We are delighted to share feedback from some of our happy campers over the years

General Feedback

Calleva is the highlight of our year!

My daughter loved this camp so much earlier this summer that we signed up for a 2nd week. Thank You!

The counselors are outstanding!

My daughter enjoyed spending the day with the camp staff. Little things like riddles and songs made the experience even more fun.

Thank you for the emails alerting us to additional camp openings and offerings. Knowing throughout the summer that there were options resulted in us registering for additional weeks.

He had the best time! Enthusiastic counselors made the drop off super easy!

Fun, competent, kind and helpful counselors.

While nothing is totally perfect, this camp pretty close! My daughter had a blast and can’t wait to go back next summer. Her love of nature and adventure was strengthened and her confidence grew!

Our three children have been with Caliva for almost 6 years now and we have loved wonderful offers outdoor sports in adventures that they offer each summer.

My daughter felt like this camp was truly meant for her! She loved all of the activities.

We love the entire vibe of Calleva. Not much else to say. You guys are amazing at everything you do. Keep being you.

It was transformative! It built my child’s confidence and he had the best week of summer.

My son tends to be more on the cautious side of things and was nervous about going this year. After Day 1, he was excited and loving every minute of it. He loved the field trips, kayaking, archery, and zip lining the best. It was also the first time both of my boys have been on a horse, and they couldn’t have been more excited about it. Delilah and Winter were major highlights — s’mores too!

His first time at the camp – 2 weeks. He LOVED it – the songs on the bus rides, scavenger hunts, counselors, group song on Fridays. Huge smiles off the bus. Truly a great experience. He wants to do more weeks next summer. Thank you!! Oh and Adventure Island – wowza.

This was Brayden’s first year at Calleva. When I asked him what his favorite part of camp was, he said everything!! He truly had the time of his life!

My LO leans more introverted and reserved. This was her first camp experience and she came back covered in dirt, tired, and full of stories. It was an eye opening experience for her. She can’t wait for week 2 next week.

Loved the diversities of art activities.

Amazing counselors – great communication and support every day with the kids

This was his third summer, and he’s already looking forward to the next one!

She said she loved all the adventurous activities, especially the zip lining, climbing, and swimming. She was always talking about how fun the counselors were and cam home singing songs she learned at camp.

He really loved the variety of activities…but particularly ducky, SUP and rafting.
Weather didn’t cooperate all week but the counselors still made it fun for the kids. Excellent experience!

Camden was completely engaged and enthusiastic about his camp experience — and looked forward to attending every day!

Ava was excited to go to camp each day! She talked about all the counselors by name and loved the adventures in her kayak. She loved the bus rides and all the songs they would sing. She was so talkative each day upon pickup. We are so appreciative!!

My child enjoyed learning from all of the counselors and staff. The Calleva team has been a patience, helpful, and kind group from start to finish.

Staff were really kind and well loved by my kid. This helped her with such a big transition

She comes home dirty, sometimes bruised (evidence of true adventures), and absolutely euphoric — she sings all evening long and recruits us to join in. Seems like an experience that is not only physically exciting but also a team building and joyful experience.

Ziplining into a fire pond, swimming in rapids, not losing shoes in the “sucking mud” and generally getting dirty and having a BLAST.

For the past two summers now, my son seems to come out of Calleva with more confidence and a willingness to try new things. He’s normally hesitant or shy to try things, but after zip lining, rock climbing, and so on, he seems to gain more self esteem and confidence in himself.

I’ve been a camp counselor, and a camp manager, and I appreciate how this camp is organized.

My child would love it if there was YEAR round Calleva (instead of School)! he loves loves loves your camp. He practices singing camp songs anytime he can, at home, all around, and even waiting on line at the movies concession line!

We appreciate how dirty and tired our girls were every day after camp. A wet, dirty camper is a sign of a good day :-)

I thought it might be difficult for my kids to adapt as English is not their first language, but they didn’t seemed to have any problems.

My son really loved ALL of his counselors. Keep it up. This was by far his favorite camp of the summer. That’s saying a lot because he also loved 3 weeks of Washington Sailing, 2 weeks of Reston Golf, and 2 weeks of Cookology.

I plan to send her to as many weeks as possible! She loved it!

This was our second year in river camp and another great experience. Great program and great instructors. The instructors are fantastic and build tons of fun/playfulness into skills building. Just wish you could clone them for more sessions each summer!

First time here, we live out of state, my daughter knew no one and she had a blast. She made a good friend, connected with one counselor in particular and overall just really enjoyed every aspect of the program. Plus she came home exhausted every day 🙃

Now my son would like to be a CIT when he ages out of camp—what a sign of a fun and meaningful experience! Thank you for inspiring in him a love for outdoor adventure.

I wish I’d gone to Calleva as a kid! I tell lots of people to send their kids to Calleva. Huge fan here from a mom of an ADHD/ASD kiddo.

Thank you for your no electronics policy! Loved the fact that all campers were told not to bring electronics. Fostered social interactions throughout the day- even on the bus!

Our three children have been with Calleva for almost 6 years now and we have loved wonderful offers outdoor sports in adventures that they offer each summer.

My camper attended the two-week sampler program for older kids. Two weeks, rather than one, gave him time to make connections/friendships with other kids in his camp.

Virginia Sampler

Sampler format is great as it’s only a one-week commitment and the campers can try a little of everything.

We love the entire vibe of Calleva. Not much else to say. You guys are amazing at everything you do. Keep being you.

Virginia Teen Sampler

He enjoyed it so much he made the whole family go to Scott’s Run so he could show us.

My son loved his counselors and their joy of adventure. You did a great job picking them!

Sailing

Huge shout out to Nathan (transportation director) and Jeremy (sailing). My kid is a keen observer of adult leaders. Both get 2 thumbs ups for kindness and respect.
Sailing program exceeded expectations and last year’s experience. Noted summer highlight.

MD Sampler

Duncan, Anders, Brittany, Erin — amazing and really kind! We love them

Sylvia, a JC, because she is super nice and really open to meeting people and she’s just a lot of fun and I liked her a lot and she was always the only counselor who would wait for me while I got rocks out of my water shoes.

My daughter really liked Nikita. He was calm, gave compliments and stayed with her when she was struggling with duckying.

Anders, Rosha and Brittany were excellent counselors!

Did not have any interaction with camp this time, but I wanted to say how much I appreciated Tina (Tuna), when she was my son’s counselor in an earlier week. She sent me a very kind text and photos of my son on the rope swing. I really appreciated the nice things she said about Gus and getting the photo.

I love that you have the Camper of the Week program! My son won it and really excited to be selected. It is a great motivator! Thank you for doing it. Also, John, who was driving the Riley’s Lock bus the week my son was at camp was really great. I had a nice conversation with him and he went out of his way to compliment my son’s behavior. Really appreciated that he was paying attention to the kids and interacting with them.

Cubs

My daughter is 4.5 years old so one of the young ones. Her camp counselor availed himself via text message and sent us pictures on the 1st day. It was so great to have that connection for such a young camper. Thank you.We love Calleva! Thank you for offering camps for 4 year olds. It was a great experience for the little ones as well.

Explorers

Claire is great!

Fishing

Benj thought the staff were super cool and taught him a lot about fishing. Please thank them for the both of us!

Horseback Riding

Zoey loved learning how to take care of and ride horses, all the friends she made while she was there, and her counselors. She had a blast!

I’m so impressed with the way Calleva goes ahead with all adventures regardless of weather.

Bus Staff

Thank you to the bus staff for making a long bus ride safe, fun, and engaging. Our child has challenges on the bus, and we were so relieved that the staff met his needs and kept him on the right track so that everyone could enjoy the bus.

My camper loved camp and had the best time trying new things and experiences!
He was so excited to go every day! He loved every part – even the bus ride was so much fun for him!

He just loves the bus ride, the songs, and the semi-unstructured adventure-ing in the outdoors. Honestly, with so many highly scheduled, structured activities this is so refreshing especially for a kid like mine who doesn’t particularly like organized sports or indoor classes.

I don’t know their names but shout out to whoever drives the bus – that is a hugely important and stressful job and I am so grateful for the care and attention those individuals show in getting our kids safely to and from camp, especially in this heat and with all the chaos and noise those kids generate on the bus. Thank you!!!