group shirts ready, you’re telling the kid (or even volunteer) who has only stepped foot in your ministry once that they matter just as much as the kids who come every week.
And yeah, we’re pretty good at creating custom designed shirts that everyone will love. (Peep our designs here.)
Water Bottles
After 4 summers of working at one of the country’s largest Christian camps, the writer of this blog cannot stress enough how important water bottles are. Or, as she’d always tell her middle school Bible study on the recreation field: “Hydrate, don’t die-drate!” The summers get H O T. If you’re in the south, it gets HOT and HUMID. Giving your ministry a personalized water bottle or even just a fun water bottle for the week will help them remember to drink water and lay off the endless soda from the caf. Plus, it’s more sustainable than buying cases of water throughout the week for your kids.
Sunscreen
Remember the point we just made about it being HOT?! Sunscreen is another essential for the group. Not all moms will remember to send their kiddos with sunscreen, and you know even your best-behaved middle school boy likely didn’t remember to pack it. Grabbing some travel sunscreen for your kids can help them and your volunteers stay safe in the heat.
Custom Notebooks
Not all camps provide notebooks, and that’s cool (they’ve got a ton of things to worry about anyway)! You can give your kids notebooks personalized to your group name. This also helps other groups give inevitable lost notebooks back to group leaders with ease.
Drawstring Bags
“But wait, how are my kids going to carry around all of these essentials?” you ask. Let us add to this list the best essential: drawstring bags.
They’re relatively low cost. They’re versatile. They can carry darn near everything for your kids. AND, in our 25 years of being a printing company, we’ve never seen a generation of students think these were uncool.
They’ll hold water bottles, Bibles to and from worship, sunscreen, bandaids — anything a student might need with them throughout the day. And guess what? We handle those too! When you’re on our website, just visit the MORE section of the navigation bar. We can get your group’s logo on the bag or whatever design your youth group wants for the summer.
Getting ready for church camp can be a lot of work, but with the right essentials, your group is sure to have the best summer ever. At Uth Stuph, we can help you create custom t-shirts, water bottles, sunscreen bottles, and drawstring bags that will make your group stand out and create a sense of unity (and make sure everyone gets back home in one piece). If you want a quote (and some fast turnaround), drop us a line!