For Day Camps
Every child accounted for from drop-off to pickup, and a lunch count settled before the day starts.
Day camp runs on a daily rhythm: a wave of cars in the morning, a wave of pickups in the afternoon, and a lunch order in between that needs a number. FunFangle puts the roster, the authorized pickup list, and the lunch orders in front of the staff who need them, so you know who is here, who can take them home, and what everyone is eating.
You know the feeling.
The sign-in sheet
A line of cars at the gate, a clipboard at the front of it, and parents waiting to initial a sheet. The headcount is whatever the sheet says, until someone walks the groups and counts again.
The face at pickup
Someone the counselor has never met says a child's name. The counselor is in their first summer, and the system they have been handed is a clipboard and their best judgment.
The lunch count
Whether lunch comes out of your kitchen or in from a restaurant down the road, the order goes in on a number that's always a little wrong. Dietary restrictions live on sticky notes, and the changes arrive by email after the order is placed.
What changes at the gate.
average check-in at Camp Lurecrest, where paper sign-in sheets used to be
an exact count of who is on site, without stopping the program to count heads
the authorized pickup list at check-out, so the handoff is verified and logged
Check-in moves at the pace of a scan. At pickup, the person at the door is checked against the authorized list on screen, so a new counselor doesn't have to recognize a parent they have never met. The headcount updates itself. Parents schedule early pickups from their phones, and at Camp Zehnder, a YMCA day camp network, leadership stopped double-checking the attendance records by hand.
“Easily reduced my daily emails and calls by 75 to 100 per day. And it made pickup so much easier. I didn't even know I was looking for a more streamlined solution, but it was a bonus and made parents so much happier.”
What changes at lunch.
lunch counts before the order goes in, whether to your own kitchen or a local restaurant
matched to the camper's dietary restrictions, whoever is making it
last-minute lunch changes landing on the front desk, because parents order through the portal
Parents place orders through the portal by the deadline you set, so the count is settled before it goes to your kitchen or out to the restaurant. Restrictions live on the camper's profile and show up alongside the order, so an allergy does not depend on someone remembering a sticky note. When the count is right, nobody over-orders, nobody scrambles to make more, and nobody is on the phone with the restaurant at lunchtime.
A lunch service that finally made sense
Spartan All Stars had held off on offering lunch because managing orders at scale looked impractical. With parents ordering through the portal, it became one more thing families handle from their phones. Read their story →
At Spartan All Stars, parents handle pickups, lunch orders, and the store account from one portal, and the campers wear one wristband for all of it. The child at the gate is the same child in the lunch line, and so is the record.
Programs with a snack shack run it from that wristband too, with parents funding the account from home. See cashless payments →
Good to know.
“Our staff are seasonal, many of them teenagers.”
If they can scan a wristband, they can run check-in. The screen tells them who the child is and who is allowed to take them home.
“We already have a registration system.”
Keep it. Rosters import from CampBrain or UltraCamp, and FunFangle has connected to ActivityHero and custom registration systems by API. Spartan All Stars kept ActivityHero.
“What happens to the records?”
Every check-in, check-out, and handoff is timestamped and kept. Your data is yours, and you can export it at any time.
“Who do we call in July?”
A person who knows your setup. Live support runs through camp season, including weekends.
We understand the day camp rhythm.
FunFangle was born at camp. Day camps like Camp Zehnder and Spartan All Stars run the same system on a daily schedule: a wave of arrivals every morning, a wave of pickups every afternoon, and a parent base that wants to see what is happening in between.
And the afternoon should belong to the people in front of you. At Spartan All Stars, the director is now at checkout every afternoon, talking with parents and kids as they leave.
Frequently asked questions.
What does FunFangle do for a day camp?
It puts the roster, the authorized pickup list, and the lunch orders in front of the staff who need them, so you know who is here, who can take them home, and what everyone is eating.
How does check-in work at the gate?
Check-in moves at the pace of a scan, and the headcount updates itself without stopping the program to count heads. At Camp Lurecrest, check-in averages 30 seconds per camper where paper sign-in sheets used to be.
How is pickup verified?
At pickup, the person at the door is checked against the authorized list on screen, so a new counselor does not have to recognize a parent they have never met. Parents schedule early pickups from their phones.
How does lunch ordering work if we do not have a kitchen?
Parents order through the portal by the deadline you set, and the count is settled before it goes to your kitchen or out to a local restaurant. Restrictions live on the camper's profile and show up alongside the order.
How much does it cost?
Starting at $3.75 per account. Request a quote for your specific setup.
If this fits your situation, we'd like to help.
Tell us a bit about your day camp and we'll show you how check-in, pickup, and lunch ordering work in practice, for the way you operate.
Schedule a DemoStarting at $3.75 per account. Request a quote for your specific setup.
Not sure where to start? Take the Check-In Readiness Assessment to see where you stand.