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Showing posts from February, 2015

Camp Friends are the Best Kind of Friends

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We know you love our staff members. You love that they're quirky You love that they're fun Parents love that they protect you from the sun. But do you know how they came to be Spending time with you in the Zinkwazi sea? We thought you'd be keen to learn more about  The great Sangi & Wave , so we gave them a shout:   The Wise & Wonderful SANGOMA Years at Sugar Bay: 9 sweet sweet years of wonder Fav Camp Food: Chef's Chicken Curry Fav Camp Tradition: Camp-Out, it's the best! Fav Camp Activity: Movie making for Sangoma FM Productions and Sugar Bay's Youtube Channel Sangoma is an outdoor educator and camp extraordinaire who has worked at camps in America, South Africa, Croatia and the UK, where he's originally from. You name it and this hero has done it! Sangoma has travelled to 60 countries, worked in an orphanage in Vietnam and is obsessed with spicy food. Some even say he puts chilli on his corn flakes, but you'll

The Power of 3

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If your child has already visited Sugar Bay, you'll know that our Crazy Counselors are often one of the main reasons that kids want to return time after time. Aside from the fact that we hire only the best young leaders from around the country (and the world!), train them intensely and constantly push them to be their best, we think there's another very important reason why our campers enjoy them so much (and no, it's not because they have silly nicknames!) It's because there are so many of them! Sugar Bay's Counselor to Camper ratio far surpasses the strict guidelines of the American Camping Association by double or more for each age category. We can assure you that during our hugely popular Holiday Camps the supervision ratio will be no less than 1 counselor for every 3 campers. This figure includes Pro-Counselors (our specialized full-time activity leaders). For school camps, we maintain a ratio of 1:5 and for certain high-risk activities such as surfing an

We're all about the YOU(th)!

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At Sugar Bay we're all about getting our youth outdoors, offering them unique opportunities to challenge themselves in order to grow and develop as individuals. With that being said, we are pleased to announce that we are now going one step further with the latest addition to our holiday camps: The opportunity to achieve Bronze Level of the President's Award for Youth Empowerment. The President’s Award is part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. It is an exciting personal challenge for young people between the ages of 14 and 24, started in the United Kingdom in 1956 and first becoming available to South Africans in 1983. To-date there have been over 14 300 active participants in South Africa. Read more about it here.   To be awarded Bronze in the Adventurous Journey category, participants will be required to complete a 2 day, overnight journey consisting of 6 hours of planned activities each day.   At Sugar Bay, we'll achieve the

Sunny and Funny - A Poem

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You’ll never guess what happened, This week at Sugar Bay! A photo shoot with tree frogs, And 3 pigs who lost their way.  Let’s start with the 3 little pigs; Snap, Crackle and Pop are their names. They decided over the weekend, They wanted to play some games. They started with Stuck in the Mud, But for some reason it just didn’t stick. And soon the babies were bored, And needed a new game quick. Ah, they thought, let’s play hide and seek! But our home has nowhere to hide. Let us break out, and run about, “Yes! Let’s do it!” they cried. Out they ran, up and down, With counselors chasing after. I’m sure that if we listened now, We’d still hear their laughter. Let’s not forget our 2 tree friends, That decided to strut their stuff. We called down our photographer, Whom we thought was tough. “Oh, no!” she screamed, “Please take them away! What if they jump on me?” Just point the lens and take the shot, And then feel free to fle

Save big this Easter - No April Fool's joke!

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Hooray! It's time for Summer Fun in Autumn! At Sugar Bay, we're lucky enough to have sunshine all year round, so there's no need to wait for the summer holidays for your children to enjoy the summer camp experience. And what an experience it's going to be! Check out our exciting new themes for our Easter Holiday Camps below, they're all bound to be beyond amazing. Did we mention all these weeks are on special at 1/3 off the original price? That's a never-before-seen saving of R1900! Rock the Boat Week (29 March - 5 April) Ahoy there mateys and welcome to what's sure to be a rockin' good week. We're not sure why the song says "Don't Rock the Boat", because at Sugar Bay we know that when you rock the boat it's bound to result in a fun overload!  Sailors, lift your eye patches and see just a few of the seven sea surprises this week has in store: Boat building, boat racing and boat rocking An excursion to Durban

AISJ Pays it Forward

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Imagine having to eat your one meal a day without a knife, fork or spoon, or having to drink your water straight from the tap instead of filling up your ultra-fancy water bottle with clean, filtered water. Children from Bongimfundo Primary School have none of these luxuries and very little more than the bare essentials, but the good news is that they are getting an education and Sugar Bay, together with the American International School of Johannesburg, was proud to be a part of that today. Today's Service Learning lessons had two main goals in mind: CONNECT and HAVE FUN! The pure, innocent, barrier-breaking, giggle-inducing fun that children can have together no matter their background, skin colour or social standing. The Grade 8s from AISJ were the reason for all the joy and laughter - they spent their morning doing a Service Learning project with students from Bongimfundo, a local school that works hard to provide an education to the children of local farm work

Flashback: December Fever at the Bay!

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Wow! December sure dazzled us with an overload of fun! In fact, campers were having so much fun here at Sugar Bay that we extended a few of our 7-day camps into 10-day camps so that campers were able to get an even bigger fun fix. As always, each unique theme added an extra level of excitement to an already jam-packed week. For those of you who weren't able to join us this December, here are the highlights: New Places, Sights & Sounds: The Wonder of Travel Our first holiday camp started off with a trip of epic proportions during our Seven Wonders of the World week. Campers had the chance to visit Italy, China, India and many more as they enjoyed the experience of what these countries had to offer. Juniors and Intermediates were surprised by a festive Carnival Night, where the hall was transformed into a colourful carnival complete with Sumo Wrestling and a Mechanical Surfboard. For Seniors, it was time for a cook-off at El Nino's foo

Clifton Prep Discovers Treasure in Zinkwazi!

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Everyone at Sugar Bay has been buzzing with excitement because yesterday the Clifton Prep Grade 5's arrived and transformed camp into the magical place it's meant to be. After all, camp is all about the kids .   The Clifton campers seemed to get right into the swing of things with camp songs, chants and activities. They had an awesome day at the beach and an epic Treasure Hunt last night complete with mischievous jungle creatures! See pics on our Official Facebook Page . We've already had plenty of fun this morning with a nice morning swim. We then conquered our fears in Crate Building and spent some time practicing our Skating skills.   Although Clifton is only staying a few days with us and will be heading back to Nottingham Road far too soon for our liking, we're sure they'll have an incredible time here and can't wait to hear all the stories they share with our crazy counselors!    

The 3 Little Pigs of Sugar Bay

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Although yesterday was actually National Hedgehog Day, Sugar Bay counselors Lucky, Pepsi, Iron Brew and Hamster spent the day trying to get hold of some different four legged friends: our friendly escape-artist pigs Snap, Crackle & Pop ! And after much running around, giggles, squeals and oinks, we managed to secure a pic: Pepsi with one member of the new Sugar Bay trio Our curly-tailed friends arrived on Friday afternoon and have been excitedly exploring the Sugar Bay property ever since. We bet they're trying to get clued up on all of the activities available to them in their new home! We hope to show them off to our Grade 5 visitors from Clifton Prep when they arrive for fun in the sun on Wednesday. And hey, who knows, maybe someday the Sugar Bay beach will become the next Big Major Cay , an island in the Bahamas completely inhabited by pigs!  Swimming pigs in the Bahamas Until then, keep it oinky my friends and remember, It's