“Komal” got her coveted summer job. Head counselor of Senior Village at Camp ALotofFun (“Camp ALF”). She wowed the director and owners and is ready to show up and help lead Camp ALF’s most senior campers. Komal has dreamed of this type of job after being a counselor and group leader for many summers at a prominent day camp in her hometown of Scarsdale, New York. She is a leader, an enthusiast of fun, and is highly creative at making up song mashups and parodies.

Komal is also a Jain Indian, believes in nonviolence, does not eat meat (or eggs), and meditates daily. She was the first of her generation born in the United States, and while some of her family are here with her, many relatives are in her home country of India. She’s proud of her ancestry, heritage, and religious customs. She’s thrilled to have grown up in the United States, though being here has not been without its challenges. Komal is used to people asking if there were actually cows walking around in the street in her hometown in India. People almost always hold up cheeseburgers and try to get her to take a bite: “Komal, trust me, you don’t know what you’re missing.” She’s used to grabbing a slice of watermelon and “ahhing” over its sweetness to divert attention away from the dreaded cheeseburger. While Komal is overwhelmingly excited to be at Camp ALF, she’s anxious about living at her first residential overnight camp.

We, the directors at Camp ALF, are excited to welcome Komal (and the rest of the staff) to camp. We have been preparing for this moment for months and have been eagerly awaiting everyone’s arrival through the camp gates. We have prepared a robust orientation that will set the tone for the summer. This marks the beginning of induction into that beautiful camp spirit and a warm welcome into the camp bubble.

Recognizing the Camp Bubble

For all who know, love, work, and attend (or have attended) sleepaway camps, there’s a common term for being at camp — existing in the camp “bubble.” The bubble is an affectionate way to highlight the camp environment as a sheltered, happy, carefree place in which kids can be kids and play without the concerns of the school year. The bubble is meant to allow all who pass through the camp gates to leave their cares behind, be authentically themselves (silly and uninhibited), and live with dear friends for the time spent there. For parents, the bubble is known as a fun, safe, secure, and inclusive place for their children to spend four to seven weeks away from home.

Yet, what does that actually mean to us as we welcome staff members for whom the bubble is a new concept — and importantly, for staff members who come from broadly different cultures than the campers (and us, in most cases)?

How do we:

• Describe the bubble?
• Highlight guardrails for the bubble?
• Communicate expectations for staff while at camp?
• Create an inclusive work environment?

Describing the Bubble

Several groups of people within the camp environment must be considered when evaluating and describing the bubble: 

• Directors
• Camp leadership
• Parents (and prospective parents)
• Staff (so-called “Cohorts”)

Each Cohort has a different hope for the bubble, though one common theme generally arises — create an idyllic home away from home for all who live in those bunks. 

Parents hope that their children leave their anxiety at home, make new friends, increase independence and confidence, and maybe ride a zip-line. Prospective parents, too, look for a place in which their children feel seen, heard, and encouraged while they’re not at home. Universally, the goal is to allow the kids to be authentically themselves.

As directors, you and your camp leadership underscore these bubble goals by: 

• Creating a safe and secure environment for camper expression
• Encouraging camper exploration of interests and friendships
• Hiring staff who support the camper experience

This is what sets the tone for the entire summer, such that if you were to visit any residential summer camp from June through August, you’d feel a special energy. The bubble begins as soon as directors open the gates for staff and camp leadership. And, running up to camper arrival, you work hard to ensure that you bring camp leadership and staff along for the journey — going so far as to have inaugural campfires with s’mores to remind all that we’re here to help create memories of a lifetime in the most secure and least judgmental environment.

Then there’s training you provide for your staff so they can understand what the camper experience should look like when campers arrive and live at Camp ALF. One of the keys is for them to learn the camp “vibe.” Not every camp has the same personality — it’s why many say there’s a camp for every child. Indeed, no camp is one-size-fits-all.

Given this background, camps meaningfully choose staff members and anoint camp leadership carefully to align with camp values, missions, and the type of vibe each camp is looking to achieve. The tricky part is how to welcome a staff person, like Komal, who comes from a different background than the campers and directors and other staff. Fortunately, there are practical guidelines for placing guardrails around achieving the bubble environment and sensitively communicating expectations to staff while creating an inclusive and safe summer home.

Bubble Guardrails

Keep in mind that the bubble is multilayered and, in some cases, can represent different things to campers and staff. Foundationally critical to creating any bubble is ensuring that you create an inclusive camp environment. Building and maintaining an inclusive environment, as we know, is a multichapter book (complete with plot twists and growth opportunities) that can change year to year depending on the staff group that is hired. At its base are the nonnegotiables — a safe and secure environment where kids can be kids. We embrace the bubble and welcome all into its fold by doing the following:

• Practice empathetic listening toward staff upon arrival.
  • Learn about staff’s home culture.
  • Listen to their experiences that brought them to your camp.
  • Tap into how they wish to grow during the summer.
• Encourage understanding of culture and values.
  • Use orientation ice-breakers.
  • Conduct interactive and engaging training about inclusion, allyship, and bias.
  • Emphasize a growth mindset at camp.
  • Hold safe roundtable discussion spaces for staff to express challenges.
  • Be upfront about the cultural values of the campers (and their parents).
  • Prep staff for how campers and parents show up.

For More Information

To learn more about creating safe, inclusive spaces at camp, read “Let’s Play Nicely: Eight Tips for Creating Safe Spaces at Camp” in the September/October 2023 issue of Camping Magazine (ACAcamps.org/article/camping-magazine/lets-play-nicely-eight-tips-creating-safe-spaces-camp).

Communicate Your Expectations of Staff and Set Proper Boundaries

With the backdrop of the preceding guardrails, the table is set to create boundaries and lay the foundation for proper behavior through the summer, predominantly within the bubble, and encompassing behavior outside of the camp gates. The goal here is to create clear expectations, to permit space (and grace) for staff to express themselves, and to continue to build upon an inclusive environment. 

Set the Bubble Tone

Here are some practical tips for setting the tone for your camp bubble.

Action Zones

Highlight action zones for communication with campers.

• Red action zones are nonnegotiable and can include:
  • proselytizing
  • debating religion/politics/culture/sex with campers (or fellow staff/leadership in front of campers)
  • judging others for their beliefs
  • poking fun at campers’ culture/socio-economic class

Note: Though not covered here, harassment, sexual-predator or abusive behavior, or other such criminal and illegal acts that are governed by law, are red zone issues that should be brought to the immediate attention of camp leadership and the authorities, as appropriate.

• Yellow action zones include the above and include gray-area actions.
• Green action zones tend to be the fun, silly, quirky bubble behavior.

Talking Points

Here are some important points to make clear to staff:

• Judgments are to be kept out of the bubble — “When in doubt, leave it out.”
• Staff are to be reminded that they are the adult in the bunk.
• You can appreciate staff cultural differences, and also require that staff leave explanations/discussions out of camp.
• Staff cannot be sources of information for campers on sex, religion, politics, or other hot zone issues. This is a hard boundary for parents, who should (and do) communicate with their children as they wish.

Safe Zones

Maintain an open gazebo policy. Keep the lines of communication open, safe, and nonjudgmental, and create safe zones for staff to “take a minute” should it be needed.

• A quiet place near the lake
• Campfire area
• Quietly on the bunk porch
• A shady tree in front of the bunk
• A private prayer or meditation spot

Expression of Uniqueness

Permit staff to express who they are:

• Permit wearing of cultural clothing, as appropriate and necessary.
• Create staff-specific swag to encourage community for staff.

Indeed, the road to welcoming and ensuring that both staff and campers feel the magic of the bubble is challenging. Komal’s journey may have some potholes as she gets used to living in an environment that may challenge her. Yet, with a warm and open welcome from camp directors and fellow staff, she will hopefully open her mind to a beautiful and friendly experience at Camp ALF. 

As a camp professional, you may feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable as you navigate these important matters. But take the journey — employ the steps that are authentic to your leadership, your camp values, and your camp’s vibe. Tap into the support of your fellow energetic and conscientious directors, your talented camp leadership, and enthusiastic staff to create the extraordinary summer environment you’re hoping for year after year. And enjoy the challenge of evolving your incredible director mindset to create the bubble we are all hoping that everyone will enjoy.

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Lauren Breitman Tanen is a highly collaborative diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), legal, and human resources thought leader and sounding partner with over 20 years of experience in building inclusive, fast-paced, and high-performing workplaces. Lauren designs and delivers DEIB training for directors, leaders, and staff on inclusion, employee morale, belonging, and allyship initiatives to drive positive, safe, and communicative environments. Lauren specializes in providing high-impact, practical, and effective advice in educational, residential, and day camping settings. She understands keenly the unique challenges presented to educators and regularly coaches community and camp leaders through challenging issues. By training, Lauren is a management-side employment lawyer and DEIB and employee relations expert. She has spent over a decade in-house at Shopify, Spotify, PVH (Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger parent company), and Action Network leading employment law, data privacy, employee and labor relations, and human resources teams.

Photos courtesy of Camp Fire Alaska's Rural Alaska Program, Anchorage, AK; Camp Aranzazu, Rockport, TX; Camp Howe, Goshen, MA; West End House Girls Camp, Parsonsfield, ME.