YMCA Camp Colman Spring Update 2026

Dear Colman Family,

We are just a few weeks out from summer camp, and camp is alive with programming! Through our Outdoor Environmental Education program, local students have an opportunity to explore the Puget Sound at camp — from dissecting squid to learning to work together on our challenge course.

While success at school often looks like a score on a test, success at camp has a hundred different definitions. A student who struggles in the classroom suddenly stands out as the student who finds the solution to a team-building puzzle. A student who is quiet at school and struggles to connect with others becomes the person who bravely steps on stage and performs a song at campfire. A student who can’t sit still through a lesson becomes the first person to make it to the top of the climbing wall.

These moments at camp give students and teachers a different perspective on each other and on themselves, which encourages confidence and resilience.

Camp has always been one piece of the puzzle of raising strong kids, and outdoor education is just one more way that we open that up to as many families as we can here at Camp Colman! 

Ashley Gibson
Senior Program Director

Danielia Barron
Executive Director

Spring and the Return of the Orcas

While at Camp Colman, campers have a chance to see a variety of marine life, but the most coveted, of course, is the orca. Spring is the perfect time to see Bigg’s Transient Orcas on our beach, and whale watching is one of our favorite spring hobbies among staff.

When we are lucky enough to be visited by orcas, all activities on camp pause, and our students and staff rush to the beach to experience the moment. It’s a picturesque PNW scene — the Olympic Mountains in the background, the sun shining on the water, and classes of students listening and watching for the telltale spout or dorsal fin of an orca. In that moment, everyone on the beach is gifted a memory that will last for years to come. So far this spring, we have had four orca sightings, and we even had a humpback swim right through our boating area!

New Program Highlight: Music and Resilience

Music, like camp, has always been a connector for communities. This year, we will be adding a new outdoor music studio to our camp space! Whether they’re just passing through on their way to a cabin or participating in a full class period, campers will have an opportunity to create and explore with our ground-installed instruments, which will include Freechimes, bongos, and more!

Music is more than fun. At Camp Colman, we are dedicated to remaining focused on inclusion and social-emotional learning. When camp gets overwhelming, our music space can offer a new tool for emotional regulation. We know that we want our campers to stretch into trying new things, and that can come with some big emotions! What better way to work through those feelings than by playing it out on some bongos?

Staff Highlight: Connie Fechner

The Camp Colman beach holds special memories for hundreds of campers and alumni who have shared campfires, played in the summer bioluminescence, and taken a canoe out on the sound. But for our Food Services Director, Connie Fechner, our beach is also the location where she held her wedding ceremony in 2008.

By then, Connie had already worked at Colman for six years. In the summer of 2002, looking for a new opportunity after moving to Gig Harbor, Connie started as a Cook’s Apprentice, and within 18 months, moved from Cook’s Apprentice to Cook to Food Service Director. In this role, Connie has had a powerful impact that reaches far beyond the Anderson Lodge.

Since starting in her role over 20 years ago, Connie has mentored local teenagers through what is, for many of them, their first jobs. She teaches them the responsibility that comes with working in a kitchen and advocates fiercely to ensure that they are supported.

Camp is a deeply social place to work, and one challenge Connie noticed was a disconnect between the staff who worked in cabins and the staff who worked in the kitchen. To remedy this, Connie invented Goop Hoops, one of our favorite camp traditions, in which all staff come together to build basketball teams and participate in a friendly competition. This summer, we will be celebrating our ninth annual Goop Hoops!

From little moments to big traditions, it is clear that Connie’s leadership has been integral to Colman’s evolution — over her tenure, over a dozen staff have brought in their younger family members as new staff, trusting Connie and Camp Colman to give them a fulfilling and safe first experience in the workplace. Maybe in a few years, one of her staff will have a wedding of their own on our beach!

Alumni Family Camp

Whether it’s your first time driving past the Camp Colman Madrona trees, or your 100th, there is something about driving down the Spit that transports you from the “real world” into the magic of Colman. 2026 marks 60 years of driving down the Spit on Case Inlet. Some things around camp have changed in the last 60 years, but the impact that the experience has on campers has stayed consistent throughout our history.

Join us this summer for our 60th anniversary Alumni Family Camp — an opportunity to share that camp magic with the whole family!

Learn more about YMCA Camp Colman >>