CAMP COUNSELLORS: Ideal Role Models
Outsiders may think that working at camp means playing games all day. Although a counsellor's job is usually fun, at times it can be difficult and demanding. It requires specialized qualifications and talents. Camp counsellors are skilled, fun-loving, caring young people who enthusiastically accept responsibility for a group of children twenty-fours hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of wind or weather.
Many counsellors are trained in first aid, CPR and lifesaving. Others are qualified swimmers, sailors, canoeists, kayakers, tennis players, mountain bikers, rock climbers or water skiers. Some are skilled in drama and the arts. All enjoy working with children.
Patience is essential. Part of a normal day for a camp counsellor could be spent crammed into a four-man nylon tent with a co-counsellor and seven canoe trippers playing countless card games to calm fears and prevent squabbles while a thunder storm passes.
A sense of humour is mandatory. When you discover, after twenty minutes of searching for two missing campers in every corner of the cabin and every outhouse in the vicinity, that the boys have been perched on the rafters above you the entire time with the full knowledge of every other mischief-maker in your group, it does not help to loose your temper!
Calm and courage in a crisis are occasionally required. Imagine leading a group of twelve-year old girls across a portage and discovering a rattlesnake curled in the sun in the middle of the path. It takes control and confidence to persuade the group to quietly proceed while making a safe detour around the reptile.
Boundless energy is needed despite limited time off and no opportunity to sleep till noon. Bright and early every morning, with a smile on his face, the counsellor serves cereal and scrambled eggs to his group and then proceeds with non-stop activity for the rest of the day. Counsellors are role models of health and fitness. Despite their packed schedule, some still manage to swim lengths and jog miles.
Imagination and creativity are always welcome. Campers love a counsellor who can spin a scary campfire yarn or suggest an original idea for a cabin skit using whatever is available for costumes and props.
Coping with a young camper who has wet his bed, monitoring the diet of a child with a peanut allergy or supporting a teen whose parents have just divorced are normal challenges in a camp counsellor's day. In a short time, an experienced counsellor creates a happy, co-operative, caring group of friends from a bunch of strangers. Her challenge may include integrating an only child who is accustomed to having her own way, a foreign camper who does not speak English or a new camper with none of the camping skills of the rest of the group. Counsellors assist timid, homesick campers to become more independent and confident. They teach skills that children can continue to enjoy in their leisure time in the years ahead.
The financial remuneration for a counsellor's job is sometimes nil in the case of a volunteer position, usually modest and rarely equivalent to what can be earned in an office or factory or on a construction site. But a counsellor's real reward is in knowing that he or she has had a lasting, positive influence on the lives of young campers. While providing a happy holiday for his young charges, the counsellor is able to work with friends old and new in a setting he loves- the great out of doors!
At the end of the summer, counsellors return home with a peeling nose despite constant applications of sunscreen, a body covered in mosquito bites, a trunk full of dirty laundry and a horde of happy memories. They also have honed valuable skills in living and working with people that will enhance a resume when the day comes that summers are no longer free for the worthwhile work of camp counselling and other work, for fifty weeks a year to pay the rent, is pursued instead.
By: Catherine Ross ~ President of the Society of Camp Directors, Executive Member of the Canadian Camping Association, former camp director, author of several camping books including Camp Counsellor...the best job in the world!
