The SPARC Accelerator Inspires Innovative Summer Day Camp at Miss Porter's School

Wanting to expand their auxiliary program offerings beyond their successful and long-running Summer at Farmington--a three-week residential summer camp for girls in grades 6-9--Miss Porter's School joined the SPARC Accelerator in June 2024. When she stepped into the role of Director of Auxiliary Programs, Sophie Paris brought with her an abundance of ideas and energy. What she needed most was a thought partner—someone to help her explore possibilities and shape the direction that would make the greatest impact. 

SPARC Executive Director Nat Saltonstall, along with Senior Advisors David Sullivan and Karen McCann McClelland, visited the school to help Sophie decide how to move forward. She realized that other than the three weeks of Summer at Farmington and occasional rental groups, the school's facilities were sitting idle for much the summer.

“SPARC helped me see that the low-hanging fruit—the natural next step—was day camp,” Sophie says. “My CFO brought SPARC in to push, guide, and challenge us to take that leap, and we’re so glad we did.” 

"You just have to try something. Failure is a normal part of the process of growth and you can't know how to grow until you try something."

Sophie Paris, Director of Auxiliary Programs, Miss Porter's School

When she and the Director of Summer Programs, Emily Suprenant, were thinking of a name, they knew they wanted something linked to the school's brand but appealing to girls in grades 3-5. "Daisy is the school's flower, it's part of our brand. It's part of our tradition and it reflects the history of the school. And 'Daisy Days' just rolls of your tongue."

It was the first time in the history of the school that Miss Porter's had run a day camp. "It's rare," Sophie says, "when you have a school that's 189 years old to have something new happen. It's an exciting moment for us."

The Beginning: Start Small and Take a Risk

Sophie now meets with Karen every week as part of the SPARC Accelerator. Karen coached Sophie and Emily to approach their work with a business and entrepreneurial mindset, helping them frame their ideas in financial terms and communicate more effectively with their CFO. “There’s always a little bit of risk when launching a new program,” Karen explains, “but they knew they had a strong model and excellent facilities to build on.”

Sophie agrees. "SPARC gave me the confidence to say to my CFO 'here are the numbers. And I know it's not necessarily what (Porter's) wants, but we've got to run this thing.' Without SPARC, I probably would have said, let's do a day camp in 2027. We wouldn't have just done it."

"The CFO came to our Daisy Days open house," adds Emily," and heard from parents how excited they were for the camp.  He loved that and meeting all the parents, which was really helpful."

“Even if it starts small, you have to take that first risk and build the foundation,” Karen says. “Now they’ve launched an excellent program, and from that foundation, they can continue to grow.”

Creating the Program: Learning What Kids Want

One challenge Sophie and Emily faced was taking everything they'd learned from running a successful summer camp for middle school girls and adapting it for elementary children. "SPARC was super helpful with that," Emily says, "thinking about their attention spans, what they actually like and care about. Do they want themes? Reading? Structured activities?"

Brainstorming from their campers' point of view led to a balanced program of mornings dedicated to hands-on skill-building classes and afternoons of outdoor activities and adventures. 

The campers are treated to an off-campus field trip every Wednesday and a new speaker each week. One week, they brought in the fire department with a ladder truck so the girls could learn about firefighting and do a tour of the truck. US Rowing came with their crew boat and let the girls sit in and explore it while learning about the sport. And, as part of a bee-building session, Miss Porter's own Bee Club demonstrated what a beehive is and how it works.

"We were hands-on, we were engaging, we were intentional in our programming," Emily says. "The kids loved it. They were engaged. They felt challenged. They enjoyed the variety of activities."

Engaging Families: Communication and Feedback

Sophie and Emily intentionally stayed connected with families throughout their kids' Daisy Days experience. Families liked that lunch was provided and appreciated that staff were in constant communication during the session about what campers needed to bring and what they were doing during the day. And families were always invited at the end of every two-week session for demonstrations of learning--a hallmark of Miss Porter's philosophy where campers perform skits or songs, show their art, and share whatever they've learned during their session. 

Surveys are sent to families every week and feedback has been glowing. Sophie makes a point of talking to every parent she can. Parents are saying that their daughters can't wait to come to camp and are even asking for more programs. "They're asking, can you do swim lessons next year, can you do something over spring break while the kids are at home. They want to know what else we can do for them because their daughter is in love with the school, with this place, and can't wait to come back."

Summer at Farmington has long been a pipeline for admissions at the school; now they're hearing from families that their 3rd-5th grade daughters can't wait to attend Miss Porter's when they're in 9th grade, starting that pipeline at even younger ages.

"Our admissions team is very integrated with the community," Emily says. "They're hearing great feedback from our families."

Moving Forward: Building on the Foundation

Now that they've taken the leap and started Daisy Days, Sophie and Emily can build on what they've created and learned. 

"My goal was to break even," Sophie says. "We did make some money this foundational year, but the main goal was to get it running and make it work." This success is remarkable not only in creating an innovative, popular day camp, but because they're doing it in the highly saturated market of the Hartford, Connecticut area. Leveraging their niche--running the only all-girls camps in the region--has helped their success.

Now it's time to really get the word out about Daisy Days. "Word of mouth will be a big part of it," Sophie says, noting how the camp grew from session to session this year just from campers telling their friends how much they loved it. Many faculty members also signed their daughters up.

Looking forward, they're brainstorming ways to stay connected to families after the camp season--perhaps through a monthly newsletter and sending notes on kids' birthdays. This will ensure that families not only remember Daisy Days and Summer at Farmington for their daughters, but help strengthen the admissions pipeline to Miss Porter's.

When asked for their advice for starting a new program, Sophie and Emily mention two important factors. The first is attending the New England Camp Crawls. "Camp Crawls have been awesome. It's been so helpful both in affirming things we're doing right and feel good about and also seeing how other camps are doing things."

The second is not being afraid to take a risk. "Just do it," Sophie says. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but at the same time, it's simply that. What I've come to know is that you just have to try something. Failure is a normal part of the process of growth and you can't know how to grow until you try something. It might not be perfect, it might not totally work, but you've got to put it out there and you've got to give it a shot in order to know."

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