image from thereptilerainforest.com

We love to plan special events and guests! This summer, during Week 2, I am excited to announce that we will be visited by the Reptile Rainforest Roadshow. The show will include over 15 live animals, feeding demonstrations, baby reptiles, and even some animals that our campers and staff can touch! Cool!

From the Reptile Rainforest website:

The Reptile Rainforest Roadshow™ presents a unique opportunity for attendees to get up close and personal with various misunderstood creatures, such as lizards, turtles, frogs, scorpions, and of course, snakes – All in a safe, and controlled situation!

Which creatures will you be most excited to meet?

Marbles a photo by maplekeydaycamp on Flickr.

One of the things we love to do at camp is bring back some of those “lost” games that today’s kids aren’t as likely to know about.

Today, some of our boys learned to play some simple marble games during siesta. What fun!

LIT Liam & LIT Rory – Honorary Princesses

Being silly and weird isn’t just the campy thing to do. It isn’t just about having fun. It’s also about feeling comfortable with who you are, and sharing that feeling with the people around you.

When I hire new staff, part of the interview process is finding examples of how the candidate has created elements of fun in their everyday lives. How are they spreading happiness and laughter? It’s all about attitude. If you are too shy or embarrassed to let your silliness out, you miss out on a lot of fun.

These two LITs in the photo above are a great example. LITs work with a different group each week, and these two boys happened to be working with groups of girls when their counselors planned a princess party. A lot of 13-14 year old boys would have asked to join a different group for the day… not these guys! They made crowns and dressed up so that they could be princesses too, and enjoy the party alongside the campers. They had a great time – and the little girls loved it!

By having the confidence and positive outlook to say “yes” to silly situations, we generate our own fun. This is something I hope our campers will learn to do too.

Forgot your painting clothes? Wear a garbage bag!

Despite our best intentions and good planning, things don’t always go the way we want them to. It rains, we run out of blue paint, a staff member is sick, the science experiment doesn’t pop or fizz or whatever it’s supposed to do… so how do you handle it?

Being able to “roll with it” when things don’t go as planned is another one of those life skills that we embody every day at camp. It is one of the qualities we look for when we hire staff, and it’s a quality that we hope to teach our campers as well. What I love the most is that when we are able to bounce back when things don’t go our way, our creative problem solving really shines through. Some of our best camp traditions were originally created as a way of “fixing” something that went wrong!

Doing more with less is very important at MKDC. Not only is it common sense financially, it’s also environmentally responsible. All of our staff make an effort to use creativity and problem solving to avoid wasting resources or materials, and we encourage the same behavior with our campers.

For MKDC Staff, this means:

• Using our existing camp supplies & equipment in new, creative ways;
• Using technology to minimize the use of paper in our advertising and registration materials;
• Planning activities thoroughly to minimize waste;
• Investing in equipment and supplies that can be used in a variety of ways.

For MKDC campers, this means:

• Using recycled and “found” materials in art projects;
• Learning to conserve art materials such as paint;
• Treating equipment with respect to minimize replacements;
• Experiencing an active, fun-filled day without the need of expensive electronics!

It is important to me that everyone at Maple Key has a positive attitude towards new challenges. Without trying new things, it is impossible to move forward! For us as a staff, we know that pushing ourselves is how we will improve the quality of camp for our campers. We also know what an important life skill this is for our campers, and we do our best to create a supportive environment. At camp, accepting challenges looks like:

• Younger staff try leading activities for the first time;
• Older staff take on bigger challenges, like leading a training session or planning a colour war theme;
• Campers try new activities without fear;
• Both staff & campers experience speaking or performing in front of a group;
• No one says “I can’t.”

Another great staff quote:

“I was really proud with how I was able to help along quite a few campers in their social development. I was amazing to watch them grow socially day after day. Even the most nervous and shy camper was fully participating by the end of the week!! Its amazing what a caring, comforting and safe atmosphere will help to unravel!!!”

Take Care of Each Other

Taking care of each other is what camp is (and should) be really about. Camp needs to be a place where everyone feels safe and valued. MKDC’s staff take that responsibility very seriously, but at the same time it is something that we do very naturally.

I take huge pride in the way that our staff works together as a team, even as some individual team members change from year to year. As one of our staff said in their post-camp reflection:

“I was most proud of the staff on the days when one of us was obviously having an off day, and the way we could read each other without saying a word. We knew what had to get done, and did it without a second thought! (and then gave the other person a big hug)”

I believe that when our counselors feel well taken care of, then they are better prepared to take care of their campers. We have safety guidelines in place, of course, but the way we care for our campers goes far beyond rules and regulations.

• We get to know each of our campers personally, and keep track of their talents, interests, & favorite activities.
• We make sure that campers treat each other with empathy & compassion.
• We learn to recognize the subtle signs that someone is upset, angry, or not feeling well.
• No one gets left out, put down, or laughed at, at camp!

This past summer I spent my driving time listening to the audio book version of Delivering Happiness, by Zappos founder Tony Hsieh. Zappos, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a company that built its name by selling shoes over the internet.

Why, exactly, is a director of a small-town day camp reading about selling shoes over the internet?

Firstly, because it was recommended on another camp director’s blog, and that’s how I found out about it. But more importantly, it is not so much the story of internet commerce as it is about creating a unique company culture. Culture is something that every camp professional pays a lot of attention to. And just look at the title: Delivering Happiness. Doesn’t that sound like camp?

Without summarizing the entire book, (as others have already done this more thoroughly than I ever could) the heart of what makes Zappos tick is the “Core Values” – the shared beliefs that all functions in the company are built on. This concept really inspired me to examine our own values at MKDC.

Throughout the summer of 2010, my staff and I had ongoing conversations about what camp means to us, and what we felt were the most important lessons that we wanted our campers and staff to take away from their time at camp. What follows are the ten goals we boiled everything down to:

1. Take care of one another.
2. Accept challenges.
3. Do more with less.
4. Be flexible.
5. Be silly and a little weird.
6. Respect individuality.
7. Make healthy choices.
8. Create.
9. Grow and learn.
10. Build family spirit.

In 2011, and onward, these core values will play a key role in every aspect of camp, from programming to staff leadership. They will even become the framework which our staff training will be built on. Over the next few blog posts, I will explain each one in greater detail, and give some examples of how they will be implemented.