One my more recent spontaneous decisions that I made was to apply to work at a summer camp in America. It was not something I had ever considered doing but one day at the beginning of May I decided it was what I wanted to do with my summer. Obviously with it being so late on in the year to be applying and with it being so close to the camps beginning for the summer, I had limited choice on how to go through the application process. I couldn’t go through the more well known agencies such as ‘Camp America’ and ‘Americamp’ as their applications had closed for 2017 but I managed to find a company called ‘BUNAC’ who I was able to apply through. I couldn’t have asked for a better service so would highly recommend them to anyone considering camp!
Within the next month I got my visa and found out I would be Lake Staff at Indian and Forest Acres Camp in Fryeburg, Maine. I jetted off to Boston on the 7th of June to begin my adventure! The first two weeks involved setting everything up, being trained, familiarising ourselves with the camps traditions and getting to know eachother before the children arrived. Throughout these induction weeks the Lovewell (lake) staff got to go to the lake everyday and do all the watersports ourselves. On the final day before the kids arrived we carried out a tradition that apparently happens every year. We rented 30 canoes (three people to a canoe) and used our life jackets to tie them all together and spent the day floating down the Saco River, stopping at numerous beaches on the way. We were prepared and developed a systematic approach to the drinking strategy for the day. 20% water, 80% bevs.
Once the kids arrived they were assigned their cabin and the counsellors found out who we would be living with. Our job as counsellors was to essentially play the role of parents to the children for the next seven weeks. The age range at camp was 7-16 and I was placed in the junior unit so the girls in my cabin were among the youngest. It’s so strange how you can develop such a close bond with people you have never met and I can honestly say I felt like the girls were my children for the summer.
Indian and Forest Acres is a very old camp, coming into its 95th year, which naturally means it is full of traditions. I thought some of these traditions were odd at first but by the end of the summer I had fully come to appreciate them. The links below give a taste of what life was like at camp.
https://vimeo.com/226311311 https://vimeo.com/229915789
On a typical day my routine would be to go to the lake in the morning, drive the boats whilst teaching the children how to water-ski and wakeboard. We would go back for lunch and then in the afternoon we would be teaching the kids how to sail, kayaking and paddle board.
I had no travel plans for after camp before going but my flight home was three weeks after camp had ended. The friendship group that I had made decided to plan a road trip down the east coast.
We started off in Boston, Massachusetts, making our way down to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania then on to Washington D.C. After this we went to Miami, Florida. We then started to make our way back up North to Wayne, New Jersey, stopping off at Orlando for some fun at Universal Studios, eventually ending up in New York City to finish our trip.
I cannot recommend considering going to America to work at a summer camp enough! It was such an amazing experience and as cliché as it sounds, you really do make friends for life!
Rebecca Reid is a Final Year Communication Management and Public Relations Student at Ulster University. She can be contacted on Twitter @Rebecca12reid and on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-reid-64b580153/