A Day at Camp Immokalee
What does your kid actually do all day?
Breakfast. Zipline. A weather report from a rock. Three chances to decide what they want to do next. Recharge. A giant evening game. And, eventually, sleep.
Here’s how a day at YMCA Camp Immokalee actually works.
First, the camp must-dos.
After breakfast and cabin cleanup, younger and middle campers head to Adventure Block with their cabin and a few others.
This is how we make sure every camper gets a chance at four things we think are essential to a week at Immokalee: archery, zipline, tubing and pool. They’ll do a different one each morning.
And if your kid takes one look at the zipline and says absolutely not? That’s okay.
Our staff will encourage them, and their cabin will, too. But challenge by choice means they get to decide what their challenge looks like. Sometimes the big moment is flying down the zipline. Sometimes it’s walking all the way out there.
Then things get a little weird.
Everybody comes together for Morning Show. Our teen leaders review the day’s meals (we see you, Chef Tony), give us an update from Pebblesworth the Weather Rock, perform a skit, lead a song, and finally reveal the information everyone has been waiting for:
Who won Cleanest Cabin?
It makes no sense now. But by Tuesday, it’ll be something they look forward to.
Three times a day, they choose.
Kids learn to make decisions by making decisions.
So three times throughout the day, we give them some real ones. During Camper Choice, campers meet up with their age group, hear what’s available that period and decide what they want to do.
Tubing or paddleboarding? Rock wall or photography? Bracelets and hammocks or something messier? Nobody handed them their schedule months ago. Nobody needs them to pick the activity that’s “best” for them. And they don’t have to follow their cabinmates just because that’s what everyone else is doing.
They get to decide.
There’s just enough structure to keep one very enthusiastic bracelet-maker from spending the entire week making bracelets. Each age group rotates between three areas that might have rotating activities like:
SEA
- Tubing
- Paddleboarding
- Banana Boating
- Kayaking & Canoeing
- Fishing
- Lake Games
- Paddleboard Simon Says
- Volleyball
- Sand Castle Competitions
ADVENTURE
- Rock Wall
- Power Pole
- Archery Golf (and regular archery)
- Photography
- Messy Games
- Hikes (or Hikes & Haikus)
- Nature Activities
- BBs (or Rifles for 12+)
CAMP STORE
- Taking turns through Camp Store (a highlight)
- Bracelet & Button Making
- Music & Dances
- Hammocks
- Gaga
- Themed-Activites
- Bubbles & Chalk
- Pool
What costs extra much?
Not much. Nothing you see here. Horses, wakeboarding, camp store. Learn more.
And then we make everybody stop.
After lunch comes Recharge. Campers head back to their cabins. They can read, write you a letter, play cards, talk with friends, lie on their bunk or just be quiet for a while. Nobody needs to be “on” all day here.
Camp is exciting. It’s also exhausting. We plan for both.
And yes, showers happen, too. When depends on your camper’s age group and cabin schedule, but everybody gets shower time each day.
At night, the theme takes over.
After dinner and showers, it’s time for the Special Event. This is when whatever world we’re living in that week really comes to life.
During Color Wars, campers might spend the night racing across camp to earn points for their team. Around the World might send them on an adventure from one country to the next. And some weeks? Let’s just say things can get a little magical around here. Robes may appear. Owls remain unreliable.
Other nights bring giant games, mysteries to solve, counselors playing silly characters, or something completely new our program team dreamed up for that summer.
The activity changes every night. The theme changes every week.
See where we’re headed in 2027 →
Before bed, we come back together for Closing. There might be a story, an update on who’s winning during a competitive week or just a moment together before everyone heads back to their cabins. Then cabins have Vespers, a few quieter minutes to talk about the day and be together before bed.
And eventually, yes, we make them sleep.
The older they get, the more camp opens up.
Camp grows up with them. Being 14 at camp shouldn’t feel like being 7 at camp.
Our older campers have been around long enough to know what they like, who they are at camp, and that staying up later is objectively better. So their day gives them more room.
Instead of Adventure Block, they start their mornings with Clubs: one choice they make at the beginning of the week and get to stick with. It’s a chance to spend more time doing something they’re into instead of sampling something new every day.
They still get all three rounds of Camper Choice. They eat a little later. They stay up a little later.
And after Closing, when younger campers head back toward their cabins? They’re not done yet.
Twilight is extra time that’s just for our older campers: another activity, more time with friends and the general satisfaction of knowing the younger kids are going to bed. Part of growing up at Immokalee is getting a little more camp as you go.
But we do make them sleep, too – we promise.
And then we do it again tomorrow.
New Camper Choices. A new Evening Activity. Another shot at Cleanest Cabin. Another forecast from a rock with no meteorological credentials whatsoever.
Same camp. Completely different day.
Now, let’s find their week.