Skill Development at Camp Camp offers a broad range of benefits to kids, from participating in outdoor activities, to being in nature, to making new friends. In providing these opportunities, camp also presents an environment for developing a wide variety of skills. While swimming or sailing, creating art or music, pitching a tent or navigating a challenge course, kids learn to problem-solve. Camps of all kinds provide a unique setting for learning it.

Being a Camp Counselor Teaches Life Skills High school and college can be stressful, no doubt, full of decisions about academics, job experience, and careers. And the pressure is great. It comes from school and peers and parents, and is a huge factor in how young adults choose to spend their summers. Now more than ever, students are faced with questions about how to build a resume and how to prepare for the next step.  For some former counselors, now launched into the next step of their lives, there was no better place than to spend consecutive summers working with campers.

Top-notch Staff is Essential Every summer, thousands of parents put their children’s care into the hands of camp staff members. From day camps offering a single week of activities and instruction, to summer-long residential camps hosting kids for as many as eight weeks, Maine camps depend on their staff for providing an enriching – and fun – experience for children of all ages. Camp directors and leadership professionals agree that a top-notch staff is essential to providing quality camp programming.

The countdown is on for Maine camps. Their websites list the days, hours, even seconds, until opening day, when girls and boys from here and afar descend on the scores and scores of camps throughout the state. But while campers are still immersed in school and activities, camp directors are keeping their eyes on the weather and their to-do lists. Camp is a couple months away, and every moment counts. Matt Pines, director of Maine Teen Camp in Porter, says preparing for camp fills up every moment between the time the snow has melted and day campers arrive. “The earlier the snow is gone, the less stressful it is,” he says. The stress comes from a variety of issues. Is...

Homesickness, the feeling is different for different kids, but the discomfort can be profound. And it isn’t necessarily limited to campers; even camp staff can feel it.  But as parents and kids prepare for the camp experience, being mindful of homesickness and how to manage it is a key element for a successful summer. Last weekend, hundreds of camp administrators and staff gathered in Manchester, NH for the annual American Camp Association New England conference. One of the dozens of workshops offered focused exclusively on the issue of homesickness – its causes, its impact, and ways to manage it in ways that build resiliency and give kids reasons to feel a true sense of victory. Danny Kerr, director of Camp...

  Camps in Maine serve a vast range of purposes: building skills and community, creating lifelong friendships, plunging into nature and unplugging from technology. While each of those purposes can touch a child’s spiritual side, there are camps in Maine that purposefully seek to help kids look beyond themselves and into a world where God or a greater power plays a role. Here’s a look at three such camps. Pilgrim Lodge Take Pilgrim Lodge, located on the shores of Lake Cobbosseecontee in West Gardiner.  Started in 1925, the camp has stood in its current location since 1956, and is operated by the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ. Its philosophy is one of inclusion, and states in part that...

Every summer since 1994, law enforcement officers from around the state have exchanged their uniforms for shorts and t-shirts to spend a week in an unlikely role: camp counselors. Camp POSTCARD (Police Officers Striving To Create and Reinforce Dreams) was founded in a joint effort of the Maine Sheriffs Association, the Maine DARE Officers Association, and Volunteers of America Northern New England.  Its mission? To give 5th and 6th grade boys and girls in Maine a week of fun, a break from stressors, and a chance to see law enforcement in a different light.  The camp, offered free of charge, is entering its 24th summer, and will bring together more than 75 law enforcement officers and volunteers to host about...

  Across the state, camps of all kinds serve youngsters well into their teens.  But what happens when kids “age out” of camp, or when teens who’ve never been to camp want a new experience? Traditional CIT (counselor-in-training) programs exist, yes, but in addition to molding future counselors, many camps offer leadership training programs intended to teach skills useful for college, employment, a lifetime. Many of these programs foster an environment where youngsters’ leadership skills can emerge organically. Jessica Decke, director of the University of Maine 4-H Camp and Learning at Tanglewood, in Lincolnville, which has had a leadership program for several decades, says their program “allows natural leadership to come out.” “They realize they had it all along,” Decke...

With hopes of spring on folks’ minds, it’s actually time to start thinking about summer plans. For many families, those plans include camp. It may be a day camp or overnight camp, traditional or specialized; the state boasts nearly 200 summer camps. For parents and kids looking for different camp options, the Maine Summer Camps’ 8th annual camp fair will provide a fine opportunity. The fair, which will feature more than 70 camps, will be held on Sunday, March 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the East End Community School, 195 North Street, in Portland. Many of the camps in attendance offer financial assistance to eligible families. Ron Hall, executive director of Maine Summer Camps, a membership organization serving...

There is still lingering snow on the ground. A brief respite from the cold is forecasted to end this weekend.  The vernal equinox is still three weeks away. But for parents considering their kids’ summer vacations, it’s time to think ahead. For many youngsters, summer means camp – day camp, or sports or arts camp, or traditional residential camp. Thousands of kids from Maine and afar enroll in Maine camps, and camp directors say the experience has a broad range of benefits. From reducing screen time, to sharing Maine’s natural beauty, to teaching communication and collaboration, camp offers time and activities that complement learning activities of the academic year. Catriona Sangster is a director of Camp Wawenock, a traditional, residential...