As many of you may know, for many years Camp Alleghany used the company Bunac — a work and travel firm — to hire our international counselors. Sadly, Bunac closed its camp counselor service last autumn, and we felt lost. Fortunately the two people we worked with from Bunac were both hired at a firm called Camp Leaders, so we decided to give them a try.
It’s worked out great!
This summer we’ve hired nine counselors through Camp Leaders, and we have three returning counselors who originally started as Bunac counselors. All told, these twelve counselors hail from England, Ireland, and Australia! In addition to giving us culturally variety from the English-speaking nations, it will give us all a chance to dig deep into Downton Abbey trivia, discuss wallabies, and maybe make bangers and mash! All this and we’ll get to practice the differences between those charming Anglo-accents!
In addition to these, we have two counselors coming from Columbia (one is a former camper, and she’s bringing a friend!), as well as two from Spain — both former campers. So hola niña amigos! Let the bilingual Blue-Gray competition commence!
Our own United Nations
We’re thrilled to have such diversity in our camp staff, and feel that the campers truly benefit from this.
All the time at camp we see our campers learning about the subtleties of other cultures and countries, whether it’s asking questions about the names of foods, items, or activities in that nation’s language or vernacular (such as a “torch” for a flashlight, or a “jumper” for a sweater/sweatshirt), or hearing stories about how they do things back at home. And our international visitors get to taste the sights and sensations of life on American soil, often for the first time. It’s something we always hear them say they enjoy, and it helps our campers and counselors to practice the fine art of being welcoming hostesses for the red, white and blue! (Oh, and gray!)
It’s fun for everyone and always leads to new and exciting friendships!
Some of our international staff is returning, and others are new. Usually this leads to them coming back year after year. So sometime soon one of our special activities should be an international fair. Wouldn’t that be fun?
–Elizabeth Dawson Shreckhise, Assistant Director, Camp Alleghany for Girls
I love the idea of an international fair at camp! Enjoyed reading your post, too.
I also want to let you know about InterExchange Camp USA. We match international participants with camps in the U.S., and offer a highly personalized placement process. As a nonprofit organization, we keep our program fees very low – no matter what country participants are coming from. Take a look at our program: http://www.interexchange.org/camp-usa/hire
Hope you have a great summer 2014 and that we have the chance to work with you!