Seeking Counseling Staff for Summer 2016
It is impossible to
convey the importance of being a summer camp counselor in one post. The years I
have spent on the shores of YMCA camps offered me tremendous
opportunities for growth in my life. I am the person I am today because I
took a leap of faith and became a summer camp counselor.
Teaching children the
importance of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility ingrains those values
unto yourself. After 10 weeks of putting a group of children's needs before
your own, you will grow into a person who has a greater understanding of
what it means to be a citizen of the world. You create bonds with children whom
you may never see again, but who have made a spot in your heart that only they
can fill. Guiding children
will make you grow more as a person than you could at any other time.
There is a special sort
of magic that happens when you are in charge of someone else's most prized
possession for a week at a time. For 7 days you are there to keep those
children safe, happy and awestruck by your amazing skills at the archery range
or your lanyard creations. You become a role model that fills children with the knowledge
that they can accomplish great things. A trip to the top of the climbing
wall teaches campers to trust in others while they are on belay, to rely on
their cabin mates when they couldn't quite see that hand hold that was a bit to
the left, and to trust in themselves. Even if they do not make it to the top
their effort of getting their sneakers off the wood chips shows them that a small
step in the right direction can lead to big changes in their lives. All the
while as a counselor you are watching this magnificent metamorphosis and
realizing that your presence is letting all of these experiences come together
to help the world be better, one camper climbing the rock wall at a time.
Our world is better
because of summer camp, better because we teach campers how to speak to one
another face to face while sitting in the sun eating grapes, instead of through
a screen alone in their room. Summer camp lets campers jump into an ice cold
lake at 7:00 in the morning, lets them fling Jell-O at their friends
across a field, or lets them "smuggle" snacks out of the kitchen
while the program director is "asleep" on guard. It makes magic out
of sweeping, and adventures out of walks to the bath house. Its all amazing,
all at once, and there is so much more to it than that.
All of this is possible
if you choose to spend your summer at a YMCA resident camp. We choose to work
for others as opposed to serving ourselves. We choose to help children grow,
and in turn help the world grow into a more tolerant and peaceful world.
Working at a YMCA Camp brings you into a movement of thousands of people who
want to change the world, who want to give children new experiences, and
who are comfortable in a job in which lake showers are a regular
hobby.
The summer 2016
applications are now open, and if you are a creative and hardworking individual we
hope to see your application. Being a camp counselor is the most challenging
position you can take on, but I promise there is none more special, or more
rewarding.
