To have a summer of fun and happiness as a counselor, you need to ensure that your campers are having just as much fun and are just as happy. The best way to make sure both you and your campers are having an amazing summer is to connect with them. Here are ten ways to connect with campers that will help everyone have a summer to remember.
- Get To Know Them: Find out what your camper is passionate about or what makes them excited to be at Camp Starlight. Figuring out who they are and what they want out of their summer experience will help you ensure they have a great summer.
- Attend Their Activities: When you see them participate in sports and activities you see them achieve goals or you see how you can help them overcome a challenge. Watching your campers have fun shows that you’re interested in their happiness.
- Laugh With Them: Laughing with your campers at a joke or funny event helps you connect with them and make memories. Always finding a time in your day to laugh with your campers shows them you want to be with them.
- Use Your Imagination: Don’t be afraid to be silly with your campers or use your imagination to make a day more fun with them. Using your imagination allows your campers to see how much fun you can have together.
- Eat Meals Together: Meal time is an important time of the day that allows for campers to talk about their day, what made them happy or what made them not so happy. Spending that quality time together ensures a deeper connection as the summer goes on.
- Smile: When you smile more it is proven to improve your mood and therefore you are more approachable to your camper. Smiling helps you show to your campers that you are happy to be at camp with them.
- Ask Questions: Sometimes campers aren’t so vocal about their feelings or experiences so make sure you always ask them lots of questions and get to know how they are doing. Asking questions shows you’re interested in their wellbeing and your happiness at camp.
- Participate in Activities: Show your enthusiasm by participating in an evening activity with them or getting involved in their daily activities. Your participation shows you care and allows you to bond together.
- Show Support: Always cheer them on during games, celebrate their success and help them when they’ve fallen down. Showing support is how you connect with your camper and help them have an amazing summer.
- Take a Challenge Together: Whether it’s helping them overcome their fear of the water or helping them choreograph an amazing dance for an evening activity, taking a challenge with your camper allows you to bond with them whether you succeed or not.
Everyone remembers his or her first summer at camp. They remember the countdown until the big day, the careful packing and the butterflies as they arrive at camp. When you arrive at camp for the first time, you have many questions and uncertainties. You’re curious about the games you’ll play, the food you’ll eat, and how you’ll like sleeping in a cabin. But before the first day of camp is over, most campers are settling in and finding their groove. If you ask most campers about the things they wish they would have known before their first summer at Camp Starlight, this is what they would tell you:
A significant number of our counselors are campers who just can’t get enough of Camp Starlight. Some of our veteran camp counselors and staff members started out as wide-eyed, excited, first-time campers who fell in love with sleepaway camp. The camp experience is ingrained so deep into their life that there’s no place they’d rather spend their summer. Some can barely remember a summer that wasn’t spent at Camp Starlight, and they love it that way.
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect and think about all the amazing opportunities and qualities in your life you are grateful for and appreciate. A time spent with family, Thanksgiving reminds everyone to say what they are thankful for and to thank others for positively impacting their life. To celebrate this holiday, here are a few reasons campers are thankful for Camp Starlight.
It’s easy for children to think of their entire lives in the context of their “nucleus,”’ their home, their community, their school, their family, their friends. They typically have no need to seek beyond their immediate surroundings, and their perspective of the world is seen through a restrictive lens based on where they live and the things they’ve experienced. Attending a sleepaway camp gives children and teens a way to broaden their worldview, to see themselves as a small (yet important) part of the bigger picture. Camp Starlight gets campers out of their comfort zones and allow them to catch a glimpse of how much world they have to explore.
Team sports like baseball, basketball, flag football lacrosse, soccer, and softball bring campers together towards a common goal. These sports encourage campers to work together on the field or court, which then translates to working together in other areas of camp life too. Playing a team sport allows campers to connect with other campers whom they may not have met otherwise.
For many campers, Camp Starlight becomes a second home, a special place that welcomes you back every summer like family and supports you to be the best person you can be. Camp Starlight becomes a staple in many campers lives’ and for a few of them it becomes a home they never leave when they decide to return as counselors. When they left Camp Starlight they realized they didn’t want their last summer as a camper to be the last time they get to watch a sunset over the lake or sing a song around the campfire, they wanted to continue to live through those traditions. After spending eight summers as a camper that gets to experience all the playful fun of camp, campers will transition to the role of counselors to experience summer camp in a whole different way. Former Camper Counselors return to Camp Starlight so they can help campers live the same amazing summers that they once did. These counselors recognize that when they were campers, their own counselors were the ones to push them out of their comfort zone and pick them up every time they were down, helping them become the individuals they are today. This is why so many campers return to become counselors, they want to change lives the way their own lives were changed. They want to help a camper find their passion and make them realize that Camp Starlight is their home when they feel homesick. They want to help campers understand how special of a place Camp Starlight is and that the happiness they find here will guide them for the rest of their lives, but most of all, campers return as counselors because they want to spread the love they have received from every summer spent at Camp Starlight.
An iconic element of summer camp is the experience of sleeping in a bunk every night of the summer. Cozy wooden cabins house the campers for the entire summer and these bunks often times host the best memories a camper makes. What makes sleeping in a bunk one of the most fun aspects at Camp Starlight is that every night is a giant sleepover with your best friends. After all the evening activities are over, campers still have enough energy to get excited to return to their bunks. They know they get to slip into pajamas, climb into their beds and still have fun with their friends, whether they are just talking about the day or laughing and joking around with each other. It’s like every night is a pajama party and the fun doesn’t stop until you have to leave camp. In the bunk, no moment is ever dull. The campers get to share their thoughts from the day with each other and take the time to decompress as an entire bunk. The bunk helps these campers transform into a family, spending quality time with each other at the very start and the end of each day. As a family, they learn how to take care of each other, clean the bunk and work as a single unit to enjoy every single night of summer. Sleeping in a bunk every night is how the friendships these campers form throughout the summer are so strong because living together all summer encourages them to care for one another, support one another and love one another as a family.
When you think about why Camp Starlight is the best place to spend a summer, usually exciting memories from Olympics flash in your head or a relaxing moment watching an iconic summer sunset over the lake floods your thoughts. The moments that make the biggest impression are typically the most anticipated special events, the ones that make you bubble with energy and want to jump up and down with excitement. There is no denying that these big moments affect a camper’s summer experience, but what is different about Camp Starlight is that it’s actually the little things that impact a camper the most. There are many rules at Camp Starlight and one of the smallest ones is the ten feet rule which indicates that wherever you go, if there is someone within ten feet of you, you say hello. It is a very simple concept, just saying hi to someone if they are in ten feet of you and the rule is small, but the effect is massive in the best of ways. The ten feet rule encourages everyone at camp, regardless of what your job entails or who you work with, to be friendly and kind. When everyone at camp practices this rule it creates the most welcoming atmosphere to be in because everyone is so kind to one another. This rule helps friendships form between people who usually never cross paths due to their specialty or division and helps bridge the gap of unfamiliarity, giving everyone the chance to branch out and share positivity. This rule is what can make a camper’s summer so memorable because Camp Starlight is a place where everyone is friendly and eager to make a new friend. The ten feet rule is a small rule in retrospect, but when the results create the welcoming and warm atmosphere that makes a camper feel at home at Camp Starlight, it proves that it’s truly the little things that matter most.
When you spend eight summers of your life at the same summer camp, you get to reflect on all the magic you’ve experienced and memories you have made at a place that is so special and unlike anywhere else. At Camp Starlight, Upper Senior campers truly get to experience every single aspect of summer camp, transitioning from summer to summer with more responsibility and more fun. Upper Seniors get to see every angle of Camp Starlight and experience every special activity, they really do it all. However, when the last night of the last summer comes, it always arrives too quickly for these Upper Seniors. Reflecting back on every summer spent at Camp Starlight, here are the things that Upper Seniors will miss most about Camp Starlight when they have to say their final goodbye.