The Importance of Summer Camp (From a Former Camp Counselor's Perspective)
Spring has just sprung (though here in the midwest it still looks and feels like late fall/early winter), but nonetheless, summer is just around the corner. No matter how old you are, summer is always an exciting time. There is something magical about walking outside in just shorts and a tee-shirt, going to the beach, catching up on all the summer blockbusters, and most importantly, avoiding the responsibilities of school.
But with summer also comes a great opportunity: camp.
Now I'm a little biased. I've worked at a large summer camp as a counselor the past three years, and I'll be working at another camp this summer. However, during my time as a counselor, I've seen just how big an impact attending summer camp can have, and it's not just for kids.
Parents
Parents, we all know you get tired. Raising kids is a difficult job. It's messy, it's exhausting, and sometimes you just need a break. How does a week off sound to you?
Camp gives parents a much needed and often deserved break from being a parent. The camps usually have a very rigorous and intense hiring process to ensure that only the best of the best get hired to care for the kids. We the camp counselors are essentially paid to babysit your kids for a week, but our job means so much more than that.
Counselors are often seen as providing a service to the campers, and while that is our main objective, we also see ourselves as providing a service to you. We want your week off from parenting to be as restful and relaxing as it can be, so we do everything in our power to assure you that your child is safe and well taken care of.
My second summer as a counselor, I had a camper who had high functioning autism. I made it my personal duty to know everything about him and his special need. What makes him tick, how I should handle a meltdown, what I could do to avoid a meltdown. I barraged his mother with question after question, and it paid off. She told my boss that she felt completely safe leaving her son with me just because I took the time to understand her son and his needs.
That is our goal as counselors: make your week away from your child as stress-free as possible so you can recharge and be ready to get back at it when the week is over.
Young adults
Summers are interesting for college kids. We don't really have all the necessary or desired qualifications to land a job in our field of study, but we don't want to settle for a ho-hum job as a dairy clerk at the local grocery store either.
Summer camps offer a wide variety of jobs for anyone who wants to have a fun and exciting job for the summer.
Camps need more than just counselors. There are always leadership staff they need, activity staff, kitchen staff, groundskeeping staff, animal staff, etc. If working with kids 24 hours a day 5 days a week doesn't sound like your cup of tea, jump on board one of the other jobs camp offers where you won't have to spend as much time with kids.
Camp needs a large staff in order to run properly, and bigger camps especially are often understaffed, so they need as many people as they can get.
For the people who decide to heed the call and become counselors, first of all, we salute you. Second of all, you get paid to play all day. That's a dream job right there. Even if the pay isn't the best in the world, it's still money.
Kids
And of course, camp has so much to offer kids. Once summer hits, kids are free to do whatever they want (within the confines of their parents rules), but a strange thing often happens midway through the summer: kids get bored.
Camp is there to spice things up a bit. Instead of sitting inside playing video games all day, kids can have the opportunity to ride a zip line, go rock climbing, ride a horse, play paintball, and so many other things.
The most important part of camp for a kid, though, is the opportunity to just get away from home for a week, meet some new people, make new friends, and learn something about themselves.
Sometimes kids have a rough life at home. I've had campers that were registered by an aunt or uncle or other relative because their parents are just bad at parenting. Legally, there's nothing the other relative can do, but they can send them to camp. It's a really small thing, but the one week is, if nothing else, a week away from all the stress and where they can really be a kid.
Older campers often make lasting friendships with their counselors as well. I still remain in contact with a lot of my high school campers, and it is so awesome whenever I hear back from one of them after a while and they tell me about how school is going, how their family is doing, and how excited they are to come back to camp.
So basically, what I'm saying is camp is awesome, and it is really easy to to do a Google search of camps in your state. Some camps are really affordable, others are really expensive, but some camps will offer scholarships for campers that can't entirely afford it.
I've seen camp change lives and my life has been changed by camp. It is a great resource for people of all ages.
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