Customer Reviews
We're not the only ones that think that Compass Awards are a
great product. Check out some of our happy customers and what they have to say
about the Compass Awards.
DANA DAVIS
My name is Dana Davis. I am the Senior Program
Director for the Farmington Family YMCA, part of the YMCA of Metropolitan
Detroit. I have been a Camp Director for 16 years and before that spent every
summer of my life either working or going to camp. I love what YMCA camping
stands for and the Compass Awards Program is the first thing I have seen that
allows the camp staff to build an entire program around a goal setting positive
achievement for the campers. Each week we serve around 420 campers. This summer
(2007) will be our fifth summer using the Compass Awards Program.
This program has helped our staff plan their summers and set
goals for our camp. We also use this program as teambuilding for our staff
team. The camper and parent benefits that come with this program are endless.
It has helped with parent communication, camper behavior management, it teaches
goal setting and determination, the compass award itself is a great marketing
tool for your camp and it really focuses everyone involved on what we are
trying to accomplish throughout the summer. Each year our Compass Award Program
improves and as a staff team we develop new ways to incorporate parts of the
program into our summer camp plans. We are already in the process of building
our program for this summer and we are excited to see the results!
Download a
PowerPoint file Illustrating the Farmington Family YMCA's use of the Compass
Awards Program. >>
JEN FELTZ
Greetings from YMCA Camp Matawa in Campbellsport, Wisconsin! My name is Jen Feltz and I have been the Executive Director at Matawa since 2003. One of the first things I did when I took this position was contact John Passaro from Corporate Image Promotions, to talk about bringing the Compass Awards to camp. I had seen the program at several camp conferences and thought it was amazing…and I was right! We are entering our 4th year of the program and it continues to be a camper favorite. The program has continued to evolve and improve each year as our staff has come up with new ways to make it an important part of our camper’s time at Matawa. For us, the program is not only a great way to recognize camper’s skill attainment but also a wonderful tool for helping campers to stay focused on the value that they choose to work on while they are at camp. We ask each of the kids to commit to working on caring, honesty, respect or responsibility and at the end of the week, in order to receive their character value patch, they get up in front of their peers and talk about what they did that exemplified that value. The compass award is a concrete way that we let our campers know that our values are just as important as the skills they learn. I would encourage you to check out the Compass Award Program and determine how it can work best for your setting!
MARCO RAMIREZ
My name is Marco Ramirez and I am the Director of Youth Programs at the Southwest Wake YMCA in Apex, North Carolina. I have been a part of the YMCA for 15 years. The Compass Awards program was first introduced to me as a summer camp program. I thought this incentive program would be fantastic in our after school programs. A co-worker and I developed a curriculum that could encompass the whole school year. The Compass Awards program is a great incentive that allows us to plan our whole calendar around it. This program does not only involve our campers, it involves parent participation too. The Compass Awards program helps us incorporate and tie into our mission statement. Our after school programs strive to expose children to activities that focus on life skills, education, arts and humanities, character development and athletics & fitness, which the Compass Awards program assists us with.
Our Compass Awards program allows our campers to excel in things they are good at and learn skills that they may not know. Campers are allowed to decide which patches they would like to work on earning. Campers may work on more than one patch at a time. Every year different patches are added to give our campers a variety of patches to earn. We are currently working on a second compass for our campers that complete their first compass. I encourage you to check out the Compass Program and the benefits it can bring to your program.
Download a PDF of Marco's Compass Awards program >>