https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/making-mental-health-matter-camp

In 1987, I reported to camp for my first full summer as a counselor. The campers were to arrive only a few days later, but I was confident that I would have no trouble as a staff member with a cabin...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/video-games-camp-are-you-kidding-me

No, in fact, I'm completely serious. For the record, my 40-year career has been spent entirely within the camp, sports, and community center worlds, and has included positions as coach, athletic...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/parenting-trends-challenges-facing-youth-what-camp-professionals-need-know

In the middle of last summer, we received an update from our camp insurance agent about one of the biggest challenges facing camps in 2018 — camper and staff mental health issues. At that point in...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/did-you-know-update-your-knowledge

Staying abreast of health-related updates that impact camp practices is challenging but worth the effort, especially for readers who supervise staff providing care to campers and/or other staff. Here...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/sometimes-you-must-tell-campers-no

Whenever your job includes the supervision of campers there is an expectation that you will enforce the camp’s rules as well as its limits regarding camper behavior. As frontline staff, you will...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/interrupting-implicit-biases-camp

Did you know you’re walking around with a set of lenses that uniquely shape your understanding of the world? Implicit bias is the idea that we view the world through lenses that have been formed by...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/supporting-socially-awkward-camper

Singer Jimmy Buffett famously said, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” Working with children in challenging situations can be difficult, stressful, frustrating, and yes, extremely...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/pressure-pandemic-how-camp-staff-can-counter-harmful-parental-pushing

Loving, well-intentioned parents from all over the world are inadvertently applying unhealthy pressure — the kind that undermines young people’s creativity, motivation, emotional well-being, social...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/love-one-youre-self-care-camp

One of the common threads of this past year was the sheer amount of alone time most of us experienced. Even if you live in a full house like I do, the pace and variety of social experiences dropped...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/finding-inner-shine

I slip on my Birkenstocks and my toes feel a ghostly dust of sand from my last outing. I snatch my cornflower blue baseball cap, which has done nothing to help my face escape the sunny freckles that...