A Typical Day at Camp
Camp Sounds Great, but What Is a Typical Day Like?
The $1000 question! Well, let’s break it down a little so that we can get to the essentials. First of all, the camp day is a bit different based on whether you are a specialist or a counselor. So, let’s check out what a counselor’s day is like and then a specialist.
Counselors
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 7:45am | Breakfast/Cabin Cleanup |
| 9:00am | SIGS |
| 10:00am | Activity 1 |
| 11:00am | Free Swim |
| 12:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00pm | Rest Hour |
| 2:00pm | Activity 2 |
| 3:00pm | Activity 3 |
| 4:00pm | Electives |
| 5:00pm | Free Time |
| 6:00pm | Dinner |
| 7:00pm | Evening Activity |
| 8:00pm | Evening Activity |
| 9:00pm | Bedtime |
| 10:00pm - 1:00am | Counselor Time |
Bright and early we get our days started; reveille sounds at 7:15, followed by breakfast at 7:45. After breakfast you will head back to your bunk to lead a quick cabin clean up—turn up those speakers and have some fun! After making sure the bunk is clean, you will make your way to morning announcements, where you will find out everything that is going on that day: evening activities, special events, inter-camps, etc.
Then the fun really begins: you will spend the next two hours at two different activity periods, possibly playing baseball or tennis and then going swimming, or maybe you will spend the first hour in the woodshop and then play street hockey. You may have a third activity period or camper free time, which is a great time to grab your kids to go for a swim, play Frisbee golf or just hang out and play games. Following our free period is lunch.
Rest hour follows lunch; this is a great time to read, write letters home, or hang out with your campers and play cards or a board game. If you didn’t take a period off in the morning, then you will be able to take one in the afternoon. It’s important for you to have some time for yourself. Go for a run, work out in our fitness center, send emails, take a nap or make a phone call home—whatever you would like to do to help you feel great.
We have a combination of scheduled and choice activities in the afternoon. Following our afternoon activities, you will enjoy some down time to hang with campers. Counselors often will play catch, sit out on the front lawn, or hang out on their porch playing cards with their kids.
Dinner is served at 6:00. We eat buffet-style for every meal, allowing our chef to offer many choices to accommodate most types of dietary needs. Staff eat with campers at all of our meals, which is a great opportunity to chat with your kids and your opposite bunk about their day.
The evening always promises a different sort of excitement. Some nights you will be participating in a special event such as our Luau night or Halloween. Other nights might include a Scavenger Hunt, Dutch Auction, Mario Kart races, Iron Chef competition, or a game of Human Bingo. We also have a hobby night, when you might play guitar, tie-dye or go fishing.
After our evening programs finish up, it’s time to call it a day and put the kids to bed, anywhere between 8:30 and 10:00 PM. Once you put the kids to bed, you may hang out at our Counselors Kitchen (CK) and grab a snack, watch a movie, play ping-pong or foosball and, of course, chat with friends. We also have staff campfires regularly as well as basketball, volleyball and hockey games going on. Staff occasionally leave camp and go into some of the local towns at night as well. Then we get up and do it all again in the morning!
Specialists
A number of different people fall into this category, which includes just about anyone who teaches an activity or coaches a sport, as well as our outdoors staff. We’ll tour the day through the eyes of a lacrosse coach as an example. Up at 7:15, our coaches have breakfast at 7:45. Instead of heading back to the bunk for cleanup, though, they meet with the director of their area to learn their schedule for the day and discuss activities and plans. Your morning is going to be filled with teaching, coaching and playing. Balancing instruction with games, you will have two or three activity periods in the morning. Our specialists get time off too, so you may have your period off in the morning or afternoon.
As your morning winds down, you will have lunch. After lunch and rest hour, our SIG periods get going. SIG stands for Special Interest Group. It’s an hour-long period that campers sign up for. Kids may sign up for your lacrosse SIG where you are going to really work on some intense instruction. The kids in your SIG really want to learn about lacrosse; they may play at home and want to improve for the spring team. This is a chance for you to really shine as a coach, get in there and spark that fiery spirit!
Our campers have the opportunity to participate in a number of inter-camps during the summer. This gives them and you the opportunity to be involved in competitive games with other camps. Right after SIG, you may take a group of kids to one of the nearby camps to play. Inter-camps are a great way for you to teach the strategy of the game and to match your skills as a coach against some of the other coaches around the area.
Once you wrap up a day of coaching, you will return to the group of boys or girls you are living with. They are thrilled to see you, and in the evening you become like a third counselor, getting involved in our evening programs. Maybe you will play Capture the Flag to wrap up this day. In a way, our specialists get the best of both worlds. You are able to gain awesome coaching experience while sharing your knowledge and love of the game with all of camp. Then in the evening, you are able to hang out and have fun with your bunk, really having a full sleepaway camp experience.
Nurses, Cooks, Office Staff and Maintenance
Don’t worry; we didn’t forget about you. The role that each of you plays at camp is absolutely critical. However, your day is much different from that of our specialists or counselors. Please get in touch with us and we will give you the inside scoop!
