You Spoke, We Listened- New Luggage & Laundry Services

We’re excited to announce we will be using a different luggage company to transport campers’ bags this summer. As you can imagine, the logistics of getting everyone’s bags to camp has a lot of moving pieces. Due to feedback from our families from the past few years and our goal in delivering the highest quality of service, we decided to switch luggage services and we’re thrilled to announce our new partnership with Camp Laundry & Baggage. Founded by, Tony Kahan, who describes himself as “a camp guy through and through,” Camp Laundry and Baggage is committed to delivering the best customer service and positive interactions at every point in the process, while tying each piece of the logistics puzzle together.

Switching luggage companies also allows us to overhaul the entire baggage process. Instead of picking the bags up from your home, there will be central locations throughout Chicagoland to drop your bags off before camp. Why did we move to this method? The benefits for you, of course:

• You can drop off your bag when you are ready. No more rushing to have it ready for one specific day. Camp Laundry and Baggage has created a drop off window before each session begins.
• Your bags no longer sit outside, in whatever weather, waiting for the luggage truck. You simply drive to your chosen luggage site, provide your name and the staff will take your bags.
• No more frustration when the luggage truck is late. You choose when you drop off your bag- not the other way around.
• Convenient evening hours means you can drop your bags after work or school, so don’t have to adjust your schedule at all.

We know our Chicagoland Camp Chi family is spread out, so we worked with Camp Laundry & Baggage to select luggage locations throughout the city and suburbs. Our luggage drop sites will be available June 14 & 15 (First Session) and July 11 & 12 (Second Session) from 4pm-8pm at the following sites:

• Skokie (Metro Self Storage, 3220 West Touhy, Skokie. Located on the northeast corner of Kedzie and Touhy)
• Northbrook (497 Lake Cook Road, in the parking lot east of the Tile Shop. In the Lake Cook Plaza located on Lake Cook, just west of Waukegan)
• Buffalo Grove (the former Dominick’s parking lot on the North East corner of Lake Cook and Arlington Heights Road)
• Chicago (Hu-Friedy Manufacturing, 3232 N. Rockwell, Chicago 60618. Located on Rockwell between Belmont and Addison- directly across from Devry School of Technology. Accessible from Addison or Belmont via Campbell Ave.)

When you choose your bus site on the Travel Information Sheet (located in your Forms and Documents in CampInTouch), you will be prompted to choose the number of bags your camper is bringing (typically 2 plus a sleeping bag.) Once you choose the number of bags, you can choose the most convenient drop site for you. And, if none of the dates or times work for you, we can work with Camp Laundry & Baggage and you can drop it off at either their Chicago or Northfield offices.

Our new partnership also brings a change of laundry services this summer. Camp Laundry & Baggage will also handle all of the laundry for Chi this summer. A little-known fact is that Camp Laundry & Baggage started at a laundromat and is now booming. For their camp laundry service, they wash everyone’s clothes in a hypo-allergenic detergent. In addition to doing camp’s weekly laundry, Camp Laundry & Baggage is offering an optional post camp laundry service. Instead of delivering your bags to the bus site at the end of the session, they will launder everything, getting rid of the camp guck and return everything (except the guck) to you, clean and fresh. To sweeten the deal, Camp Laundry & Baggage will donate a portion of the proceeds from the post camp laundry services back to the Camp Chi Scholarship Fund, so you can support camp and get clean clothes, all at once. Information on how to opt into this service will be included in your bus packets.

We believe this new partnership with Camp Laundry & Baggage will make things easier for everyone and provide you with more options and freedom before and after camp, so you can spend more time with your campers. As always, if there are questions, please contact our office.