“Everything’s fun with Jeanna!” – Jr. Counselor Alex

Everything’s fun with Jeanna!

Sprouts Sr. Counselor & LIT Supervisor Natasha, aka Tash

Tash comes to us as a recent Teacher’s College graduate with a wealth of prior experience with children. In addition to her experiences within the school system, she has also worked as a child care provider & tutor, and has worked with a summer youth program for three years. Tash loves history & travel and is looking forward to teaching overseas in the fall. The sprouts & LITs are going to love spending their days with her!

Sr. Arts Counselor Emily "Emmet" Cameron

Hiring Emmet as our Sr Arts Counselor was somewhat of a no-brainer. If it’s related to the arts, she’s probably done it. In addition to having previous experience teaching visual & dramatic arts in a camp setting, she is also a singer and a playwright, plays the mandolin, and has even had experience as a radio host. She studied as a Child & Youth Worker at Saint Lawrence College and has experience working with children with special needs. I am SUPER excited to see what our arts majors will be learning this year.

Emmet and I met a year or two ago when we both performed in a local production of RENT, but this is her first year at camp. Welcome to MKDC, Emmet!

Shoots Jr. Counselor Lindsay

Lindsay is a new MKDC staff member who is currently attending college in the Occupational Therapy/Physiotherapy Assistant program. She is very athletic, with an interest in many sports, especially soccer & karate (in which she has her black belt!) She also loves baking, crafts, and playing with her baby cousin. Lindsay grew up spending her summers at camp, and so she recognizes first-hand the benefits of camp for a child. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to provide the same memorable experience for our campers this summer!

Welcome to MKDC, Lindsay!

Last week Ron and I were woken up at 2 am by loud knocking on our front door – apparently a 16 year old had been seen breaking into cars in our neighborhood, and the police came down our road in time to catch him rooting through our cars in the driveway.

Aside from the obvious shock of being startled awake in the middle of the night, and knowing that someone had violated our personal space in what I have always considered to be a VERY safe place to live, I was also disturbed to learn that the person who broke into our cars was also a neighbor – someone who lived not far down the road from us.

A sense of community is very important to me. It’s the reason I moved back home to Perth after living in Toronto for a few years. The “takes a village to raise a child” mentality is one of the main reasons I started camp. I think about my 16 year old junior counselors who work so hard to care for our campers, and what makes them different from the 16 year old who tried to steal from me. I think about my screening process for those staff. Most importantly, I think about our little “sprouts” campers at four and five years old. What are we doing for those kids, so that they will never find themselves in that position? This is a great motivational question for me as I look forward to Summer 2012.

“Camps that pull this off and make kids, especially teens, put away the makeup, stash the iPods, get a little dirty and even a little frustrated while having fun and making new friends, are the kinds of camps that offer children the best of what they need. Looking at those experiences from the vantage point of my research on resilience, I know that camps help our children develop great coping strategies when they provide seven things all children need:”

Read more about the seven things here.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a PLANNER. I love calendars and checklists and label makers. This love of organizing and colour coding has served me well as a camp director – making schedules and managing all those little details is something that comes very easily. So naturally, the idea of planning a wedding was never that scary to me. In fact it’s exciting! It’s an excuse to pull out all my binder dividers and coloured pens. It’s an excuse to spend $50 on totally necessary office supplies at Staples.

What I didn’t expect was just how much the NON-organizational aspects of camp would also help me plan the biggest party of my life.

The Theme

Apparently, according to Martha Stewart and the internet, your wedding should have a theme. Ok… so my wedding is like a Colour War. And during Colour War, everything is based on the theme: decor, costumes, food, and activities so everything works together. Well hey, no problem! We do this every day during the summer. (But don’t worry… we’re not having a pirate or Harry Potter wedding.)

The Guest Experience

When we plan programs and events for camp we always try to look at things from the camper’s perspective. What will they see? hear? feel? Taking the time to think about the wedding from our guests’ perspective helps to iron out the little details that will make a difference in their comfort level. And I’ve thought a little about behaviour management too. Ever seen what happens when you leave empty blocks of time in a schedule? (Answer: The momentum is gone. Plus, if you don’t give them something to do, they’ll find something. And it probably won’t be the thing you want them to do.) So at our wedding, there will be no leaving our guests to twiddle their thumbs!

Chris Thurber has written an excellent article on how to write about camp jobs on your resume. This is a great read for our previous staff, as it shows how to celebrate the importance of camp to non-camp people who might be reading your resume.

More than that though, it’s a good read for anyone applying to work at camp, or anywhere else for that matter. My favorite big ideas from this article:

• The wording you use can make a HUGE difference in how your job experience is perceived. Be professional, and don’t use “camp-specific” words that no one else will understand.
• Spelling and grammatical errors are not acceptable. Period. (I love this line: “Those who think that my little thought-train sounds harsh are the ones who won’t get choice jobs. It’s as simple as that.”) I agree. If you don’t care enough to proofread your resume, will you care about your job?
• Camp IS a “real job”. Another quote: “No responsibility rivals that of caring for children.” I understand this – I want to work with other people who understand it, too.