Sparks: Sharing the Fire
of Camps Kahdalea & Chosatonga

: Medication at Camp: Simple and Safe

This is an important message from our wonderful camp nurse, Tiffany Taulbee, regarding some changes to the medical protocols at CKC for 2025. If you have any questions or would like Tiffany to give you a call, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our office! Tiffany has been with us for many years as…

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: Fall Colors (and more) at CKC!

Here are a few snapshots from our Fall so far! New construction at camp, large volume water deliveries to local hurricane victims, rafting with school groups, hanging with baby Bea Trufant, volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse in Asheville, George Held receiving his very own Chosatonga monogrammed swiss army knife (aka the “Dave Trufant” knife :), and…

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: Working at CKC: An Experience Like No Other

Hi Friends! Adam Trufant here. In this week’s guest post, Chosman Joseph Duncan (’19-’24) shares about his experience as a CKC staff member with his classmates at Hillsdale College. We are grateful Joe passed this along to us, and we hope it may be a compelling invitation to others considering “something a bit adventurous” 🙂…

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: Choosing the Right Summer Camp for Your Child

Summer camping is one of the great youth traditions in the United States. Over the last century, millions of young people have experienced the great outdoors, deep friendships formed in wholesome environments, and the joys of belonging to communities that often endure far past the summers of childhood. Because summer camp is often the first…

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: Hurricane Helene Update

Dear Camp Family, We are grateful for your many inquiries and we wish to share that all of our camp staff members are safe and accounted for. Our camp community’s warm response has been uplifting in this difficult moment. Thankfully, the camps have weathered the storm with minimal damage. Many local to us were not so…

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: Look Up: 5 Tips for Healthy Screen Use at Home

In this brief post, I’d like to celebrate the simplicity that comes from time spent in the wilderness and away from cell service, wall chargers, and the like. I’d also like to give us all permission to release ourselves from the pressure of constant connectivity. Tempted as we are to document everything digitally and upload…

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: 8 Things That Made Summer ’24 The Best Summer Yet!

Fall is here! After 8 weeks of reflection and cool down, here are some insights about our recent summer operations at Kahdalea and Chosatonga! I write with quite a bit of excitement because, frankly, the summer was one of the best and most impactful summers I’ve ever witnessed. Inspiration for this post is drawn from…

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: Snapshots from the Summer!

From the Directors: CKC is all about connection: connection between campers and their counselors, connection to camp culture and traditions, connection to beauty and the allure of the wild, connection among friends which promotes growth in authenticity, self esteem, and resilience, and connection to God. See some of these connections in full color below in…

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: “Opening Day” by Emily Kasper

There are few joys in life like the opening day of a North Carolina sleepaway camp.  Early that morning, the cabins stand quietly ready, creaking beams impatient for the weight of rambunctious campers to fill them once more with trunks of new stationary and old sneakers.  The equipment is readied, the grass mown, the kitchens…

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: “Privileged Seats” by Emily Kasper

You have such privileged seats- well earned- where you can watch from the front row these young ones become themselves.  For these fleeing days and weeks, we too join that privilege.  A brief moment earlier this week showed a beautiful example- the lightning flash of becoming.   A counselor listens, ponders- during chapel she yields the…

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