Written By: Anna Brady
It’s funny how different Summer Camp Counsellors are meant to be with certain cabins. Being a Camp Counsellor to any group of campers is the best job in the world, but once you do a summer in one cabin, you can’t imagine being with any other age group.
I’m a Camp Counsellor for Twinkies (the youngest group of campers). My group of campers typically consist of 5-9-year-olds girls and I absolutely love it. Sure, I may have to do more for the campers like tie their shoes, cut up their food, comfort their homesickness. They may wake up during the night, need more questions answered but I don’t mind. There’s so much more to being a Twinkie Camp Counsellor.
I like to create a warm and safe cabin for the Twinkie girls, many of whom are experiencing summer camp for the first time. I enjoy being the friendly face who wakes each of them up in the morning and tucks them in at night. I love reading stories, drawing pictures and playing games.
Making friends and learning new skills while feeling safe and happy away from their parents is an incredible accomplishment for a child. I feel proud and honoured to witness groups of young girls coming to summer camp and doing exactly that. They might need help tying their shoes on day one and maybe they miss their parents for the first couple of nights. But two weeks later when they are expert shoe tiers and don’t want to go home, I am bursting with pride.
In my two years as a Twinkie counsellor, I’ve been a ‘camp mom’ to 40 girls, ranging from 5 to 10 years old. Each camper has been amazing and unique in their own way. When they achieve something new and I see them running towards me to share their news, I smile from ear to ear because I know how hard they worked to achieve it, no matter how big or small. That’s why I love being a Twinkie Camp Counsellor. Every day is filled with new achievements. Each day is different to the last. And every day I’m lucky enough to witness these young girls bond together and grow as individuals.
There’s so much more to being a Twinkie counsellor. With every Twinkie I welcome to summer camp, I learn so much more and I get to grow as a person too. And for that, I have to say thank you to all of the wonderful young girls I’ve met over the last two summers. I can’t wait to meet the next group of 40 campers.
Anna is from the land of St Patrick in Ireland–and lives in the country’s capital, Dublin. She spent last summer experiencing Canadian summer camp for the first time where she was a camp counsellor at a camp in Northern Ontario (a privately owned camp in Temagami). If you have more questions for Anna, she can be reached at [email protected]