The Magic of Namanu

Camp Namanu will not be hosting overnight youth camp this summer. Which is hard to imagine! Luckily there are other exciting ways to engage with Namanu and our community.

For the health and safety of campers and staff across the state, Governor Kate Brown announced that overnight youth camps in the state of Oregon are not allowed to operate this summer. It deeply saddens us that the 97^th summer at Namanu will be the first in nearly a century without the laughter of children coming from the meadow. We’ll miss rocks being skipped across the Sandy River, splashes from the pool, gasps as a star shoots across the night sky, and singing around the campfire. The list of lives touched in those 97 years is long, and we hope that list continues to grow for generations to come.

What now? As a registered camp family you have multiple choices to use your paid registration fees, and we have laid those options out in our FAQ’s.  Please take a moment to check out all the details.  Even though overnight youth camp is cancelled, we hope you will consider engaging with Camp Fire Columbia and Camp Namanu in a new way this summer!

For the first time ever because of these changes, you will be able to rent a space to enjoy Namanu during the summer! Come enjoy as a family and fall in love with Namanu together.  Experience the WoHeLo magic!

What’s WoHeLo you may ask? Camp Fire has used WoHeLo as a greeting for over 100 years. WoHeLo means: Work, Health and Love. At Camp Namanu we’re committed to working hard, supporting each other’s holistic health, and loving each other and the wider world. WoHeLo is a value deeply rooted in Camp Fire.

Camp Namanu (“Nuh-MAH-Noo”) is one of the largest and oldest youth camps in the region, operating continuously since 1924 on the banks of the Sandy River. Camp Namanu is the signature summer program of Camp Fire Columbia, a nonprofit youth development organization serving 3,000 youth annually in programs year-round, in-school, after-school and all summer long.