Camper mail

Camper mail lets parents send letters (and optional photos) to their campers while they're at camp. Admin staff print the letters and hand them out in person. If camper replies are enabled, staff can scan handwritten replies back into the system and the corresponding parent can view them in the parent portal.

Written By Adam Maddocks

Last updated About 5 hours ago

Configuring camper mail

Camper mail is configured at the camp level. Go to Settings → Camper mail to open the settings page.

The main switches are:

  • Enable camper mail. The master on/off toggle. When off, the feature is hidden from parents entirely.

  • Allow image uploads. Lets parents attach one photo per letter. Photos are printed inline with the letter.

  • Allow camper replies. Prints a reply page with each letter and lets staff scan replies back in (see Processing reply scans below).

Letter frequency limit

You can cap how many letters a parent can send per camper per day or per week. Set a number and choose day or week, or leave the number blank for no limit.

The limit is applied per parent per camper. Each parent on a family account has their own allowance, so two parents in the same family don't share a quota. Daily limits reset at midnight, and weekly limits reset at the start of the week.

Parents see how many letters they have remaining for each camper, and the compose form is blocked once they hit the limit.

Cut off and delivery information

Use the Cut off and delivery information field to tell parents anything specific to your camp, for example:

Letters submitted before 9am will be delivered the same day. Anything after that goes out the following morning.

Whatever you enter appears as a banner on the parent camper mail page.

Visibility restrictions

By default camper mail is available to every family with an enrolled camper. If you want to limit it to a specific session, session group, or camper group, use the Visibility restrictions selectors at the bottom of the settings page. Leave both empty to make it available to everyone.

Admin workflow

Letters flow through three statuses: Pending, then Printed, then Delivered.

  1. Go to Camper mail → Inbound to see all submitted letters. Filter by status, session, or camper as needed.

  2. Select the pending letters you want to print (or use Print all pending) and generate the PDF. The print job batches letters together and, if replies are enabled, includes a reply page behind each letter.

  3. When the print is done, mark the batch as Printed. The system records who printed it and when.

  4. Optional - after the letters are physically handed out at camp, mark them as Delivered.

The status changes are reflected in the parent's view of each letter.

Processing reply scans

If Allow camper replies is enabled, each printed letter includes a reply page campers can write on.

To process replies:

  1. Collect the completed reply pages at camp.

  2. Go to Camper mail → Outbound and start a new reply batch. Upload the scanned pages (PDF or image). This can be done in bulk.

  3. Campfront runs each scan through a matching job that tries to pair the reply with the original outbound letter. Scans land in one of three states:

    • Matched. High-confidence automatic match. No action needed.

    • Needs review. Low confidence. Open the scan and either confirm one of the suggested letters or search manually.

    • Rejected. Use this for unreadable, blank, or misfiled scans.

  4. Once a reply is matched, the parent is automatically emailed that a reply is ready to view.

Batch progress can be monitored from the Outbound tab.

Inbound email address

If the camp has Postmark inbound set up, the settings page also shows a dedicated inbound email address. Replies forwarded to that address are ingested the same way as uploaded scans.

What parents see

Where it lives

Parents access camper mail from the parent portal via a Camper mail menu item. It's only visible if the feature is enabled for your camp and the parent has an active camper enrolled (respecting any visibility restrictions you've set).

Composing a letter

Parents click Compose letter, pick one or more of their campers, write a message, and optionally attach a photo (if image uploads are enabled). Writing to multiple campers at once creates a separate letter per camper. After submitting, the letter appears in their list with a Pending status.

Frequency limit badges - If a limit is set, small badges show each camper's remaining allowance, for example "Ada: 2 letters remaining this week". When a camper hits 0, the Compose option is hidden for that camper until the period resets. Because the count is per parent, the other parent on the account has their own separate counter.

Status badges on letters. Parents see the same three statuses admins do:

  • Pending. Submitted, waiting to be printed.

  • Printed. Printed by staff, on its way to the camper.

  • Delivered. Physically handed to the camper.