All the information you need about your child's experience at Camp Pepin:

2025 Summer Parent Guide

 

 

Parent FAQs

 

Day Camp Transportation:

We have arranged for a bus from First Student Transportation to pick up our participating Day Camp students from the Red Wing YMCA back parking lot (across from the depot). The bus will depart promptly at 8:20 AM, in order to arrive at camp by the 9 AM start time.  

The bus will depart YMCA Camp Pepin at 3:50 PM in order to arrive at the Red Wing YMCA back parking lot by 4:30 PM. 

If you live near Hager City, Bay City, or Maiden Rock, and prefer a pick-up in one of those locations, we can organize this. There should be a space on your camper’s application to indicate your desired pick-up location. Someone from camp will be in communication with you about organizing the details before your session begins, but if you don’t hear anything or would like to confirm, please reach out to us! These pick-ups would happen during travel between Red Wing and Camp Pepin, so the approximate timing of the pick-ups would be the departure time plus the average driving time to that particular location. For example, the pick-up time in Bay City each morning would be 8:20 AM + 20 minutes driving = 8:40 AM. 

 

Day Camp Food: 

Food is not provided by camp for day camp programs. Parents should pack a lunch for their kids and send it with them each day to camp. In addition, we will have two snack opportunities - once in the morning and once in the afternoon - so parents should send snacks with their campers, as well. When packing lunches and snacks, please try to include some healthy options for your campers to enjoy during meals and snack times.  

 

Fundraising: 

We want everyone to be able to come to camp who would like to. If cost is a barrier for your campers to attend camp, there are a few options to help make camp more affordable. In addition to camp scholarships (the forms can be found here), We have partnered with Driven Coffee, a small coffee company from Minnesota, to offer some great fundraising opportunities for everyone to participate in. Please see the fundraising information posted here. 

 

Scholarships: 

Camp Pepin offers need-based financial assistance for families where the cost of camp prevents their children from attending camp. We grant up to 50% scholarships for families based on their application information. Applications for this financial assistance can be found here.  

 

Forms: 

Camp forms will become available closer to the summer camp season, in order to ensure better accuracy of the information provided (a lot can change in a few months!). Below is an explanation of the different forms that are required: 

  • Camper Health Form - This form will gather all medical information to ensure that we are best prepared to provide care for your camper while at camp. This includes medical history, medication information, allergy warnings, etc. 

  • Parent Authorization Form - This form outlines who is able to pick up the camper from camp. Only the people identified as the adults on this form will be allowed to remove the camper from camp’s premises. This is to ensure that campers are going home with the correct family member and are safe. 

  • YMCA Waiver Form - This form is the standard liability form for the Red Wing Family YMCA and its properties. 

 

Camp Store:

All our camp store transactions are done within CampInTouch, which makes it easy to add funds to a camp store account, as well as track purchases throughout the week.  

 

Bunk Requests: 

Although almost all bunk requests will be fulfilled, we cannot guarantee that all campers will get their bunk requests. Bunk requests are more likely to be met if the campers are close in age and are in pairs or a small group. 

 

Cell Phone Policy: 

YMCA Camp Pepin is a device-free experience – this includes phones, tablets, audio players, etc. We ask that parents help with this by encouraging their campers to arrive without any devices. Exceptions to this rule are rare – it's difficult to explain and justify why one camper can have their phone when others can’t. It also leads to the psychological reminder of what they’re missing out on, and all the baggage that comes with a device.