As an undergraduate student at UBC studying marine ecology, teaching kids about local, land-based food systems and their personal connections to agriculture was not exactly on my academic bucket list. However, as a life-long Girl Guide and summer camp attendee, as well as long time camp counsellor, Camp Fresh Roots feels like exactly where I am meant to be. When the opportunity arose for me to be a part of this organization, which champions community, environmentalism, and good, healthy food as a part of my degree, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of serendipity. Throughout the summer I have found my place at Fresh Roots, and learned that directing a summer camp requires a lot more than a love of camp (although that does help).
Over the last four months, the Fresh Roots community has made me feel incredibly welcome and supported as I learned the ropes, and began to take on greater responsibilities. When I first started, I was running programming on field trips to get a better sense of how to run classic Fresh Roots activities, and to learn about the physical farm space at all three sites. During that time, I was also focused on developing weekly schedules for the groups of campers who have joined us this summer, between both of the Camp Fresh Roots sites. In particular, I worked on developing higher-level learning goals for our oldest day campers, in addition to creating legacy projects for those campers to complete each year moving forward, aimed at strengthening the camp community and encouraging learning and engagement in our older, often returning, campers. Now that I am deputy chief of problem solving (officially, Day Camp Co-Director), making sure that the behind the scenes work of camp is done so that camp itself runs smoothly. My responsibilities throughout the week tend to change day-to-day, but in general look approximately like this:
Monday
The week always starts with the first check-in. This is my first opportunity to meet all of our campers, so it is kind of like a crash course in group dynamics. I get to see their excitement, and I am also one of the first to know if they are feeling nervous. This opportunity gives me a bit of a sense about how the week will go, particularly what the combined energy levels of the campers will be. After check-in, and after the campers have had some time to get to know each other, all of camp comes together to get to know each other a bit more and play a game. This week is ecosystem themed, so we played Pant, Cycle, Scissors to get to know the plant life cycle. Communicating complex scientific topics to campers as young as 5 can be tricky, but games, crafts and other learning activities help to make these concepts more accessible for early learners. After the groups are settled and everyone knows each other’s names (or are on their way to knowing them), I head into the office to send out a series of emails to parents and start preparing for our next batch of campers!
Tuesday
Tuesday is usually problem solving day. Whether that be rescuing a family of ducks trapped in our courtyard, fixing a tarp or handing out band-aids, Tuesdays never fail to be jam-packed with behind the scenes tasks. They are also the days when campers and counselors get into the flow of the week, and we all start to be able to tell what the energy of the week will be like. Some weeks are high energy, with lots of running around and happy chaos, while others are more mellow. Tuesdays are also the day when I start to have some time to hang out with campers and get to know them. Often I do this by joining a group for an activity and taking photos to share with families, or by helping with workshops and field trips. My Tuesday administrative responsibilities tend to be less demanding than on Mondays, only requiring a few emails to be sent.
Wednesday and Thursday
By mid-week I have much more time to lead activities with the groups. This week, my focus was with our older campers, whose EcoHero programming included collecting data for a multi-year survey of the relative insect activity on the farm and in Gordon Park. Participating in citizen science is one of the most direct ways to get kids involved in environmental work, and they had a lot of fun with it this week. Explaining the principles of biodiversity, having them generate their own hypotheses and then having them collect data engages campers with the scientific process earlier than they may otherwise be able to participate. The first year of our surveying brought in some interesting results. I am really looking forward to seeing what this dataset tells us about life on the farm over the next few summers! Mid-week is also the peak of photo-taking, lost-and-found-returning, and all-around-supporting. My Wednesdays and Thursdays are typically filled with odd jobs and unexpected adventures, and they tend to be the most exciting days of the week. Thursdays also bring our second all-camp activity. This week we got to do henna, which was lots of fun for everyone!
Friday
Friday is usually the day for our walking field trip, when we have the chance to get out into the community and have some free time to learn and play. This week we had our plans altered by a truly dramatic amount of rain. We cancelled the field trip and had Rain-a-palooza instead! This consisted of a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, from a soil workshop in the rain to an indoor dance party. We finished off the day watching nature documentaries huddled up in the classroom to stay dry. Despite the rapidly changing plan and a few unforeseen circumstances (like a collapsed tent from the weight of overnight rain), our Friday ran remarkably smoothly, and we made it through the week!
Between 4:00 PM on Friday and 8:15 AM on Monday, the work for summer camp staff doesn’t stop, it simply changes shape. Instead of monitoring hats and hydration, teaching campers about their connections to the land and where their food comes from, the job of camp staff becomes recuperation. Everyone is tasked with finding ways to rest up so that we can come back just as energetic and ready to be our best selves for next week. Hard-core relaxation is a MUST.
This summer has been incredibly rewarding for me, but being responsible (though not singularly) for the execution of summer camp at Fresh Roots is far from a simple task, one which would simply not be possible without the entire Fresh Roots staff. The team who make running camp possible, particularly my Co-Director partner-in-camp, whose job consists of everything that I do and more, have my eternal gratitude. This summer has pushed me to expand my understanding of all of the moving parts that go into making camp functional. I have learned administrative skills (who knew you could make a spreadsheet send emails for you?), strengthened my supervisory abilities (because helping people grow sometimes involves having uncomfortable but necessary conversations, and learning to facilitate those discussions is an important skill), and learned a whole host of new activities and games perfect for communicating science to children! This summer has been an amazing adventure in group management and outdoor education!