Small Agency Network

Good afternoon, Small Agency Network - Excited to see how this new group will flourish and connect professionals! I am in the midst of all things summer camp. Looking to connect with others who directly plan, hire, and organize summer camp. For reference, I hire a camp lead, and assistant (if able), plus support camp staff to run an 8-week 1/2 day summer camp. 12-4 pm. The local school district gave us access to the gym of a grade school and a large outdoor space to operate in, no classrooms, no additional tools. Looking to see how others implement groups, daily activities, and keep camp fresh for those who might be attending year after year. Ages K-5th grade. I work directly with our camp lead to run day-to-day operations. Any tips, tricks, or people looking to connect, please reach out! Our community is 10,000. Our department has 4 full-time staff. We function solely on hiring seasonal staff to help run this program. 

Thank you in advance for your time and input! I look forward to meeting more professionals! 

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Trista Taylor, CPRP, CPO
Deputy Parks & Recreation Director
Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Department
(608) 839-8968
tctaylor@villageofcottagegrove.gov
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Hi Trista, 

I oversee our youth and family programs in Exeter, NH including our summer camp which serves over 300 kids each summer. Out town is just shy of 16,000 and our year round staff includes 4.5 people in the office and 2 in the parks. I hire and train a seasonal team of around 40 for our summer camp. We operate our camp in our largest park which includes fields (soccer and softball), tennis/pickleball courts, basketball courts, a playground, and our outdoor pool. We just moved into our new community center which is now also located on the property. We will have some space to use indoors but we also rely on the school for gymnasium space when we have rainy weather. Happy to connect about camp!

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Caroline Neel CPRP
Recreation Coordinator
Exeter Park & Recreation Dept
Exeter NH
(603) 773-6153
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Hi Trista,

I would love to connect as well! I oversee our youth programs and summer camps in Fairfax City, VA. My responsibilities include everything related to summer camp -from interviewing, hiring, and staff orientation to planning field trips and managing any injuries or health concerns (last year we navigated HFMD!).

We offer two options for our community: a traditional camp for ages 4 – 17, and specialty camps where we partner with vendors who run their own programs with their own staff. We provide the space, handle registration, and take care of advertising on our end.

I'm fortunate to have stepped into a role where the team already operates like a well oiled machine, so I've been able to focus on adding my own ideas and experience. We're also a smaller community, so our partnerships with local schools have been incredibly helpful.

Our traditional camp staff are fantastic (also seasonal), they bring a lot of creativity to the program by developing themes, games, and activities that make camp really special for the kids. One thing that has helped me is keeping track of past field trips and activities, along with collecting evaluations from parents, staff, and especially campers. Their feedback plays a huge role in shaping future summers. Since we have many returning campers and staff, I try to keep things fresh by mixing in new experiences each year.

I hope this is helpful, and I'd be happy to connect further. Good luck!

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Aster Minehart
Assistant Recreation Manager
Fairfax City Parks and Recreation Department
Fairfax VA
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Hello!  I used to run the summer camp and are a similar population size.  That's tough you don't have classroom access.  I would always try to get all my staff hired before summer started so I could do a training and then we would brainstorm themes for each week.  From there, we could figure out activities.  Some things you can easily recycle/adapt to different themes.  For example one of my favorites was Build an Animal.  We would learn about a different environment or animal depending on what our theme was that week and then the kids would create an animal/creature (didn't have to be real, they loved it when you told them it could poop glitter and eat donuts or whatever).  You can even use it multiple times in one theme week so if your theme is oceans, you could learn about how whales survive and then the kids can make their own whales.  Then the next day, how are crabs specialized to survive, and make their own crabs, etc.  I would usually have them work in groups and give them a giant piece of paper and then they come up front and explain their animal to the group at the end.  

Another good one is create you own (whatever the theme is that week).  We did medieval one week and we had a bunch of toilet and paper towel rolls, cardboard, and other random craft stuff and they got to build their own castles.  We watched a video about castles before so they knew about different parts of a castle and they spent so much time on it!  Those kind of activities are great when you need filler because you can have them run as long as you want.  

For outside, bug tracker journals are fun, they can create the journals first and then keep a diary of bug hunts.  This a good way to teach them that bugs aren't scary and are a part of the ecosystem.  And another good occupier because it's something they have to look for.  You can have your staff use iNaturalist too. 

And this website is a treasure trove of activities Summer Camp Activities for Kids of all Ages - Ultimate Camp Resource

Ultimate Camp Resource		remove preview
Summer Camp Activities for Kids of all Ages - Ultimate Camp Resource Here is the first place to start for your camp activities planning! You'll find all the resources you need to plan a successful summer camp or youth program View this on Ultimate Camp Resource >

 

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Jenni Remillard
60+ Activity Center Supervisor
Newport Parks and Recreation
Newport Oregon
541 265 4859
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Hi all, excited for this group and this discussion.  We also are a small park program in north central WV, we are planning for our 7-week full day summer camp program now to include 60-65 children.  Our goal is to bring fun and creative camp programming to a community experiencing financial insecurities; thus, our camps are mostly funding by citizens and not a revenue coverage model. As such, we have a limited budget but have been successful connecting with the local community for both financial support/sponsorship/grants as well as supporting curriculum.  The following agencies have partnered with us to lead age-appropriate learning and activities for several of our days:

Department of Forestry, Wildlife Education, Coopers Rock Naturalist/Park Ranger (State Parks), Fairmont State Athletics, Youth Science Center, Local school teachers, Humane Society, Environmental Protection, Fire Department, National Guard, Wildlife Rescue, EMS/911.

We have found great success in reaching out to state and local groups to help support our program which is run by myself, another full-time staff as well as p/t help. Most state agencies have programming already developed and available and are willing to come to us for free.  While I and the other full-time staff are also running various other programs throughout the summer; our focus isn't only on camps, we also have some evening and weekend programming offerings for both children and adults as well as Friday night and occasional Saturday night movies throughout our park system.   

I am happy to chat about what we are doing and would love to hear what others are doing for programming and lessons learned. I am especially curious about how small park systems are approaching our special needs community and providing opportunities for children on the spectrum or with other special abilities.  Thanks everyone!

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Kim Malejko CPRP
Director
Harrison County Parks and Recreation
Clarksburg WV
(304) 669-0637
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As much as summer camp is the cause for most of my gray hair, I love to talk any and all things camp. Been in the sandbox for 25 years and happy to share, help, listen to any and all camp related topics you might need help with. 

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Chad Norton
Deputy Director
Wellesley Recreation Department
Wellesley MA
(781) 235-2370
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We offer a 7 week full day "care camp" at our local elem school and have very limited field trip opportunities on our lil island, so we started to consider how to bring the field trip to the kids.  We started asking our contracted camp and program instructors if they would consider coming to our camp and running a unit on whatever their specialty is. The favorite so far has been the circus camp team - they come to teach a one week half day camp in the morning, and spend the afternoon working in small groups with our campers.  We have had a musician come and make instruments and then teach the kids how to play them, once a week, over the course of the summer, as well as artists and a pottery collective. I really love Kim's ideas on this thread as well, and will be passing them along to the camp staff. I'm happy to connect you with our rec manager who oversees all things camp if you'd like!

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Kerry Jack
Director
San Juan Island Park & Rec Dist
Friday Harbor WA
(360) 378-4953
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Hi Trista, 

I am in the midst of hiring our staff and getting together the themes and schedules for each week. We do a 7-week completely outdoor, 9-3 camp; we serve around 150 campers each summer. We live in a community that has about 6,000 residence and a 2-mile radius, BUT we get a lot of people from the surrounding townships. We operate with 2.5 people in our parks and Rec and I just hired 4 people for our "lead" camp staff. 

I would love to connect with you and everyone in this chain to bounce ideas off of and learn from the best!

Lorelie Hoover

Recreation Coordinator and Camp Director 

The Borough of Quakertown

267-370-0285

lhoover@quakertown.org

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Lorelie Hoover
Recreation Coordinator
Borough of Quakertown Parks and Recreation
Quakertown PA
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