A Day in the Life at Billings
7:40 AM – Wake up to the sound of our real live bugle
A typical day at Billings begins with the rousing sound of our camp bugler playing reveille. Then, you will make your way to the clock tower lawn to stand together with the whole camp and watch the raising of the flag.
8:00 AM – Time for breakfast
Meals are served family-style with your cabin group. Three times a day, you will catch up with your cabin group over a balanced and delicious meal. After breakfast (and dinner), we sing songs from our Official Song Book. This is when we often lose our voices from signing, cheering and banging on tables! Then, it’s time for announcements: Counselors from each program area will tell us what’s going on. (We will also post the activities on a board outside the dining hall).
9:00 AM – Camp Duties
Camp duties are an integral part of Camp Billings. The sign in our dining hall bears our camp motto, “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.” We learn about personal responsibility and respecting our surrounding and beloved environment by being the very ones to take care of it. After breakfast, with our cabin mates and counselors, we all perform a camp duty together. This varies from watering the flowers, cleaning the showers, putting away the dry dishes, or setting the table. This responsibility and self-reliance feels good.
9:30 AM – Program starts
One of the best things about Billings is that we can choose the programs we want to participate in everyday. And there is so much choice! The counselors encourage us to try them all. We have a balance of both instructional and recreational, competitive or non-competitive options. (For more on this, visit our Activities page).The only mandatory program is swim lessons for forty minutes every morning. Programs are run until 11:30 AM.
11:30 AM – Cabin Time / Lunch / Rest Hour
The middle of the day is a great time to change, catch up on correspondence, read and listen to your music. Lunch is at noon, and is served family style. We get an amazing salad bar on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After lunch, junior campers go back to their cabins for rest, and senior campers have a chance to hang out with friends. This is the time we open the Camp Store. Each day, it is open for a specific group. Campers get to go to the camp store twice per session.
1:00 PM – Afternoon programs and free swim
Another opportunity to try new things. Then, at 4 PM, the waterfront is open for Free Swim. If we are not already at the waterfront, we grab a buddy and head to the waterfront to go down the slide, jump off the high dive, practice our strokes or just float on some foam noodles in our perfect lake.
5:00 – Cabin Clean up and Dinner
At 5 PM everyone goes back to the cabin to clean up their own area, and the cabin as a whole. Everyone pitches in to ensure our living space is clean and safe. Each camper will get a different cabin duty every day. Those include, taking out the trash, sweeping the floor, or checking the clothes lines for dry clothes. Dinner is at 6 PM for another delicious meal family style. (Some campers love to dress up for dinner sometimes.)
7:00 – Evening Program and Taps
Following dinner, all campers take part in our evening program, such as a camp-wide game of capture the flag, water games, dances or campfires. On the way back to their cabins, campers are covered with the blanket of the wondrous Vermont star-filled sky. Campers then prepare for bed and lights to go out as the bugler blows Taps around 9:15 PM. There are always staff members outside on duty for anything campers need, and everyone gets a little flashlight time to enjoy card games, play Mad-Libs or just chat about the day.
