Camp America Staff Diaries

Alexandra Harkness
Harpenden, United Kingdom
Camp: Pierce Camp Birchmont, New Hampshire

	Camp America We've spent the last 38 years in the business of sending young people over the big pond for a summer of fun, sun, kids and camp - so trust us …we know a thing or two about this - we've been doing it a long time!
	Visit Website	View Jobs >

Summer at Camp Birchmont

Of course it is hard to typify what you can expect from your summer at camp as everyones experience is different and unique to them. Here is a flavour of mine..

Working on tennis meant that I was outside in the New Hampshire sunshine for nine periods of tennis a day. As a tennis and watersports focused camp, the standard was pretty high. It also meant that we had a large staff, which I think was one of the reasons why it was so much more fun than teaching something by yourself.

As a group we bonded very quickly. Before each period the head coach would instruct us on which exercises we were to do with the children. Normally we would all take a court each, and run forehands on court one, backhands on court two etc. The children were divided into groups according to ability and would practice each drill for around 10 minutes before moving onto the next court. A popular request was to end the period with a game of "jail" or "round the world"! Invitational tournament days were hosted at Birchmont where the stronger players would get the chance to play some real competitive tennis.

However, this experience was not exclusive to the "best" children, during colour war in the last part of camp everyone got the chance to compete on a level where they felt comfortable. Whenever I didn't have to teach a tennis period (hardly ever!) I went to activities with my bunk group.

I was placed with 9-10 year old girls who were all very energetic and amusing (whoever said that Americans don't understand humour is wrong!). This was also the group I helped look after in the mornings and evenings. The girls all slept in one big room whilst myself and my two co-counsellors made an adjoining counsellor room our home for 8 weeks. After breakfast we would spin the job wheel to determine which camper did which job before the first activity period (sweeping the floor, cleaning bathroom sinks etc). All meals were shared with my group also. Ahh, meals!

The food was fantastic but I got lucky because Birchmont is a top camp so the kids get what they pay for I guess. On an invitational trip to another camp, the lunch wasn't so pleasing! There were lots of special events organised for the children such as outdoor movies, trips to water parks, fireworks, water carnival, DJ socials, banquet, of course colour war and many more!

As staff we all felt very well looked after, we got one day off a week, two evenings and two rest hour periods to re-charge our batteries. There was always several staff buses running trips to places like Boston and Portsmouth and the nearby chinese restaurant, "westlake" aptly named because of its positioning west of the lake lol.

We also had two staff parties, one was a boat cruise with fireworks and the other at a nearby hotel with a buffet and DJ. After camp I was very lucky to stay at my american friends houses, firstly in Long Island and then on the upper east side in Manhatten (NY). It was great to just live and go out with them and not bother about touristy sights etc which are so often lacking in instrinic value (for me anyway).

Words cannot describe how much I miss camp and everybody I met there, it truly was one of the best times of my life and I cannot wait to return next year if they'll have me! DON'T THINK ABOUT DOING CAMP JUST GO FOR IT!

Menu
Camp America Information
News
Browse Camp America Jobs
Read Camp America Counselor Diaries
Experiences
Visit Camp America Website

	Camp America We've spent the last 38 years in the business of sending young people over the big pond for a summer of fun, sun, kids and camp - so trust us …we know a thing or two about this - we've been doing it a long time!
	Visit Website	View Jobs >