Story-based, STEAM Adventure Camp in Charlton, MA
The Story School has been delivering immersive, interactive, and inclusive overnight camp adventures since 2013. We believe that every child is a hero and have designed a world to prove that to them.
Campers check in for two week sessions and are transformed into heroes. They choose a character and adventuring party, level up their skills with STEAM-powered puzzles, and battle with foam swords to save the world from those that stand in their way. Their days are spent in-game full of fantastical quests and their evenings are spent with their friends building crafts, playing games, eating s’mores, and bonding over the day’s battles.
Your hero will build “character” learning to be courageous, honorable, and compassionate adventuring along with their peers. Heroes are invited to try on and test out aspects of their identity when playing their character, encouraged to accept everyone for who they say they are, and driven as heroes to defend and protect each other. Differences are embraced and celebrated in our fantasy worlds creating an LGBTQ+ and neuro-diverse friendly community.
Our overnight adventures start at age 8 and continue up to 17 for our teen adventurers. We even have a Counselor In Training program and employment opportunities for those who have aged out of our programs. Come spend your summer in a story!
Location:
The Story School
73 Pumpkin Lane
Charlton, MA 01507
Contact Details:
Website | Email | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | 781-214-1174
This Is The Best Camp Experience My Son Has Ever Had
This is the best camp experience my son has ever had! He can’t wait to go back! My son Ryan is usually the brainiac who no one really knows at home, but when we went to camp for the feast and heard he stood up in front of everyone to defend a spirit who no one else believed in and changed the minds of the rest, he experienced what I knew he could accomplish. Everyone was telling him how brave he was…I always knew my son could do wonderful things…but camp allowed him to show himself.
I Give The Programs At The Story School My Highest Recommendation
My daughter is High Functioning ASD. Because of this, most typical afterschool activities and camps don’t work for her. Often, she can only be in programs designed for kids with special needs.
The Story School is a wonderful exception.
Their programs encourage kids to use their imaginations and creativity to add to the story being told. This is not a passive program, it’s an active one where kids can immerse as much as they like in the story and be part of its unfolding. This provides a flexible environment that meets my daughter’s needs.
Along the way, the kids solve problems, work as a team, exercise, and so much more.
During the pandemic, many of their programs were able to continue virtually, giving my child a much needed social and creative outlet. They also started an adult AD&D game. My husband, daughter, and I all participate in this game and it has been fantastic. My husband and I played before we had kids and had the time to organize the game. Now, we get to play with a fantastic game master without any of the overhead. It felt like I reclaimed something I had lost, and I got to do it with my daughter making it even more special.
I give the programs at the Story School my highest recommendation.
It’s The Closest Thing I Have To A Safe Space
For most of the year, things don’t feel exactly right. But why should anything feel right? There are numerous horrible things taking place across Earth every single day, and I can’t even do the slightest thing about it. So many people die, so many are hurt. And I always feel so isolated from everyone else around me. Like there’s some sort of partition between me and everyone else. I can talk to them, I can relate to them, but I can’t fully reach through it and truly understand them. Seeing people’s problems from beyond this partition, I want to help. And I try to as best I can. I can give people words of encouragement. I can give them everything I can.
I wish more than anything that I could go over to people and deal with their problems myself, but that partition separates them from me. But that partition doesn’t just keep me from helping others. It keeps me from helping myself too. Most of the time I don't know who I am. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know who I will become. But sometimes I can see a small glimmer of clarity. Of hope. Hope that I can solve my problems. Hope that I can break that partition, and truly become myself. Those glimmers give me the strength to continue.
However, for about four weeks every year, those little glimmers turn into a massive, glowing, light. For those four weeks. I go to a summer camp. Here, we don’t have to worry about the future, the past, or feeling safe. It’s the closest thing I have to a safe space. Here, people like me can take a break from the real world, and bolster ourselves against the atrocities that we have to deal with using hope. Because this place doesn’t just give me hope that there are good people in the world. It gives me hope that anyone can be a good person. That anyone can become themselves. And, better yet, when I hide here, I am with people like me.
We like medieval fantasy, science fiction, video games, books, and so many other things. This place also makes me realize that I don’t have to brave the world alone. That I can have help when I face the whole universe, and that we, as one, can change the world for the better. That we won’t have to fight each other over petty things like land, or resources needed to survive in this capitalist hellscape. And we can simply continue learning, having fun, and growing. That we won’t be fighting over minor differences. That everyone who needs help will be not only accepted, but assisted. That love will be love. And that everyone will finally be able to be exactly who they are, and understanding will be abundant, and present between every person. And the hope that this can happen, in the future, maybe after me, even, makes everything that has and will happen worth it.