Every October, Charlotte Country Club hosts its campfire campout for families and youth. The event has become a tradition that members look forward to.
The annual event takes place between the golf course and the agronomy facility where members bring tents and camp out on the lawn.
However, a golf course renovation made the usual space unavailable.
“We had to figure out what we were going to do for the members because it’s such an important event to them,” says Jennifer Gibson, Director of Youth Activities of Charlotte Country Club.
With the space closed and filled with construction equipment, Gibson and Avery Kinnaird, Youth Activities Manager, had to pivot. In 2025, they came up with the idea of hosting a fall fest on a fairway closer to the clubhouse and the outdoor event lawn.
“It was a special opportunity to host an event directly on the course for the first time. We were excited to bring something new to that space while still being mindful of protecting the course,” Gibson explains.
The team planned for inflatables, a petting zoo, photo opportunities, a hayride, live music and more. Then the event got rained out.
The team scaled down the event and moved it inside. It was still successful, but Gibson and Kinnaird hoped to return to the campfire campout in 2026.
“We were scheduled to be opened by next year in 2026, so we planned on having the campfire campout space back and we wouldn’t have to do that fall fest,” says Gibson.
But construction delays meant the campfire campout space would remain unavailable in 2026.
With little over a month to plan, Gibson and Kinnaird pivoted again and got to work planning a fall fest in the newly renovated golf parking lot.
The event drew 354 attendees.
Planning for a new space in a shorter timeline
“Usually, we have several months of planning to put this event together, but now we are down to a month,” says Gibson.
Kinnaird says she and Gibson divided the work, with Gibson focusing on the amusement rides while Kinnaird handled the face painting, balloon artists, petting zoo and bounce house.
Working in a new space, Gibson and Kinnaird had to measure each parking space and determine the total area available.
Kinnaird and Gibson said there was a lot of collaboration with the event planning team to help determine the size of the new space, booking live music, planning décor, and the Food and Beverage set up.
“We had a drone take a photo of the space because we weren’t able to view the actual space until weeks before,” says Gibson.
Once the space was determined, the team started booking vendors to bring the event to life.
“We had staples of a carnival: a face painter, balloon twister, bounce house and petting zoo,” says Gibson. “Then we booked a vendor that brought a big slide, a pirate ship ride, a rock-climbing wall and more.”
Kinnaird adds that the event also had carnival trailers with classic games like water-gun shooting, basketball and balloon darts with prizes.
The carnival theme extended to the food and beverage offerings.
“Our culinary team had created a station that had corn dogs, soft pretzels, funnel cakes and more,” Gibson adds.
With 12 people on the youth department team, Kinnaird created an assignment sheet identifying the station each team member would run.
Balancing activities for all age groups
Part of Kinnaird and Gibson’s job is to create youth or family events that appeal to toddlers, teenagers and the adults accompanying them.
“When booking activities, we are always thinking about what age group we are targeting,” says Gibson. “We are thinking what age can do the big slide? What is the height requirement for the pirate ship ride? We are always trying to figure out if we have enough activities for each age group.”
For toddlers, the team had face painting, balloon animals, and bounce houses while the older kids got to take advantage of the carnival games.
“With a kid event you are obviously going to have adults there, so we have to think of them too,” says Gibson. “That’s why we decorate the event nicely and bring in live music. We also provided a buffet that was elevated to appeal to adults and not just have the carnival-like food.”
The team also created a specialty adult beverage for parents or guardians called the Pear Necessities, that had either vodka or bourbon with pear puree. The kids had a specialty drink of apple cider too.
“It’s really a balancing act of just making sure we have an even amount of offerings for the older kids versus the younger kids,” says Kinnaird. “But for events like this, we typically see kids under the age of 10. It’s normally a younger demographic so that is our main focus.”
The response has Gibson and Kinnaird considering keeping the fall fest even after the campfire campout returns.
“We talked about doing a fall fest one year and the campfire campout the next year, but we are seeing how it plans out,” says Gibson. “But we think that because this event was so successful members are going to ask about it.”
Introducing new families to the club
“The median age for clubs is going down,” says Kinnaird. It used to be normal for only grandparents to be members, but now we are seeing a lot of parents with younger children becoming members.”
She says that most new members who joined Charlotte Country Club last year have young children.
For Kinnaird, events like the fall fest and campfire campout are an opportunity to show new families what the club offers.
“Having these events caters to the kids and gives them an opportunity to come to the club,” says Kinnaird. “For example, we made sure that a new member that joined a week before fall fest came to the event even though it was sold-out. We wanted them to see everything the club offered for their family and that we are here for their whole family.”
Gibson agrees that children are members just as much as their parents are.
“If there’s something for the kids to do, that makes the whole family experience better,” adds Gibson.
