Ever wondered what a day in the life of a Camp Counselor involves?
Hey! I’m Summer and I was a Camp Counselor in my two summers at camp. I spent a year working at French Woods Festival of Performing Arts in Upstate New York. French Woods is a specialist camp with all the traditional camp activities. Not only are there traditional activities but there are also four theatres, a circus and a magic department! Specifically, French Woods is a sleep-away camp, which means that campers spend the nights sleeping in cabins. There can be up to about fourteen children in each cabin.
Above all, summer camp is one of those places where you fully immerse yourself in a camp bubble. Every day is different and you’re always inspiring and influencing your campers. In addition to all of this, you get paid! You are also adding top skills to your CV. Ready to find out more? Keep reading below to find out what a typical day in the life of a Camp Counselor is like!
The first task of the day as a Camp Counselor is to get the kids up and excited for the day ahead! In order to do this, I and my co-counselors find that the best way to do this is to get some top tunes on. Getting them up and dancing is a great way to start the day. This motivates the kids for the day ahead.
The dancing doesn’t stop there either! Mealtimes at camp (breakfast included) are filled with singing, dancing and banging the tables. All of your typical table manners go out the window! If it’s someone’s birthday then the dining hall becomes a buzz of hundreds of campers and counselors singing, clapping and celebrating. It’s SO fun and one of the best parts of a day in the life of a camp counselor!
After breakfast and a quick cabin clean-up, it’s time to head to activities. At French Woods, the kids choose their own schedule made up of Majors and Minors. Major activities are things the kids would do every day and maybe work towards a project. These can be things like taking part in a musical, being part of a sports team or circus show. Minor activities are things that they chose every day such as activities like swimming, rock climbing or mountain biking.
This is where specialists counselors would head off to teach their activities. Now although you’re ‘teaching’ a skill, this doesn’t mean you’re cooped up in a classroom, you organise your activities any way you see fit! A typical day for myself is usually spent in the Theatre teaching Sound and Lighting skills. Getting kids to create crazy sound effects to use in performances often means heading around camp and looking at how we can record sound effects.
Every day you get a period off, which can be used to get stuck into all the activities. For instance, on a day I was feeling lazy, I could chill in the cabin or by the waterfront. The different activities on offer meant that you could learn a new skill or try something different every day! I tried everything camp had to offer, even daring to go on the flying trapeze in the circus!
After dinner and some chill time for kids and counselors, it’s time for evening activities! This is my favourite time of the day. Every evening is something different as well as a time to get stuck into activities.
We would spend our evenings watching shows and performances by the campers and taking part in games like Color Wars, Capture-the-flag and sing-a-longs. We also had ice cream socials, campfires and themed discos.
After evening activities, everyone is worn out from a busy day! At my camp, counselors work on a rota in the evenings. One counselor and a CIT (Counselor in Training) take care of the kids and settle them for the evening. The other two counselors are able to take the evening off. To sum it all up, one thing I loved about camp on my evenings off was sitting by the waterfront on warm summer evenings and watching the stars, I’d never seen so many it was absolutely spectacular.
Days at camp are active, exciting and busy. Every day is different but every day is fun! You’ll never find a summer job which pays you to have a great time more than being a camp counselor.
Do it, you won’t regret it! Click here to start your Camp Counselor application and experience being a Camp Counselor for yourself.