UPDATE: Registration is now open for EVERYONE!

2025 Camp Registration Opens  –  Monday, January 13!

Dear Camp Friends,

It may be below freezing outside with ice and snow on the ground, but it’s time to make plans for summer weeks at Lake Nixon!

Thank you, again, for including us in your camper’s summer in 2024. We’re excited about 2025–another season of outdoor growth, fun, and friendship. To get ready, I want to share a few things about what you and your camper can expect this year.

Read on to find out about Registration, ‘New’ Faces, Staff & Volunteer Opportunities, Fun Plans, and Tuition & Add Ons.

REGISTRATION

Returning Camp Families Can Use the Campanion App to Register Beginning Monday January 13th

Click Here to Download or Reinstall the Campanion App

Be sure to opt-in to text messaging in the app. We will send a text message on Monday prompting you to open Campanion or go to the CampInTouch website and begin your registration! (Campanion will be a much easier way to apply using a mobile device!) 

Summer 2025:

What’s New? What’s the Same?

“NEW” FACES

In 2025, you can look forward to seeing familiar faces in our leadership team as well as our summer staff.

Mandy Reid is the year-round Assistant Director of the Lake Nixon Outdoor Center, with the summer-specific title of Director of Camper Care. She will continue to be most parents’ primary point of contact during registration season. During camp weeks she will work to address particular needs that arise, as well as doing all kinds of seen and unseen things to make camp all it can be for everyone.

Hallie Hutson will serve as the camp Program Director in 2025. She was a vital part of our summer leadership team last year, and she had also been part of the Lake Nixon summer staff years before. During the school year Hallie teaches 5th Grade at Christ Little Rock school. Starting as soon as a few weeks after the end of last year’s camp, she has been carving out a little time to meet regularly with me and Mandy to evaluate last summer and to make plans that build on the areas of success from 2024.

There will be many more familiar faces joining our summer team and we’ll look forward to (re)introducing them to you. In the meantime, we are always eager to connect with anyone who loves young people, loves the outdoors and has the ability to spend (even part) of their summer making a difference.

DO YOU KNOW ANY NEW FACES THAT WE SHOULD MEET?

We would love to hear from potential summer staff or volunteers, full-time and part-time! Please ask anyone who fits the description above to fill out this short interest form, and we’ll be in touch!

Summer Staff and Volunteer Interest Form

FUN PLANS

If you’ve been part of Lake Nixon for more than one summer, you’ll know that we’re always working to add new program elements and excitement, improve logistics and be attentive to all that we hear in parent survey responses. That will be the case this year as well. I’m looking forward to sharing some of these new additions in the months ahead.

A fun (re)introduction last year was the theme weeks. We’re especially looking forward to building on that momentum. When you register, you’ll see a brief description of the week’s theme. Each week there will be special activities, crafts, a dress-up day, and more (including, whenever possible, special guests) related to the that week’s theme. Alongside 8 new themes, we will continue the very popular “Christmas in July” Week, and “Thanksgiving” Week (including the big “family feast”!) 

Our simple, most essential goal for camp remains the same: we want everyone to go home from Lake Nixon “happy, dirty, and tired.”

Those are the basic signs that camp is being, well, “camp.” We know that camp provides a special kind of time (away from digital distractions and the busyness of the school year) in a special kind of place (outdoors, in God’s creation, with new and old friends, in a setting that provides safety while encouraging everyone to try new things).

This fall, our staff and members of the Lake Nixon committee at Second Baptist took time to reflect on our “why?” for welcoming hundreds of young people to Lake Nixon each summer, now for 55 years. Lake Nixon has historically said that we are a place that wants to build “kids of character.” We recently decided on these words to spell out further the heart of what camp at Lake Nixon is all about: Lake Nixon Summer Day Camp welcomes young people of all backgrounds to immerse themselves in nature, enjoying fun outdoor experiences that cultivate gratitude, foster curiosity, and grow confidence within a community of friends.

As we interview, hire, and train staff, prepare trails and activity areas, create camper groups, order supplies and create schedule frameworks (and much more! 😀), this is the mission we’ll keep foremost in mind.

A few quick (and final) words about registration, tuition and other fees for this year:

• The ‘true cost’ tuition (“Tier I”) has increased in line with average costs elsewhere (3.4%).
• The subsidized tuition rate (“Tier II”) has increased at a higher rate, in order to relieve our fundraising burden and to preserve donations for families in greatest need.
• However, the biggest change for this season is the addition of discounts for families that register for multiple weeks. Households who register for multiple weeks overall (for one camper or siblings combined) will receive tuition discounts: 10% (2+ weeks combined), 15% (4+ weeks), or 20% (6+ weeks).
• If you would not otherwise be able to make camp a part of your family’s summer, please apply for the Campership financial aid program at registration. We may be able to help. Instructions are found in the application and info is on our Camp FAQ page
• You may add optional items like bus transportation, extended day, and lunch at a later time; no pressure to decide at registration
• We are so excited to welcome all our campers to Lake Nixon for Summer 2025!!

Remember, registration for returning families opens on Monday, January 13th!

Our ‘new’ faces and our familiar ones can’t wait to connect with campers this year and we have fun things lined up to make Summer 2025 a great one.

If you have any questions about camp staff, activities, tuition or add-ons that aren’t answered above, see our website FAQ page or email us at lakenixondaycamp@2bclr.com

Thanks again,

Andy Black

Director, Lake Nixon Outdoor Center

(a ministry of Second Baptist Church, downtown Little Rock)