Tuesday, August 16, 2022
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Friday, May 20, 2022
You are invited to the Last Open House before the Early Registration rates go up
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Top 10 Skills needed to be a Good Camp Counselor
Now is the time for parents to start researching camps for their kids and there are a lot to choose from but it’s also the time of year when students have to start thinking about a summer job and being a camp counselor is a popular one. How many other jobs do you know of that will pay you to play with kids?
Being a camp counselor is a great job as long as you are not too keen on making a lot of money. For the vast majority of counselors I’ve ever known, none have ever said they did it for the money. Flipping burgers over a grill in the summer will make you more money but being a camp counselor, especially one at a residential camp will give you skills and experience that you could never gain by supersizing someone’s order.
As someone who has worked as a counselor and program director, I’ve hired and trained staff for both day camp and residential camps and I’ve seen a lot of young adults apply for jobs. Some have had experience as a camper but other than babysitting, most have never worked at a camp or even with kids and that’s okay. Although experience is great, most camps hire counselors based on the references you have and on your personality.
If you are hired, you will most likely have to attend pre-camp training where you will find out if you are cut out to be a good counselor. You’ll not only learn the rules of the camp but ideally, how to work with the kids. I’ve seen people hired as counselors be reassigned to work in the kitchen and kitchen staff become counselors.
With that in mind, the following is a list of the top 10 skills that I feel you need to be a good camp counselor.
1. You must like kids
This seems like a no-brainer but there is a difference between tolerating and liking kids and If you can’t stand to be around them then there’s no point in being a camp counselor.
They’ll be times when you won’t enjoy being with them or enjoy being around one particular kid for any number of reasons but to be a good councilor, you have to truly like them.
2. Be a good role model
Like it or not, as a camp counselor you will be a role model to the kids.
Younger kids always look up to the older ones so if you act out of line, they will too. If you don’t care, then they won’t either. If you use rude language or make indecent jokes or remarks, the kids will think that it’s okay and do the same.
On the other hand, if you are enthusiastic, polite and cooperative, they will be too. A counselor sets the tone for the group so be conscious of what you say and do.
3. Leadership
You are responsible for the safety and well-being of these kids and you are responsible for them having a good time so you must have control but without making them feel that they are in the army. It’s a skill that takes a little time to develop but once you have it, it will stay with you for life.
The most effective leaders are the ones who can lead without their kids feeling that they are being led. Your job is to motivate them and to keep things moving since you’ll have a schedule to keep but you have to do it without barking orders. If you gain their confidence and respect, they’ll follow you anywhere.
4. Have patience
If you don’t have patience then find another job. You may have a group of kids that will be cooperative, enthusiastic and great to be around but then you’ll have a group where each one wants to do something different or they just doesn’t get along with each other.
Keep in mind that not every kid moves at the same speed and not every kid catches on to what you’re doing or saying right away. Patience is not just a virtue; it will help keep you from doing something you shouldn’t.
5. Communication skills
Being able to communicate with the kids is extremely important if your group is to have fun. You’ll need to be able to communicate with them as a whole and to each individual kid.
Not every kid will be familiar with the routine so don’t assume that they’ll catch on. Calmly explain any rules as well as well as the do’s and donts clearly to all the kids so that you’ll lessen the chances of hearing “I didn’t know.” Explain clearly what the next event or program is and again, don’t bark at them. Use simple terms and explain to them that they can talk to you if they don’t quite understand.
There may be times when you need to talk to a kid privately and that should be away from the others. You may need to discuss their behavior or even something more personal such as their hygiene or bed wetting. When you do speak with them (and not to them), you need to reassure them that there are solutions to the problem and you want to help them. Do not discuss personal matters with the kid in front of the other campers.
You should also try to physically be at eye level when you talk to them. Looking up at you may intimidate them and you don’t want that. If it’s a problem you feel you can’t handle, contact your supervisor. Remember that the kids are at camp to have fun.
6. Problem solving
If you think there won’t be any problems, think again. You’ll experience everything from “he’s sitting too close to me” to “she keeps hitting me when you’re not looking.” Just like the sun rising every morning, you will have problems and you’ll have to deal with them.
Ideally you will be able to find a solution that makes both sides happy and there may be times when you may have to remove a kid altogether especially if there is violence or the threat of violence. Whatever the situation, don’t let it go on without doing something about it. If you don’t, it could escalate into something bigger. If it’s a serious problem, again, have your supervisor help you.
7. Stamina
A day camp program makes for a long day. You need to keep up your enthusiasm and energy at a high level until the end of that long day.
When you have a full week of long days, you’ll most likely realize how much work being a counselor is but keep in mind that you’ll have to do it again the following week so you’ll need to show the same enthusiasm on the following Monday as you did at the beginning of the program.
With most programs, the same schedule and events will take place every session and as much as you may be tired of doing the same thing, the kids coming to your camp haven’t, so you need to be just as excited as you were at the beginning of the summer. So get pumped up and excited because you’re doing it again!
8. Be fair
When you have a handful of kids, it’s easy to pick your favorites. They are usually the most enthusiastic and cooperative. Sometimes a counselor will show favoritism towards a camper because they are cute and sweet but that’s not right. You need to treat all your campers as your favorites, even if a lot of them aren’t.
Every kid deserves to be treated fairly and with respect and every kid should have the same chance to do the same things regardless of their abilities. Every kid should have the opportunity to play quarterback or be the pitcher and even if they are extremely terrible at it, you at least gave them a chance. A good counselor gets everyone involved and everyone a chance.
9. Respect
You may like a kid but you may not respect them and that’s extremely important as a counselor.
The kids are not your buddies back home where you can make fun of them, call them rude names or get rough with them. These are kids and they need to be treated with respect despite their physical appearance, physical and mental abilities and their possessions.
Chances are that you have no idea of where the kids come from, their history, their home life and any problems they may have. Kids don’t come to camp to be bullied, yelled at or made fun of. They come to have fun. Many kids at camps come to get away from their regular life and for many it’s a welcome relief from their home life.
Avoid sarcastic remarks or ridicule even if you think it’s all in fun and never, ever physically abuse them. Again, you don’t know them and even if you do, don’t do it and that includes all other kids and staff as well.
10. Low maintenance
As a day camp counselor be prepared to go without some of the comforts you may enjoy at home. Based on my years at summer camp, here are a few examples:
- Hot showers: You’ll need to get up very, very early if you want a shower and good luck having any hot water. This is camp and not the Holiday Inn.
- Food: Eating your lunch with kids on a hot day. Remember, it’s not a restaurant.
- Rest and Breaks: If you’re dealing with a kid or there’s an emergency, you can’t just go off and take a break. You really are on 24/7.
- Clothing: Your clothes will take an incredible beating at camp. They’ll get wet, filled with sand, dirty, torn and even go missing. If you have nice clothes, leave them at home and as for shoes, you’ll want to burn them at the end of the summer. Trust me.
There are many more skills that will make you a good counselor and many of them will be developed as you work but these are the top ones that I looked for in hiring and evaluating staff.
Not everyone is cut-out to be a camp counselor but if you are okay with sand in your underwear, wet shoes, hot summer days, kids screaming and all for a small pay check, you will have fun and make memories that will last a lifetime.
Thursday, April 28, 2022
The impact of parental burnout
Came across an article that you may find interesting on apa.org
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/10/cover-parental-burnout
What psychological research suggests about how to recognize and overcome it
Candice Roquemore Bonner, PsyD, a clinical psychology resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, knows the parenting-while-working juggle well. She moved to Boston with her two children to begin her residency in June 2020, functioning solo until her husband could join them. Managing her burgeoning career and her family’s well-being—all during a global pandemic—often left her own self-interest neglected. As a result, she said perpetual exhaustion and high-level irritability became part of her daily routine.
“I’ve been a working student and parent for 5 years, so it’s been a constant juggling act,” Roquemore Bonner said. “But this year elevated my sense of burnout because there was simply no escape.”
The United States has mostly lifted pandemic restrictions (and reinstated some to protect against the COVID-19 Delta variant). Birthday parties are in full swing, youth sports are back, and families are rushing from one activity to the next. While this may be the light at the end of the tunnel people had been eagerly anticipating, parents never had a chance to recover from pandemic burnout before bursting into this new Delta variant phase—which only heightens their risk for issues going forward.
Burnout, a syndrome characterized by “emotional exhaustion, de-personalization and a decrease in self-fulfillment,” is a result of chronic exposure to emotionally draining environments (Rionda, I. S., et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 18, No. 9, 2021).
In 2019, the World Health Organization recognized burnout syndrome in its International Classification of Diseases as an occupational condition linked to several health symptoms, such as fatigue, changing sleep habits, and substance use. While burnout is most associated with helping occupations like health care or high-pressure professions like law or finance, a growing body of research suggests burnout can also occur in other roles, particularly with the strain of navigating post-pandemic life.
As Lucy McBride, MD, a practicing internist in Washington, D.C., and author of a widely read COVID-19 newsletter describes it, burnout is the “mental and physical fallout from accumulated stress in any sphere of life,” including parenting (The Atlantic, June 30, 2021). The first research on parental burnout took place in the United States in the 1980s, focusing on parents of children with tumors (Procaccini, J., and Kiefaber, M. W., Parent Burnout, Doubleday, 1983). More recently, Belgian researchers including Isabelle Roskam, PhD, and Moïra Mikolajczak, PhD, both professors of psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, theorized that while severe situations such as a sick child can contribute to burnout, any parent can experience it.
In 2018, Roskam and her colleagues developed a measurement called the Parental Burnout Assessment after surveying more than 900 parents they had determined to be experiencing burnout. From these subjects’ testimonies, the researchers extracted four dimensions of parental burnout: exhaustion in one’s parental role, contrast with previous parental self, feelings of being fed up with one’s parental role, and emotional distancing from one’s children.
To learn more about what causes burnout, they later studied more than 17,000 parents in 42 countries around the world and discovered burnout varied drastically by country, based on the differences in Eastern and Western cultural values (Affective Science, Vol. 2, 2021). A smaller follow-up study yet to be published suggests rates increased among some populations during COVID-19.
Research by psychologists at the University of Melbourne confirmed those findings in their own study, with all participants reporting higher levels of mental distress during the pandemic but parents of school-age kids reporting much higher rates. The researchers estimated that more than one quarter of Australia’s 1.5 million working parents with kids ages 5 to 11 experienced high levels of mental distress during the pandemic, and working parents who were also the primary caregiver were four times as likely to suffer as working parents who weren’t simultaneously tending the children (Melbourne Institute, 2020).
According to Roskam, one component was consistent among all parents who reported burnout, before and during the pandemic. “Burnout is the result of too much stress and the absence of resources to cope with it,” she said. “You will burn out only if there is an imbalance between stress and resources.”
Recognizing parental burnout
The Parental Burnout Assessment captures the primary symptoms of burnout, which, according to Mikolajczak, usually occur in stages.
The first stage, she said, is overwhelming exhaustion. Depending on how old the children are, parents might experience different types of exhaustion; for example, Mikolajczak said parents of young children tend to be more physically tired, while those with adolescents or teens may experience emotional exhaustion because of conflicts with their children.
Inger Burnett-Zeigler, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said the pandemic exacerbated the existing issue of exhaustion and burnout among parents she works with at Northwestern’s Asher Center for the Study and Treatment of Depressive Disorders. Many parents, she said, focused on child care and homeschooling during the day, relegating their jobs to the evening and, as a result, becoming more irritable and stressed the next day. Typically, she said, burned-out parents present with chronic stress about how they’ll get everything done. “That can disrupt sleep, which exacerbates the anxiety and irritability; then it becomes this loop that repeats itself daily,” she said.
Next, burned-out parents tend to distance themselves from their kids to preserve their energy. This phase is followed by a third phase when parents notice a loss of fulfillment in parenting. “These parents will tell you, ‘I love my children, but I can’t stand being around them anymore; actually, I can’t stand being a parent anymore,’” Mikolajczak said.
As with job burnout, parental burnout symptoms build on each other; the phase one exhaustion sticks around through the distancing and loss of fulfillment. As a result, Roskam said, parents with burnout typically report a contrast between the parents they were, the parents they would like to be, and the parents they have become. This contrast, she added, can cause burned-out parents to feel inescapable distress, shame, and guilt.
While job burnout can cause significant problems in people’s lives, the consequences of parental burnout are different. Unlike a job, parents don’t get paid vacation, and they can’t leave their roles to parent other kids the way that someone with occupational burnout can find a new position.
Because burned-out parents often feel trapped in their roles, they may also experience more severe consequences than people experiencing job burnout, such as suicidal and escape ideations (Mikolajczak, M., et al., Clinical Psychological Science, Vol. 7, No. 6, 2019). Mikolajczak and colleagues found these ideations were more frequent in parental burnout than in job burnout or depression (Clinical Psychological Science, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2020).
Burnout can also cause parents to be violent or neglectful toward children, even when the parents are philosophically opposed to those behaviors. In an as-yet-unpublished 2020 study, Annette Griffith, PhD, a professor of psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, found that parents who indicated higher levels of burnout also indicated higher levels of coercive or punitive parenting practices, and the parents who reported the biggest change of burnout level from January to June 2020 had the highest risk for child maltreatment.
The finding that rates of parental burnout increased during the pandemic are unsurprising, as Griffith found many of the conditions present during the pandemic, such as financial insecurity, lack of support, and social isolation, have been found to be risk factors for parental burnout prior to the pandemic (Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2020).
Whether a burned-out parent screams at or spanks their child, this behavior doesn’t only harm kids; Mikolajczak said burnout symptoms and consequences can create a vicious cycle. “Parents who do these things often feel shame, so they ruminate on their behavior, then they wake up the next day more tired and sensitive, which compounds the negative behaviors,” she said.
Who experiences parental burnout?
Research shows that certain populations are more prone to parental burnout. A study by the International Investigation of Parental Burnout (IIPB) Consortium, which included Roskam and Mikolajczak, found cultural norms, for example, play a significant role in predicting burnout: Parents from more individualistic (typically Western) countries had higher rates of parental burnout than those from Eastern countries (Affective Science, Vol. 2, 2021).
Individualistic cultures tend to value competition, performance, and perfectionism, which increases stress, all the while decreasing resources by discouraging parents from asking for support. And while Eastern cultures typically prioritize children’s obedience and respect toward elders, Roskam said Western cultures commonly assert values of self-improvement or independence, which means children can be less likely to follow instructions.
People already experiencing multiple stressors, such as single parents, parents of special needs children, and immigrant parents, may also have a lower threshold for increasing stress because of the ongoing demands of parenting.
“If there are groups already experiencing prolonged chronic stressors, they are going to be at higher risk for vulnerability to mental health issues and burnout,” said Lisa Coyne, PhD, a senior clinical consultant at McLean Hospital OCD Institute in Massachusetts and an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Compounding individual risk factors with systemic oppression can further heighten that vulnerability. Riana Elyse Anderson, PhD, an assistant professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan, said parents of color face unique strain, especially during the pandemic.
Alongside everyone’s fears of contracting COVID-19 and ongoing racial trauma in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Black parents are also less likely to have protective factors like economic security and feelings of social support. “The pandemic really pointed to how challenging it was to manage all these stressors with thinning coping resources,” said Anderson.
Robyn Koslowitz, PhD, a clinical psychologist and director of the Center for Psychological Growth of New Jersey, said some parents who had traumatic childhoods tend to carry unproductive beliefs about their role as parents. “Many clients I work with believe they don’t have the same capacity other parents have because they never experienced normal parenting,” she said. “That shame can contribute highly to burnout.”
As common as parental burnout is, parents can use what psychologists have discovered about risk factors to both reduce their risk and mitigate existing symptoms by finding creative ways to rebalance their stress and resources.
How to manage parental burnout: Advice for supporting yourself and clients
Talk about it
Open sharing about feelings of burnout can facilitate social support, a much-needed resource for stressed-out parents short on coping skills. But admitting you’re struggling isn’t always easy; burned-out parents often feel isolated and ashamed, which can prevent them from healthy dialogue with supportive people.
Data suggest parental burnout is a lot more common than most parents think: According to the IIPB Consortium study, up to 5 million U.S. parents experience it each year. The first step, Mikolajczak said, is understanding you’re not the only one snapping at your kids or camping them in front of the TV all day. Talking about parental burnout openly can further normalize the syndrome, she said, removing some of the shame from the experience.
Koslowitz recommends finding other parents experiencing similar feelings.
Because shame only compounds burnout feelings, the key is to share your experiences in a nonjudgmental atmosphere. While the internet can facilitate such connections, Koslowitz cautions against relying on social media for validation. Instead, seek out virtual communities where rules about shaming are enforced, such as moderated social media groups or message boards.
If your burnout is impairing your functioning or causing suicidal ideation, it’s important to reach out to a mental health provider for professional support.
Reevaluate your stress
For parents who reported higher levels of burnout during the pandemic, lockdown alone wasn’t the primary risk factor. Instead, a team composed of Belgian, Dutch, and U.S. researchers found that cognitive appraisal—people’s individual perspectives of the lockdown—was also to blame. “How much parents experienced burnout depended on how they saw the lockdown,” Roskam said. “For some, it was an opportunity to take much-needed time with their kids, while others saw it as a nightmare.” Predictably, those with a negative perspective reported increased feelings of exhaustion in parenting.
If you’re feeling exhausted by your parenting role, reappraise your perspective. Look for opportunities to grow or areas of your life you’re grateful for. It may help to reframe the difficulty as a challenge—something you can overcome—rather than as a threat that positions you as a powerless victim (Drach-Zahavy, A., & Erez, M., Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 88, No. 2, 2002).
Reappraisal won’t expunge the difficult circumstances from your life, but it can provide a resource to help you cope.
Make small changes
Parental burnout can hit particularly hard because, unlike occupational burnout, it’s not always possible to take a vacation—which may leave you feeling like you can’t escape the stressor. When your stress level outweighs your resources, Mikolajczak suggests finding smaller ways to lower stress levels.
“We tend to see one or two big factors as responsible for stress—perhaps your son is difficult and your husband is never home, which you can’t change,” she said. “But one has to remember there are many stressors tipping the scale.”
Rather than fixating on the big stressors, Mikolajczak advises rebalancing the changeable ones that contribute to your feelings of exhaustion over time. For example, if your chore list exhausts you, offload a few jobs to your partner or kids. If a child’s constant activities are a burden, cut down on commitments or schedule carpools with other parents. The key, Mikolajczak said, is to be flexible and balanced.
Grow your parenting skills
Parents should consider adding skills to their parenting toolboxes, according to Coyne. “Because burnout is marked by a disconnect in how you’re parenting now and who you were before, growing in their parenting skills can give parents a sense of efficacy in decreasing parenting-related stressors and, as a result, mitigate feelings of burnout,” she said.
While Roskam said reading books about parenting can increase feelings of failure and shame for many, other resources can provide a much-needed confidence boost in parenting by providing targeted skills. Look into local seminars, ask about mental health and parenting resources at your child’s school, or find a therapist who uses evidence-based behavioral training programs for parenting.
Stop saying ‘should’
Research suggests parents who are perfectionists and those who put pressure on themselves experience higher rates of burnout (Sorkkila, M., & Aunola, K., Journal of Child and Family Studies, Vol. 29, 2020). Finding practical ways to relieve that pressure can reduce burnout risk.
“Sometimes our demands are top-heavy because we have particular expectations about how things should be done—how well we should be doing things and how happy we should be doing them,” said Natalie Dattilo, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. “These unrealistic expectations increase our load, and they are some of the first things we can take off the plate,” she said.
Dattilo commonly recommends her patients avoid “should” statements, which she says add shame. For example, if you’re overwhelmed and tell yourself you “should” spend more time playing with your kids, you’ll only feel badly when you don’t measure up. Try swapping your “should” statement with “It would be great if I had more energy to play with my kids.”
“That reframing can help parents deal with their current reality rather than what they think they should be doing, so they can deal with their circumstances the best they can with the resources they already have,” Dattilo said.
Take microbreaks
Self-care is a vital component of recovering from any type of stress, but it’s not necessarily realistic for everyone to plan a kid-free getaway to recover.
But even tiny breaks can help—for example, locking the door in the bathroom for 5 minutes to take deep breaths or sitting in your car to listen to a guided meditation after grocery shopping can enhance resilience in parenting. “Rather than a whole weekend of vacation or even an hour, focus on finding opportunities for relaxation and pleasure in ways that are manageable for you,” Burnett-Zeigler said.
Self-compassion can add another resource to help you manage stress, according to Burnett-Zeigler. When you take breaks, try to find small ways to recalibrate your thinking. Acknowledge the pressure you may put on yourself for how you should be doing or feeling and remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can with the resources you have.
Find meaning
When you feel detached from something you care about, Debbie Sorensen, PhD, a Denver-based clinical psychologist, said it can be helpful to reconnect with your values and reorient yourself to the meaningful aspects of parenting. “We can really get lost in the drudgery, and it takes work to carve out special moments with your kids that remind you parenting can be fulfilling,” she said.
Even if it feels overwhelming, practice behavioral activation by planning a small, low-stakes activity—a trip to the park or watching a favorite movie—to do with your kids. Remind yourself in the experience or debrief after about your kids’ positive qualities, as well as the skills and qualities you bring to the table as a parent. Remembering the meaning you’ve felt in the past as a parent can provide a resource when exhaustion and resentment return.
Parenting, like any realm of life, can be both difficult and rewarding at the same time. “Some of these feelings of resentment, shame, or guilt for parents come up because we live in a society that says we should love our kids unconditionally, and if we’re frustrated, we’re bad parents,” said Anderson. “But that you love your child and acknowledge parenting as a very difficult thing can be true at the same time.”
Sunday, April 3, 2022
How Summer Camp Encourages Social Responsibility
How Summer Camp Encourages Social Responsibility
As winter turns to spring and new life appears all around us, it is the time to consider your child’s understanding of themselves as part of the world. What contributions will your child make towards creating a better place on earth?
Social responsibility is something parents have little time to teach their children. You hope that you set a good example that they can learn from, but parents rarely take the time to explain the responsibility we have as humans to the world around us.
Summer Camp & Social Responsibility
Summer camp provides those lessons everyday. Campers are taught that each day as they participate and do their part in activities. While at activities, campers are taught to take care of the equipment so that others may have the opportunity to use it. At arts & crafts, cooking, or woodworking they learn to share. Hiking and exploring nature teaches campers to leave only footsteps and take only pictures.
Even though teaching social responsibility may not be a focus in your daily life at home, it is one of the most important lessons taught while at summer camp. It allows campers to be part of something larger than just themselves, and that is priceless.
Some other ways summer camp teaches social responsibility
* Flexibility – Kids learn how to take care of themselves and others. Now is the time that they are learning how to manage their newfound independence while also coexisting with other campers.
* Leadership – Teens who have been attending camp for years are on their way to becoming camp counselors. They’re often looked up to by younger campers and take on a leadership role.
* Emotional responsibility – At summer camp, kids and teens are introduced to new and sometimes intimidating activities such as rock climbing, ziplines and high ropes courses. Children learn how to support one another and provide comfort when they notice others getting scared.
Join Us at Blue Dolphin Summer Camp
We have been providing kids and teens with nurturing and exciting summers. While we have camp counselors assisting kids with their day-to-day routine, campers always learn a thing or two about social responsibility. We seem many kids tidying up their activity areas at camp to make way for their fellow camp groups. There’s truly a tremendous amount of self growth at camp.
Activities offered at our summer camp include
* Lacrosse
* Tennis
* Volleyball
* Soccer
* Hockey
* Volleyball
* Gaga
* Dance
* Glow Parties
* & much more
At Blue Dolphin, we’re all about having fun while staying safe and encouraging kids to break out of their shells so they can become more confident.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Benefits of going to camp
Benefits of going to camp
Camp provides children with a community of caring adults who nurture experiential education that
results in self-respect and appreciation for human value. All of the outcomes — self-identity, self-worth, self-esteem, leadership, and self-respect — build personal competencies. These personal competencies are reflected in the four "C's" of the camp community: Compassion, Contribution, Commitment, and Character! For years, campers' parents have reported that when their children return home from camp they are more caring, understand the importance of giving, are more equipped to stand up for what they know is right, and are willing to be more responsible. These are the qualities that will help build a successful nation and a civil society.
Camp professionals have enormous power in conveying simple teachable moments . . . special moments of passing experiences touched by the human spirit. These fleeting moments of time build three significant camp values that are reflected in the benefits campers derive from camp.
Blue Dolphin values people. The moments that result in the camp experience repeatedly express the value of people. We demonstrate that value through respect, honesty, caring, and sharing. Through the camp experience, young people learn to understand the strength of mankind. They also develop an appreciation for the qualities required to protect the fragile relationships needed to protect these relationships.
Blue Dolphin values the natural world. We seek and appreciate what is real, genuine, and non-artificial. In seeking those qualities in people as well as in the actual world, we foster understanding of the importance of human connections for survival and of the critical connections to our physical world. Campers realize the need to protect not only one another, but also the environment in which they live. Our intent is to preserve and share that legacy with the next generation.
Finally, Blue Dolphin values a sense of contribution. Our contributions are both obvious and subtle. The benefits of our work are both immediate and slow to emerge. Most significantly, although the experience itself is often fleeting, our impact on the human spirit lasts a lifetime. Children who attend camp develop connections with the world.
We never underestimate the simplest lesson or the briefest wink of time. It may be a star in someone's horizon for all eternity.
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