Camp: Intensive Treatment

A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them off to summer camp. - Raymond Duncan

Having worked with children not only at summer camps, but also in the schools, and even at a residential treatment facility, I can say that sentiment holds true. There are many more layers to that statement than what is seen at face value. Parents aren't the only ones that have troubles. When kids are dropped off at Camp W, I get to see so many different faces walk through the doors, kids who are supposed to be perfectly “Normal”;

Every single child has their own story at Camp

I see Kids who have just a backpack, because their family doesn't have money for a sleeping bag. I see kids whose parents donate to the Camp every year, who are able to bring their own personal box fans in, and a number of other things that are “luxuries” at Camp. But beyond that, I see an array of other things. As the weeks go on, I see kids with a slew of different diagnosis, from ODD, to anything on the Autism spectrum. I see kids who have experience extreme emotional neglect, to children who are experience extreme grief from the loss of their home in a natural disaster, or the death of a family member. I see kids who are experiencing hate crimes in their home communities, kids who are bullied on a regular basis by family members, kids who have gotten involved and even addicted to drugs, whose parents suffer from alcoholism, who feel that they have no one to talk to.

At the same time, I witness kids who are a step down from hospitalization, living at this residential facility, experiencing the same exact things. Some of them a few weeks prior were coping with those diagnosis, those traumas, those addictions. And no one spoke up for them. They didn’t receive any preventative treatment or care, and now they require intense psychological intervention.

Those kids at the Residential Treatment Facility are looked at everyday with a stigma. People know that they had to be put in an institution for whatever they worked with. People think that they just couldn't handle it, that they need to be medicated, or that they’re just a bad kid. Maybe, just maybe, if they were a compassionate and empathetic person, they would consider that maybe they weren't raised in the best home, and that the responsibility might But if that same person had looked at that same child three months before, they would've ignored them entirely. They would have felt that what they were dealing with was normal for the kid, that  they’d just have to learn how to deal with it.

The point of all this information is this: Both these kids are the same. They’re just at different levels of treatment. Kids have always felt vulnerable, oppressed, out of place, and so many other things. Every parent can remember the class bully, or the teacher that had a “Children should be seen, but not heard” policy, or being pushed out of the house, left to run the neighborhood while social gatherings occurred. Lots of parents can think of times when these influences have crept into their parenting. Every person can think of a time when they were taking part in bullying another kid in one form or another. Kids have always needed help, but in today’s world, it’s even worse. Cell phones and laptops are available to these kids, where nasty things can be said instantly and secretly. Kids are pushed to excel and achieve on their own, causing the stresses of adulthood to be placed on them sooner. At the same time, kids are taking these new found responsibilities of adulthood and engaging in relationships that they aren't ready for, taking on risks that even adults shouldn't undergo. All of our children in the 21st century.

Having witnessed the different facilities where children are shaped and grow, I’m starting to see how those experiences can help overcome that. My passion, the Camp experience, is one of the prime times for Children to start building these skills. The best Camp counselors see Camp as more than a week of babysitting, they see it as a time period for them to help kids build social skills, build their spirituality, and experience new things. However, my philosophy is going one step further, to say that all of Camp is one massive residential treatment facility, given one week to help kids overcome the obstacles and adversities that they face as they go throughout their daily lives.

Who exactly is Groundhog?

Groundhog. It's a word I hear thousands, if not tens of thousands of times over the course of the Summer. Now, the numbers of times I hear it over the school year numbers in the triple digits as well. It's more than than the below pictured furry animal, it's a persona.

 Pictured left: Marmota monax, Pictured right: Groundhog and a groundhog

Four years ago, I took a job at a local summer camp. I had never had intentions of being at a Camp, and my only goal for being around kids, was potentially teaching, someday in the vague future. But I needed a job, and I had gone to this Camp as a kid, and so did my sisters. I had no idea about the experiences that awaited me. Somewhere in that first summer, I discovered just how deep my fear of heights ran, and got the nickname "Groundhog". That was also the summer that I discovered my passion: Helping kids be all that they can be.
That first summer, I met so many Campers, many of whom still attend Camp, and I know to this day. But over that summer, I realized that I could be a strong listener. So many kids opened up to me, sharing tales of neglectful step parents, friends that pushed them into things that they didn't want to, depression, fears about middle and high school, and so many other things. Groundhog became all that I ever wanted to be. Someone who could be fun, someone who could be out there, but most importantly, someone who could be turned to when a camper, or anyone, needed someone to talk to. To this day, that's what it still means to me. Even though my role at Camp has changed, and I've faced many different challenges, and seen through those challenges that I have a whole lot more room to grow, Groundhog will always mean what it did that first summer.