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#128483 09/20/16 03:29 PM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,279
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marty Offline OP
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More than 3,000 posts
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,279
How was everyone's experience at camp in 2016?


PM me if you want to sign up for the camp buddies for this summmer.
marty #128484 09/25/16 01:53 PM
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 86
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50 to 100 posts
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 86
Hey Marty! I hope everyone's summer was amazing! I left for camp on May 29th and I worked at a different, more traditional camp. It was my first time working at an overnight camp. It started off perfect. Everyone was awesome, orientation week was amazing and the first 2 weeks (1st term) was probably one of the best weeks I've had at at camp!! I was with a great group of kids and everything was going great. Then we had a little break in between terms, the second term was 4 weeks, instead of 2. I was, sadly, moved up an age group to 10/11 year olds instead of my preferred age of 6-8 year olds(the age I've been working with my whole life). I was a little upset but at least it wasnt a completely huge jump and I was still in the same cabin as the younger kids so I went with it and boy did I have a horrible experience. I had 6 kids, 2 of which were border line angels but the other 4 were the Devil, Lucifer, himself. They were nice for the first couple of days then they started to get comfortable. I was growing tired and I had not worked with that age group so I tried to employ tactics that I used with my younger kids, to control behavior, but it did not work. I had to tough it out with them and it was not fun at all. I was tired all the time and they were rude and disrespectful. The times when it got out of control, I would bring a child to the director and they would not do anything at all. It seems as though they always sided with the kids because they had been at camp more years than me. They think that they know everything about these kids but they don't see what they are really like. I also began to have some problems with some staff members. They thought the way I would handle some problems with the kids was not age-appropriate, for example removing privileges was a big no-no whereas, in the camp I work at usually, that is the go to for bad behavior (it works almost every time!). They were very lenient with the kids and then they would wonder why they return to the bad behaviors. The younger kids in my cabin (not the ones in my group) were cool. I enjoyed getting to know them and if it wasn't for them, I would've left in the middle of the term. At the end of the term, I was trying to let the director know that I was not happy with the age group I was working in and I wanted to return to my original age group. He seemed to be ok with that and then when we received our assignments, of course, I was bumped up to the next cabin up to an older group!!! The internationals all of a sudden wanted to work with the younger ones to "try it out". And of course, because they are internationals, they matter more than I do. Nonetheless I was pissed off and I was tired of not being listened to. It seemed as though if you hadn't worked at the camp for 3 or more years or were not from another country, your preferences didn't matter. I felt as though I was "just there". I grew angry. I wound up leaving the day the kids left. I got permission to go to the lounge and find a flight that day, which I did and it actually wound up costing me money to work there. As soon as I booked the flight, I called up my regular camp and told them I was coming in to work there. When I got to camp there, I had probably the best time at camp ever! I loved every minute of that part of the summer!! So, a bad summer turned into a great experience. I learned a few things, as someone who wants to start their own camp. I learned that you should listen to other staff members and their preferences, you should actually help them instead of siding with people who have been their longer and finally, just LISTEN to your staff and kids. It made me so angry at how the directors would not LISTEN. There is a difference between listening and LISTENING. And there was one thing I also forgot to mention, that I learned and this is a more personal thing, I learned that my regular camp is my home and I am never leaving there again. I love all the kids and the staff, they LISTEN to us and it just feels like home there.

I cannot wait to hear from everyone else about all of your experiences and hopefully you all had a better one. I am happy with this summer, It ended up teaching me a lot. Just remember that, after the storm, comes the rainbow. Hope to hear from you all soon!!

-Nick


Most days, I cannot tell you what the date is but I can tell you how many days until camp starts!!

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