Counselors Pack for Summer Camp

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The sound of kids laughing as they run into the lake.  The wind through the pine trees as you drift off to sleep on your bunk.  Swapping riddles among a group of friends as you paddle a kayak. Whether you are headed to work at a summer camp for your 1^st or 40^th summer, take a moment to consider what is calling you to camp.

Summer camps can be as inspiring and engaging for the counselors as for the campers.  What do you want to get out of your camping experience?  To ensure you offer the campers your best as well as feel personally fulfilled, take a few minutes and jot down your answers to the following questions before you pack your trunk.

1. What will you do to be the best counselor possible?


Do you want to make time every night to ask each camper about his or her great moment for the day?  Or is your strength in recognizing and helping homesick campers having been there yourself?  Or perhaps you’re the high-energy counselor who can introduce five new games this summer. Pack your counselor goals in your trunk along with your shorts and you’ll be more likely to keep those aims top of mind.


2. What do you need to keep your balance this summer?


We all need balance when living with, supervising and instructing campers all summer.  Their young exuberance can be fabulous and refreshing or just downright fresh.  Decide how you are going to find space to keep a calm frame of mind. 
Perhaps you need to find time to take a run every other day, or finally work for your swimming honor or lead an overnight trip.  Think about your goals and keep yourself fulfilled so you can be that best counselor possible for your campers.


3. What can you bring to help you achieve both 1 and 2?

Finally, do you need to bring anything to fulfill your counselor and your personal ambitions?   Would a new pair of running shoes inspire you to stick to your running goal?  Is there a great book you want to pack to read to your campers this summer (Wee Free Men is a humorous read aloud for young teens—your campers may think you’re Scottish even if you’re from California). Do you have the best waders for going frogging?  Make room in your trunk.

When, oh so long from now, the last bugle echo recedes in August, stop again and think about the camp skills you have gained that are relevant for your college or employment career; more thoughts on that here: Counselors Benefit From Camp Too!

What are you packing for you and your campers this summer?

Time for Trunks!

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Baseball opening day coincides with opening trunks to prepare for summer overnight camp.  Now that spring training is well underway it’s time to locate your camp trunk.

Don’t have a trunk yet?  No worries— here are the basics for purchasing and alternatives to purchasing a trunk whether you are headed to Minnesota, Maine or Michigan.

For campers who spend more than 2 weeks at overnight camp, the most common container for packing is a camp trunk.  It’s strong, reasonably good for organization, able to double as a card table for a game of Peon and has provided many campers over the years a way to reach the cabin rafters.  If your child is likely to continue as a camper, then it’s probably worth investing in a trunk.  

Trunk considerations when purchasing

Strength

Look for one that is strong— trunks take all sorts of abuse not the least of which is in shipping.  From the time a trunk is packed until it returns late in the summer, it’s likely to encounter a plethora of immovable objects.  

The strength of the trunk is probably the primary characteristic in the price of a trunk.  Well-made trunks will cost more.  Sadly the converse is not always true, so ask for brand name recommendations from your camp.  Have a brand you recommend?  Add a comment to this blog.

Height

Most camps have standard height bunks and often campers store their trunks under the bunk. Find out the bunk height and trunk height before making your purchase.

Shelf or tray

Nearly all trunks come with a shelf or tray, which allows for great organization at camp whether as a place to keep socks and underwear or writing supplies.

Wheels

Wheels are a nice, but definitely not necessary option.  They are helpful when rolling a trunk in and out of an SUV, but apart from that, rolling a trunk across the ground from a car to a cabin is a very bumpy event— most camp trunks get carried to and from cabins, ideally by campers and counselors.

Handles

Handles seem to be the most often forgotten feature in camp trunks these days.  Having hauled many different trunks from office to cabin, I have lifted only a few where the handle didn’t bite into my hand or cause the trunk to twist uncomfortably.  As stated above, you can hope that your camper or his counselors will be carrying the trunk to the cabin.  If you do find a trunk with comfortable carrying handles pass the word on!

Alternatives to purchasing a trunk

With all of the airline restrictions in luggage, campers who are flying to camp often ship their belongings separately from their own travel.  

Some camps offer options for campers with long journeys. Check with your camp about the following two possibilities:

1. Renting or borrowing a trunk from camp for the summer.  This way a camper can pack in duffles or suitcases and transfer his or her belongings upon arrival.
2. Storing your camper’s trunk at camp over the winter.  Some camp store empty trunks for the winter, so belongings can be taken to and from camp in suitcases or other luggage more suitable to traveling by plane.  In addition, your camper, if organized, can leave summer-only items like flashlights, stationary, bedside photos or even a camp blanket in the trunk for the winter.

A Cabin in the Woods Wakes Up

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Lying half asleep on my cot, I hear the first stirrings of the day as the sunlight peeks into the cabin.  Those first rays of sun are accompanied by the chirping of birds, and soon followed by a cabin waking up.  Yes, truly, it seems as if the cabin themselves wake up each new day at summer camp.

First the rustling begins as campers move about half asleep on their cots.  A blanket slips onto the floor here, a sleeping bag doubling as a comforter swishes over there. Next comes the all out tossing and turning of campers, as one by one sleep drops from their eyes and their eyelids flutter open.  

Soon a book or a flashlight can be heard hitting the cabin floor with a thud as it is knocked from a cubby amid the restlessness. The clunk leads to a quiet giggle, which is accompanied by a whisper across the bunks and soon thereafter the quiet “thump, thump” of stuff animals being tossed from one bed to the next.

The giggles quickly compound and the chirping of the birds fades into the background as whispers and muffled giggles ping off the cabin walls.  A footfall on the wooden floor and the pitter-patter of small feet heading for the cabin door tap past my bedside as I keep my eyes closed, enjoying the sounds of a cabin coming awake.

As the cabin door creaks open, the reveille bell simultaneously rings out and the whispers quickly turn to happy voices and a cascade of laughter.

A cabin has awoken in the woods of Maine.