WriCampia. We all know and love it here. But did you know that WriCampia didn’t always exist? I know, shocking, right? WriCampia has a short but fascinating history.
WriCampia started in 2013, when parents (half as a joke, and half serious) told Writopia Founder and CEO Rebecca that their kids were obsessed with Writopia and asked her to start a sleepaway camp. Danielle Sheeler, a longtime director who grew up going to camp, said, “Let’s do it!” Rebecca, who was busy running Writopia and with two small children, said, “Yes, as long as you spearhead it!” By February, camp was launched.
In Aug. 2013, “Writopia Sleepaway Camp” in Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC) was a one-week-long camp with a max of 45 kids. Instead of tracks, the camp had two elective periods. The first one was for arts electives, and the second one was sports electives, which they called “action electives” due to the lack of interest in participating in athletics. Exclusively for that year, there was no waterfront.
In 2014 the camp moved to Camp IHC, and the following year–after kids kept jokingly calling the camp “WriCampia”–the name stuck. Also in 2015, the Newspaper formed. By 2018, Wrichella, and Page 2 Stage were instated. In 2020, due to Covid, the camp was run over Zoom, with only ¼ of the kids. In 2021, WriCampia had a lot of changes: the camp moved to ILC (Independent Lake Camp), the LARPing tournament started, our first gallery show was curated, and the film festival had its own night for the first time. In 2022, Tracks were introduced. Then in 2023, WriCampia moved to Camp Danbee.
Now, in 2025, there are a whopping 196 campers and 82 staff members, for a total of 278 people) at camp. We have 8 tracks, 32 daily electives, 21 bunks, and 21 workshops. And surely, WriCampia will keep getting better and better for many years to come. ✎
