YMCA Camp Hanes — Hotel in King

Our experience with Camp Hanes this summer has left nothing but loving memories in our hearts. Our son is 9 and was in the younger group (ages 6-9), and he is our mature only child. He's a great kid; but without siblings, he doesn't know what it's like to share space with another kid his age other than in a school setting. This is beyond that; he'd have to learn to share every waking moment with fourteen other boys, some of them as young as 6! I will admit that I was a bit nervous about his ability to handle it.

I picked up a different child from Camp Hanes. I picked up a child who struggled with it, but overcame the annoyance of other kids being present ALL.THE.TIME. (Like seriously, how do the counselors do it)?. I picked up a child who tried new foods and experiences. I picked up a child who felt sure of himself; as he had overcome fears and experienced a bit of freedom under the loving care of the counselors- all without his parents there to do it for him. He grew as a person, he learned lessons, he made friends, and most importantly had fun. I could go on and on about how camp is such a positive experience for a child, but i'd like to share what makes Camp Hanes that camp.

The cabins were air conditioned and many facilities are new, as they are recovering from tornado damage. My son had THREE counselors in his bunk that were young enough to be totally cool to the kids, but old enough to handle any situation thrown at them. My picky eater said that there was always something there for him to eat, but that the pop tarts go quick. You have to run to the pop tarts after prayer if you want that pop tart (Pro-Tip)! Haha! He enjoyed the campfires that they did and brought home all the camp chants. I almost gave it 4 stars for how many times i've heard some of those chants on REPEAT for several hours, but I digress. My kid seemed to have SO MUCH FUN!!! ALSO, something that I thought was very awesome- this camp does does not charge extra for activities. Many other camps charge you an extra $100 for things such as horse back riding experiences. The camp store will have ice cream in it that the kids can get for free. The children get a water bottle, string back pack and a tshirt included. You pay nothing else other than the price of camp. ALL INCLUSIVE. On pick up day, you can take your child into the camp store and buy swag if you'd like.

What really made our experience special was the outreach from the camp. My son loves to get mail, so it was very special to him to receive the postcard inviting him to a camp open house and a little note about camp. We enjoyed the camp open house and appreciated letting our son look around the campus and get familiar- and even more excited!- about camp. On the day that we picked him up from camp, a man who my son dubbed "The Top Counselor," "The Counselor That Comes If You Get In Trouble" (lol) passed us on his golf cart and stopped us to personally tell us about our child's stay and said a few nice things about him. That meant so much. In addition, we received letters from his counselors. The parents got a letter that talked about his stay and ways he grew at camp while his letter talked about how much fun they had, etc. It was another very nice touch.

If you can't tell by my ridiculously long review, we were very pleased and look forward to sending our son to camp...

My 8-year-old son has mentioned wanting to go camping. He had never been camping so I was unsure how he would do. I took him on a family camp weekend.

He went from wanting to come home on Friday evening to not wanting to leave on Sunday.

The food satisfied my most picky eater.

He's not usually the adventurous type as he has anxiety. He ended up surprising me on things he wanted to try-archery, paddle boarding and shooting BB gun rifle. He swam in the like which also surprised me.

He also went fishing and was so proud of his small catch and release.

He loved making s'mores at our fire pit in front of our cabin.

And he really enjoyed movie night.

Sometimes, it takes my son awhile to warm up to folks but he easily clicked with Riley and young man teaching archery (sorry his name escapes me)

In fact, he loved everything except having to go home.

The camp was well organized and it was...

We just spent two and a half days. With 11 special need children! The staff is amazing! The food was top-notch and a lot of it! I would recommend this camp for anybody! You definitely, don't have to worry about the staff, taking care of your kids! Because they are amazing! They put so much time effort and sweat! Into making sure these special needs children! Got to do everything safe, and made it so fun and enjoyable! I myself, did not want to go home! Make sure you take a good fishing pole a Shaky Head a jig and a senko worm! A lot of fish to catch! Don't be like me and leave your fishing pole at home. Although they do have some there you can use! I cannot put into words how amazing, caring, loving, kind-hearted, and accommodating their staff is! Thank you YMCA...