By Gio Arteaga
Tucked away in a small park in Campbell, California, lies a small camp known as Camp Campbell near the Campbell community center at John D Morgan Park. This camp promotes child development and care. These camps are not only fun and engaging for the children but also for the workers. They have activities, games, field trips, and so much more to keep the campers entertained.
Last summer, my best friend Laura Lipcsei and I got the opportunity to volunteer and help out at the camp as a LIT (Leader in Training). This program has so many opportunities for pre-teenagers and teenagers alike.
They teach you professionalism, how to impress employers, and all the steps needed to deal with youth ranging from 5 to 13 years old. The camp overseers help to guide you and make the program as real as possible for the LITs as they assign you to camps based on what you feel comfortable with. For instance, I got to work in the older divisions, which had youth ranging from 8 to 12 years old.
As an LIT, your role in the program is to assist the leaders in charge of each camp by running around, helping set up arts and crafts, game management, and above all, keeping the campers safe and accounted for. It’s funny though, because at the camp, they have lots of tiny little traditions that make it super entertaining for the campers. An instance of this is how they have the campers refer to you with a “camp name” you come up with. The kids always try to figure out what your real name is, and they always ask. Like, who’s Gio? My name is Geode.
Overall, this camp program is super fun and engaging for people who want to work with youth in the future. It’s super fun and gives you something to do over the summer, opening tons of doors for the future.