The sun shines as it comes up across the lake for the morning. It’s an early rise for everyone in the cabin as there is a day filled with activities. The overnight camp experience is one etched into a child’s memories for life.
Kids all across the United States get ready for summer vacation every year. While some spend their time at home, others are heading out to camps their parents have signed them up for.
The environment of summer camp is something that can be unique to a child, but to the staff, it is one that should help the children find themselves.
“One of the things that we do is we try to provide a safe environment,” says Mark Battig, executive director at Camp Crosley YMCA.
Camp Crosley, located in North Webster, Indiana, is a coed, overnight camp for kids 6-15 years old. According to Camp Crosley YMCA, the camp was founded in 1921 as a gift from Edmund Ball and Bertha Ball as a memorial to their son, Clinton Crosley Ball.
According to the American Camp Association, if a child that comes to camp has trauma, it can affect their sense of safety and attachment. It’s important to be reliable, available, predictable, and honest to provide a safe space for children with trauma from home or from a past experience.
Another aspect of a summer camp is a safe and comforting counseling staff. The camp counselors are who the kids will be around the most when spending their time at camp.
“The biggest thing for our staff is having that empathy, listening first to the camper, so we can understand and move forward from there,” Battig says.
The camper is the main focus of camp. If a child is scared or not comfortable around the counselor, their experience could be affected.
To help the children heal from trauma associated with adults and negative emotions, it is important for counselors to display positive emotional responses toward the kids, according to the American Camp Association.
The feelings of a child are an important part to think about to give the child a safe and welcoming space.
A camper at Camp Barakel and now camp counselor Lauren Metzger, sophomore architecture major, has been going to camp since fifth grade.
“I think it’s made me the person I am just because of how it’s defined how I want to live my life,” Lauren says.
A camp’s environment is not the only thing that can influence a child. The worry-free feeling for the child can help them learn life skills.
Battig says Camp Crosley tries to teach many skills to the kids like responsibility, self-confidence, one-on-one interactions with other people, and sportsmanship among others.
Whether it is a religious camp or not, these characteristics and life skills can be taught through different activities and social aspects of the camp.
“We have a counselor circle every day when the kids are in their morning chapel,” Lauren says. “That has really influenced me to just want to study the Bible more and know more.”
Camp is a place that allows kids to embrace learning without thinking about it. With the amount of activities the children do, each activity can have teaching aspects in it that the kids don’t notice.
“We’ll talk about how in order for this person to move on, they need support of those other individuals for them to move forward,” Battig says. “Especially on the Giant Swing, where in order for them to get up to the top, they have to get the help from all the other individuals from pulling on a rope in order for them to experience that full swing.”
The moments at camp can be impacted by different aspects of the space. Memories can even be made from the simplest things, and it can be magical for a camper.
One of Lauren’s favorite memories from camp was writing “cute little notes” and thank you notes for all of the people and staff at the camp.
According to the American Camp Association, lasting memories can be created by meaningful moments anytime and anywhere. The big part about camp experience is the way the moments happen and who they happen with. If campers do something for the first time, make friends, or go out of their comfort zone, they grow their skill set.
When it comes to camp, it can impact a child’s memory and behavior so much that it can influence who they want to be as adults and what they want to do as adults.
Lauren says dressing more modestly, worshiping, and reading her Bible have influenced how she wants to live and do things in her life. She dedicated everything she does to honor the things that camp has taught her.
To some campers, an easy-going environment and a no worry feeling can help them make career and adult choices in their lives that will forever impact them. The choices are all because of the magical feeling of summer camps.
“I am here because of my experience as a camper … because of [the camp] experience, and because of how camp impacted me, it brought me to be the executive director at a summer camp,” Battig says. “I personally know firsthand the impact of a change that can happen at camp, through relationships that are made not only with other campers but relationships … you have with the camp counselors.”
Sources: American Camp Association, Camp Crosley YMCA
