I Don’t Want to Go Home: An Informal Research Study On Why People Work Summer Camp Staff
Sarah Ross
If you have ever staffed a summer camp, you have probably been asked in a bewildered tone why you would want to staff a summer camp. The people that get it, get it and the people that don’t, don’t. This blog post is to provide an explanation to the people that don’t get it. Or perhaps this will give you the final push that you needed to send out that staff application for the summer.
Camp Staff Photo - Submitted Anonymously via Survey
First, a little bit about my own experience with summer camps. I attended a Girl Scout camp for a few summers as a kid. I absolutely loved it and so badly wanted to be a camp counselor when I got older. The summer of 2018 I staffed a two week theater day camp (I know, not very granola girl™ of me). This allowed me to dip my toe in the water without committing a whole summer to it and without needing to leave the comfort of sleeping in my own bed at night. I loved it and it inspired me to staff a whole summer of resident camp. I joined the Boy Scouts of America in February of 2019 when they opened their Scouts BSA program to girls and almost immediately filled out an application to staff a BSA camp. I worked at Camp Thunderbird that summer and had a great time. I took time off camp staffing for a couple years because of COVID and traveling, but by fall of 2021 I was really missing camp life. I applied to work at Camp Parsons (a BSA camp) for the Summer of 2022 because I had spent some time there in the off-season as a Scout and it is near the camp that I had attended as a Girl Scout. I fully intended to only work this job one summer and spend the following summers on internships and jobs that would prepare me for my career. However, camp life is not something that can be easily given up. I submitted my application over a month ago to staff again this summer.
Me (second from the right) being silly goofy with some staff members on a crew bonding field trip
While I know why I worked and continue to work camp staff, I was curious to see if other people had the same reasons I did. So I conducted a survey by reaching out to different outdoorsy communities I have. In total the survey had 41 responses from camp staff across the country. I asked people how many years they worked, why they initially applied to staff, why they did or did not staff again, their best camp memory, their worst camp memory, and the most important lesson they learned from staffing. Here are the commonalities I saw in the responses:
1. More than 75% of respondents had staffed more than one summer. Camp life keeps you coming back!
2. People initially apply to staff because they had a good experience as a camper, it seemed fun, someone recommended it, or they just wanted to get away from home (often a combination of these things).
3. People return because of their friendships, passion for teaching youth, getting to be your silly goofy self, and because camp feels like home.
4. People don’t return to camp because it is a big time commitment, they had a bad experience with upper management, and the pay is too low (it is basically criminal how little we are paid).
5. Best camp memories are often making the best of bad situations or are truly touching moments (and some are just about booling). A lot of these submissions made me smile and some made me emotional. Here are some of my favorites:
“Running around the parade field with my best friend and tent mate while it was pouring rain trying to splash each other with puddles.”
“All of the staff, on the last night of the summer, sang a song together and it was magical.”
“Seeing a pretty quiet kid in my class that we taught archery coming back as Launch (our [counselor in training or junior counselor] program) so he could work with us. He's an amazing staff member today and a good friend. It reminds me everyday that with every single person, you have a chance to completely change their lives and they are the future of my camp.”
“I was a troop guide one year and my [group of campers] was difficult and one day they took the storming stage of team development to the next level so I jumped in with conflict resolution and as I did it I explained what I was doing so they could use it the rest of the week and by the time the end of the week came around they proved that they learned everything and I was bawling bc I didn’t think they actually cared but they did.”
“Days off shenanigans” - enough said.
PFD Man (typically used to demonstrate improper PFD use) - Submitted Anonymously via Survey
6. Worst camp memories are often harassment, being overworked, or getting sick (camp staff often experience similar phenomena to frat flu).
7. Most frequent lessons learned are how to stay calm in a crisis, the importance of a positive outlook, if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life, be flexible, and be kind to yourself and others. I can personally attest to all of these.
An Evening Campfire (one of my favorite parts of camp) - Submitted Anonymously via Survey
The final question I asked on the survey was “anything else you feel is important to mention about your camp experience?” I have summarized these responses into a TLDR for this blog post: Camp staff is family, it will be the best and worst times of your life, and if you don’t have plans this summer, apply to camp staff.
