West End House Camp

09/21/2026

Know a boy who has never been to camp? Bring him up this fall!

Fall tour day at West End House Camp is Saturday, October 24. Can't make it? We will meet you almost any time by appointment.

Come with your son and a friend who is new to camp. Walk Long Pond in full fall color, meet the directors, shoot some hoops, and see the place for yourselves.

That's the first step. The older boys, counselors, and alumni will do the rest next summer.

🔗 Grab a tour spot: westendhousecamp.org/events

Tag a parent whose son should be here next summer. Remember, families who bring a new boy can earn a tuition credit. Details on our website.

09/18/2026

Our neighbors at West End House Girls Camp get it.

We wait for the same moments every summer. The one where a boy who was sure he couldn't, does.

It's rarely loud. A little further off the dock. A little smirk after he nails a play for the first time. One more try at the hard thing. Then he's the one showing the next kid how.

One of our favorite things about camp is watching a girl realize:

“I CAN DO THIS.”

Maybe it’s swimming across the lake.
Trying something completely new.
Speaking up.
Solving a cabin challenge.
Making a new friend.
Being brave when something feels hard.

Growth doesn’t always look like a big moment.

Sometimes it looks like a small step—and then another.

And then one day, you look back and realize just how far you’ve come.

09/16/2026

Your son will be new here exactly once.

1919. Louis packs a little suitcase and rides a boat up to Portland, then a horse and wagon the rest of the way to camp. He is signed up the summer before, but the flu shuts it all down. He waits a whole year and comes anyway. Fifty years later, his grandsons Neal and Gordon make the same trip by bus.

1945. Alan comes up from Brookline at seven years old. His father is the camp doctor, the one who gives every scrape the same dab of iodine, so the boys call him the Little Iodine Kid. He earns his own place by turning up big on the ballfields.

1962. Jimmy follows his father Davey up to camp and stays eleven summers. In one of them he goes thirty minutes at the tetherball pole against a six-foot-seven college basketball star and never quits. The counselors are so taken with his fight that the name Cool Hand Luke sticks for good. His son Zac coaches Color War in 2004.

1980. Kevin has moved so many times he has stopped believing any place is his. He shows up, and they draft him into the Senior League his first day. The commissioner calls it a clutch pick. Camp is the first place that ever feels like home.

2021. Joey's first-grade teacher tells his family about camp, and he shows up not knowing another kid there. His first night, a counselor stays up telling funny stories until Joey and his new bunkmates fall asleep. Five years later, Joey is a High Senior Captain of the White Illusion in Color War.

None of it is luck. It is how West End House Camp has worked for a hundred years. The older boys pull the young ones in. The games give him a way to earn his spot.

Only 2 more weeks for early enrollment discounts. Sign your son up to Become One of the Boys. https://westendhousecamp.org/sessions/

p.s. Loving the camp history and want to read more? Check out our blog archive: https://westendhousecamp.org/category/becoming-one-of-the-boys/

09/14/2026

Most boys who grow up at West End House Camp got here because another young man showed them the way.

Saturday, October 24: Bring a friend who has never seen camp. Walk the grounds in full fall color, see the cabins and the waterfront, and meet the directors.

RSVP and we will save you a spot: westendhousecamp.org/events

P.S. Families who bring a new boy who enrolls can earn a tuition credit toward next summer. Details at westendhousecamp.org/bringafriend

09/12/2026

For a lot of West End boys, today was the first fall sports game of the season.

If you were on the sideline, you might have noticed something. A little more confidence stepping onto the field. Sharper play. A hand reaching down to pick up a teammate.

All summer, we work on SPIRIT character values that show up in all sorts of places. Believing you belong out there. Knowing the game. Caring enough about the boy next to you to lift him up when he's down.

The scoreboard tells one story. Keep an eye out for the quieter one unfolding in his heart.

Grab your 2027 slot before prices increase in October! Sessions and more about how we create outstanding young men with the Spirit of the House on our website: https://westendhousecamp.org/our-philosophy/

09/10/2026

Michael Eggert has come back for Old Timer's Week every August since the 1980s.

This summer he showed up in June with a bag full of camera lenses and stayed the whole time. He was our camp photographer. His goal all summer was every boy, every day. That made him one of the hardest working folks at camp.

Thank you, Michael, for giving each of our families a window into their son's summer. We're lucky to have you.

The Jewish Journal wrote him up this week. Give it a read.

https://jewishjournal.org/2026/09/10/you-can-go-home-again/

If you came up in the 70s, you already know Michael. Now everyone does.

09/09/2026

So, who's watching your son all summer?

Start with the young men in his cabin. Hand selected. Most of them grew up here themselves, campers before they were counselors. They sleep, eat, win, and lose right alongside your son, old enough to lead him, young enough to remember being him.

Now look behind them.

The men who grew up at West End House stay close to this place, and to the counselors coming up behind them. They mentor them, take an interest in their lives, some even hire them. They never forgot what camp gave them, and they make sure the next generation gets it too.

By August your son has a counselor who taught him to sail, a captain who picked him first, and a table of boys who saved him a seat.

There's a seat for him next summer! Early enrollment savings end October 1.
westendhousecamp.org/sessions

09/06/2026

The American Camp Association ran a five-year study, following kids from age nine, tracking what camp actually does after the summer ends.

The finding: boys who had a high-quality camp experience came out with more grit, more independence, and a stronger read on the people around them. And it didn't stop in August. Those boys had better school years, too.

That's the camp we're trying to be, every day, for your son.

We give tours all fall. westendhousecamp.org/sessions

09/04/2026

At our waterfront, the better you swim, the more the pond opens up.

Pass the next level of our daily Instructional Swim and you earn deeper water and more privileges. You earn more elective time, too. Sailing. Waterskiing. Tubing. Paddling and fishing. Cruising the lake on the pontoon boat with your bunk.

So a kid who was nervous about the deep end in June is the one asking to test up by July. He can see exactly what's waiting on the other side of the check.

We run the waterfront in a way that makes a boy want to grow.

Summer 2027's open for signup! We give tours all fall. westendhousecamp.org/sessions

09/02/2026

Color War: Day zero. The teams are an hour old.

The fireworks and horseplay are done, and every boy at camp has just found out whether he'll live, dine, rehearse and compete as Blue or White for the next 5 days.

A high senior captain steps up in front of his brand-new White team. He's known most of these boys for years. Now they're his to lead, and he talks to them like it, like they've already got something worth defending.

White lost Color War this year. It's immortalized on the plaque in the mess hall.

That sign in the background was right anyway.

Many of those boys will rehash that week for the rest of their lives. The score, the close calls, the comebacks. And every time someone will remember the excitement and heart of "day zero", before a single point was on the board.