A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Camp - 17c - STAFF STORIES

            One struggle I had was walking across a log over a stream or crevasse.   It was a phobia of mine.   I even had trouble walking across a bench just a foot off the ground.   One year the staff decided to make it their job to help me get over the phobia.   A staff person stood at one end of the log.   Another one would hold my hands helping me to look straight ahead and walk.   They made me do it several times.   I’d do o.k. for that moment, but at a later time, I sometimes had to get on all fours or hold someone’s hands to get across.  Natural “Lady of the Forest” right,  (my camp name)? 

Another memory I have is the staff sometimes complained that those who worked in other departments had the “better” job.  I’ll never forget a story Bill Gwyen, who was the Executive Director at Mt. Hermon Conference Center,  told the story about the housekeeping crew’s responsibilities were to clean everything in the cabins and on the porches.  The maintenance or landscaping crew was responsible to clean everything on the ground outside.  The housekeeping crew would sweep everything in the cabin and porch onto the grounds.   Maintenance was left with cleaning up the mess.   Amazing how creative we are!  

            We laughed at this story.   Yet, it was a challenge to prepare those on staff to do the best they could with the jobs they were assigned.  We designed the staff work schedule to have staff rotate into different departments two or three weeks in the summer.   This was very helpful for each person respecting the responsibilities of the different departments.

Often when staff saw the lead counselors and program staff at the pool or playing games on the meadow, they would sarcastically jibe, “and you call that work?”  When they rotated in as counselors, they realized the 24/7 responsibilities of being with the campers, preparing lessons and the challenges and long hours it entailed was no piece of cake.   It was also a good way for the program staff to appreciate those in the other departments.   They became more patient waiting for the requests they made to maintenance for supplies or help with setting up food service for different events or cleaning up after themselves in program areas—like spilled hot chocolate or popcorn all over the floor or setting up campfires, etc.   This turned out to be a helpful system to appreciate one another.