I worked for a summer camp in the USA called Grotonwood. Camp America is a visa agent that sponsors J-1 visas. You can find better information about Camp America elsewhere.
Grotonwood is a Christian camp and conference centre in the town of Groton, MA. They have been serving youth, adults with physical, developmental and intellectual disabilities, families, church communities and not-for-profit organisations.
The camp runs over 8 weeks, the first week being the wheelchair-specialised camp, then we have a 2:1 ratio and 4:1 ratio with adult campers. After week 4 Grotonwood welcomes youth overnight campers. Also, throughout the season we have day campers who stay at home at night.
I worked as an overnight adult and youth counsellor and learned a lot of things including:
- Behaviour management
- Caregiving
- Redirection
- Communication
- Leadership
- Teamworking
While the camp employs some qualified professionals such as residential nurses, none of the staff hired through Camp America are professional caregivers. But we all work together and gather what we have. It is an environment where broken and imperfect people try their best to serve the campers.
As a Christian camp, we host the worship session and message time every day in the chapel. I had an opportunity to play the keyboard and lead the message time. Though both of them were the first time, the camp environment encouraged me to step into it.
Working for the summer camp has been a challenging but rewarding experience. I got to meet people from Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia and Europe and we all went through the same experience. A lot of my friends will come back as staff next summer. If you wondered, why not give it a try?