Seeing your campers outside of camp

[Dave]

Well, maybe you'll see them again and find out--that'd be cool. I don't see campers ever :( since I live 7 hrs. from camp.
Maybe, although I've never seen him around here before so I don't get why he would be now. Well, I'll keep my eye out...

[code3cadet]

I just saw one of the campers at Disney World. about two weeks a go. It was so cool one of my campers came up to me and gave me a big hug and told me that he can not wait for me to be his staff for this summer. :-( I will not be there this summer

[CAMPFRIEND]

Well you can start at a new camp. Who knows who you will see!

[Dave]

I just saw one of the campers at disney world. about two weeks a go. It was so cool the youth came up to me and gave me a big hug and tald me that he can not wait for me to be his staff for this summer. :-( I will not be there this summer
Sorry to hear that code3. :( Welcome back to the site though! :D

[code3cadet]

Looking for another camp to go to over on the east coast if any one knows of any

[collissimon]

Why can't you go back to that camp code3? What kind of camp are you after?

[Indigo]

I run into campers now and then around town. A couple of my former campers live very close to me, so it's not hard. Two of my recently graduated AWITs even came trick-or-treating to my house on Halloween! I always keep an eye out for camp people when I go out, and I'm always thrilled to see them and find out how they're doing!

[camper]

i just saw my campers last weekend at a bat mitzvah, it was a blast!

[code3cadet]

Why can't you go back to that camp code3? What kind of camp are you after?


I do not want to work at a rich kids camp. I love the kids but it is not for me. I work at walt disney world and I would like some camp that is on the east side of the states. so when I get the job on the ship I will not have to fly 5 hours to get back.

[collissimon]

That makes sense. There are a lot of camps on the east side of the US aren't there?

[Sparkes]

There's thousands of east coast camps. New York, and Mass are full of them, though a lot of camps in MA (including the one I'm at) are for rich kids.

[katy007]

omg i always see my campers! its soooo much fun! they will just come from behind me and yell froggie!! (camp name) and give me a big hug! it makes me feel really good that they remember me!

[camper]

how about we use the term "kids from affluent families" or something like it instead of "rich kids" lol b/c after all, its not really the KIDS who are rich, it's their parents...usually i don't mind the term, but i just decided right now that for some reason it sounds negative to me and 99% of our campers are great and their money is not an issue!

sidenote: i don't really care that much, i'm not one of those who is going to start a big thing, but i know that i have 1 or 2 campers who get REALLY angry whenever someone mentions that they are "loaded" or "rich" or "jappy" b/c thats not how they want to be known.

thanks for listening to my rant! lol.

[collissimon]

katy007, that's soo cool! I'm really jealous! I really wish I could see my campers during the offseason, but I don't think it's really viable that they would come over the Britain!

camper, I know that some kids don't want to be known by their wealth, but they are clearly affected by the amount of money their parents earn: if they couldn't go to a 'rich kids' camp if they couldn't afford the fees, which I think it where this discussion has been going rather than discussing the campers individual economic situations. I don't suppose low income families want to be referred to as poor kids either, but they have a lot less choice in the matter.

Have you thought about a YMCA camp cadet?

[camper]

haha oh collissimon i know...and i really don't care that much i'm just throwing it out keeping those few kids in mind who really don't like when people refer to them by their wealth...the 8 and 9 year old little kids at my camp don't even realize how much money their families have, they just think that everyone lives the way they do!

[Melk]

Does anyone else's camp discourage seeing campers out side of camp. Mine does. There are ways around it though.... like I work at the YMCA where we get a lot of our campers from and I will see them when they come for free swim. Or my brother is still a camper and he will have camp friends around all the time. But as far as that goes we arnt really saposed to talk/ see our campers out side of camp.

[runrachrunn]

Does anyone else's camp discourage seeing campers out side of camp. Mine does. There are ways around it though.... like I work at the YMCA where we get a lot of our campers from and I will see them when they come for free swim. Or my brother is still a camper and he will have camp friends around all the time. But as far as that goes we arnt really saposed to talk/ see our campers out side of camp.

Mel, what's the reason behind this?

I babysit for a bunch of my old campers, have tutored one or two, etc.
I believe that camp can make for an excellent relationship with a family/child.

[Melk]

child abuse. The YMCA makes us go threw child abuse training ever summer.

[KiwiCRB]

Haha I work at a restraunt in the town where a lot of the campers are from. Sometimes they come up the counter and yells Kiwi at me and then everyone at work calls me Kiwi for the rest of the night. Haha oh well, they know I love camp because I disapear all summer!

[Dave]

Well I finally saw a camper outside of camp and the JCC. As I was walking into Barnes & Noble he and his mother were walking out. I recognized him, but he wouldn't know me if he fell over me so I didn't bother saying hi.

[ArtisticEric]

Thats still cool though , I'm hoping to see my campers from this summer when I start going to school in New York City next year. My mom tells me every once in a while she sees people who remember from highschool productions and neither of us know who some of them are.

[Belay06]

Quite a few of the campers that come to my camp go to the middle school that is attached to my highschool, so i see them almost on a weekly basis haha. A few of the other ones go to the elementary schools associated with my high school so when the buses come they all come to the middle school and so i see them there too. The town i live in is pretty small so i see campers all of the time. What is really nice about seeing people from camp all of the time though is that i see camp staff just as much as i see campers! I don't mind it. The only bad thing is sometimes i don't remember campers because they weren't in my cabin, but they remember me. Oops!

We don't have a policy on seeing campers outside of camp if it is an accidental run in in a public area. We aren't suppose to plan time to see them though i don't think, and we can't give out our email addresses and aim names etc. I think theres something completely different when its accidently running into them at a restaurant, and emailing them telling them to meet you there for dinner. You shouldn't form personal relationships outside of camp, but running into them can always be fun!

[Dave]

Yeah saw a kid of mine from two summers ago at the bowling alley tonight with a birthday party. I didn't say hi though. That probably would've been a little creepy. I'm sure if he saw me though he would have said hi. Oh well.

[June Bug]

Unless we know the child before the summer starts, we're not allowed contact with campers outside of camp. Most of the kids don't understand that, and we have problems sometimes with the junior counselors especially, who want the kids to be their friends so much that they don't think sometimes. It can be frustrating for everyone, but the policy exists for a good reason.

[amnickel]

Hey Everyone~
I go to college in the same town as some of the campers so I see a couple of them every so often. Also at the state fair (I'm a counselor at 4-H camp) I saw alot of the kids.

[Indigo]

I see campers now and then, and sometimes they'll find my camp website and e-mail address. I don't initiate contact with them, but I'm glad to say hi and answer any questions they have. I keep all contact camp-appropriate and camp-related until they've passed the "camper" point (for example, my unit is the WITs, and once they pass their AWIT year/evaluation/test, they're no longer campers, and can be treated like staff members, which they often become in one form or another). I've never heard my camp's policy on contacting campers outside of camp, but I think my method of dealing with it is pretty good.

[Marzz]

I have seen campers outside of camp in random places like the mall or the grocery store or resturants, that's kind of fun.

I have had a few older campers show up on my doorstep unannounced, and that was NOT cool. One of them was suicidal and her home life was a mess and it really freaked me out. I had to report her home situation to the Council Office who in turn reported them to Child Protective Services. AHHHH!
Another one wrote me letters telling me about her abusive step-father. I had to report that one as well. Neither of those girls ever spoke to me again. They were really mad at me and it was hugely uncomfortable, but not only was I required by law to report what they told me, but they were much better off for having done so. Scary stuff.

With one exception, the only campers I have hung out with outside of camp have been CITs. Some of those girls have grown up to be very good friends of mine and I was excited as each one turned 18 so that we could "officially" be friends. The exception was a girl who lived very close by me and had a hard time just existing in the world. I became her "big sister" of sorts and not only kept her out of trouble, but helped her learn to deal with people in a more constructive way. Her family moved away suddenly and I never heard from her again.

When I was a kid I used to call camp to talk to counselors all the time. When camp was over, I'd call them at home. I even visted a few of them at work and at college. I kept in better touch with the counselors than I did the other campers. This of course, was LONG before email existed. Looking back, I wonder what they really thought about all of that. They were always really nice and would talk to me whenever I called, but to my recollection, none of them ever called me. I wonder how I would react now if I had a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds calling me all the time and showing up at my work. Even if they were awesome kids and not scary ones.

[Mouse...]

I live a good two and half hours from camp so I've never seen them outside of camp. I don't know how I would react if I did.

[Dave]

The past two days I've seen and spoken to two of my past campers at the bowling alley (where I work in the off-season). I saw one yesterday when his dad came up to order food at the snack bar. He said he knew me and told his dad I was his counselor. He even said I was a good counselor, I was nice, and he liked me. That was a little surprising considering how much he was getting in trouble last summer. So that was cool. I saw another camper today when he came up to order food. He was a little shy which was pretty funny. Anyway, I asked him if he was going back to camp again next summer and he said he was.

[happy_camper]

Hahah, i watch kid shows all the time if there is nothing else on. And if i'm ever home from school sick i watch nick jr. or endless episodes of Makeover/Wedding/Baby story.
__________________

Me too, Kiwi!


I see my campers occasionally outside camp, like at the mall and stuff. It's kind of fun.

[gabor85_hungary]

It's so funny to see how much rules you have in the land of liberty and freedom:)

I even made campers' meeting in my flat for the older generation (14-16yrs) one year ago. We really mean that camp is a great place to make long-lasting friendships, and as a leader I felt responsibility to contribute to this by showing them that they can be proactive and organize meetings any time in camp-off-season if they miss each other. And it worked becasue after my party they started organizing meetings on their own. (There has been two meetings /sleepover/ organized by campers since the summer of 06'.)

Maybe it's because Hungary is not a big country (about the size of Pennsylvania) and many campers are from the capital (Budapest). And in my camp the counselors grew up in the camp, so everybody knows them very well.

[pinescounselor]

I actually just saw one of my campers yesterday at church! I work at a Catholic camp so sometimes we'll see campers at our various churches or big diocese events.