The Importance of Summer Camp

2011-10-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

I just read an article about the important role summer camp can play in a child’s life. Without a doubt, camp builds character, teaches lifelong skills, fosters independence and provides a safe, healthy environment where kids can play outside and be kids for a couple weeks each summer. Hands down, the best parts of my job are when I get to see all of this happening right in front of me.

I didn’t have the opportunity to come here as a camper. My first summer was the year after my freshman year of college, when I was hired as a staff member. I was 18, not particularly outdoorsy, and still kind of trying to figure out my place in the world. My first few nights were disastrous. In fact, the evening my dad dropped me off, I’m pretty sure I vowed never to speak to him again if he left me here. There were bugs, and bunk beds, and people I didn’t know, and I was certain I’d horribly miscalculated when I’d signed a contract to be here for the next 12 weeks. The whole first week or so was pretty much straight up torture.

Then the campers got here. Working with them, in my cabin and at the archery range, I felt an overwhelming sense of purpose. I saw so clearly how I was a part of something magical. Campers would show up at camp, each wearing their nervousness and insecurities like armor. There were criers, and tough guys, the painfully quiet and the overly boisterous. As the session progressed, the quiet ones came out of their shells, and the loud ones actually started listening to their peers. Friendships blossomed like spring flowers and the tears all dried up. Sure, there were occasional arguments, bruised egos and hurt feelings, but we worked through them. They played, laughed and learned together and when the time came to say goodbye it seemed like they’d known each other forever. The tears came back, brought on this time by the heartbreaking reality that the magic had to come to an end, at least until next summer.

It wasn’t until long after I said my own gut-wrenchingly painful goodbyes that first summer that I realized Camp Tockwogh had secretly been working that same magic on me. I was forever changed by that summer, in the very best ways imaginable. And here I sit, 14 years later, eternally grateful for my summers at camp, how they build my character, teach me lifelong skills, make me strong and independent and give me 3 months every summer to appreciate the joy of playing outside and being a kid.

What do you do all winter?

2011-10-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

The most frequently asked question I get after sharing with someone that I’m a Summer Camp Program Director is “What do you do all winter?” Though I’m sure I’m imagining it sometimes, I often read between the lines of that question an assumption that I must have it pretty easy from September through May. Couldn’t be further from the truth…

At Camp Tockwogh, we are busy all year round. As soon as the last summer camper leaves, our Family Campers show up. And after that, we dive into hosting groups, planning the budget for the coming year, reporting to the Board on how the summer went, interviewing and accepting the next summer’s LIT’s and CIT’s and preparing for staff interviews. And that’s all before Thanksgiving even gets here.

The winter months bring Winter Break Camp, trips all over the Mid-Atlantic to camp fairs and job fairs, interviewing hundreds of eager applicants, searching for international applicants online, putting together the 120-some piece puzzle that will be our Summer Staff, fulfilling our YMCA of Delaware responsibilities, updating programs for the coming camp season and touring new potential campers around a thawing Camp Tockwogh.

When Spring arrives, we start bringing all of the boats and equipment out of hibernation, re-open the waterfronts, hound staff to turn in their paperwork, host more groups, welcome our new and returning staff members, get the horses back from their winter homes and prepare for the official start to our summer, Memorial Day Family Camp.

And before we know it, the glorious days of summer have returned. Camp is alive and kicking with hundreds of people having the time of their lives, sailing and skiing out on the bay, relaxing on the beaches, playing in the fields, riding horses, climbing walls, learning new skills, building character, making friends and making memories.

And I wouldn’t change any of it. I have the best job in the world. All year round.

Down by the Bay

The Importance of Summer Camp

What do you do all winter?