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Laura Monica 804.346.5082 |
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Staff
Testimonials
My two summers at Camp Arcadia were some of the best months of my life! Being from England I had never been to or had any experience of an American summer camp, and so I suppose I based my expectations on ‘Parent Trap’- what I got was a whole lot better! One of the best things about Arcadia is its established traditions- weekly camp fires, candle lit ceremonies and singing, singing and more singing to name a few! I arrived at camp dreading the thought of singing in front of others, unsure about outdoor living and wondering how I was going to cope without a hair dryer! By the end of my first summer I loved nothing more than joining in with Arcadia traditions, and spent the first few weeks when I arrived home being told to stop singing strange songs by my friends!
Living and working with the girls was a unique and wonderful experience. I was a counsellor for two different age groups, and thoroughly enjoyed both! Being a lodge counsellor means you are responsible for the girls’ daily well-being whilst they are at camp and you spend at least several hours every day with them. I would not describe the role as a parent- more as a big sister who guides the girls in your care and encourages them to be independent. More importantly, being a lodge counsellor means you have the opportunity to really get to know the girls in your cabin and have a lot of fun with them! Overall, the girls that go to Arcadia really are lovely young women, and this means that there are plenty of opportunities for fun and laughter!
In addition to being a lodge counsellor you will work on a particular activity throughout the summer for roughly four hours a day. I was a drama counsellor, which involved me spending my days doing drama activities, playing drama games and directing and producing 4 major productions for the different groups of girls. Being such a major part of these productions was something I had never experienced before and was really amazing- although it was hard work having to organise absolutely everything from scripts, to props, to costumes and programmes along with the other drama counsellors it was also really rewarding to have that amount of responsibility and control over the productions that the girls put on. I learnt a lot about directing and producing plays during my time at Arcadia, and I have been able to carry this forward to my current job as a teacher.
When I arrived at Arcadia it felt quite strange- I had arrived in the middle of a wood to live in a log cabin with no electricity and I knew nobody! The other counsellors were a combination of international staff like me, ex-campers and other American staff who had never been to the camp. Initially, this led me to be unsure of some of the staff who had been at camp previously as they can appear to be very close, but I soon found that they were mostly very welcoming and before long I didn’t think of the staff as being in these different groups. There is such a huge mix of staff at camp that you are sure to find people that you get on with and want to spend your time with, and I am still in touch with many of the other counsellors who I met at camp from many parts of the world!
Life at Camp Arcadia is not a holiday- you will work
hard and some days you will be completely exhausted! However, working at
Arcadia does mean you get to spend your summer in lovely surroundings with
some lovely people and hopefully doing activities that you really enjoy.
You get one day off a week and there are places you can go in the
go
in the surrounding area so that you can get out of camp! You also get evenings
off once your campers are in bed. Being at Arcadia was an absolutely amazing experience! It allowed me to try lots of new things (many of which I would never have considered before arriving in Maine), meet lots of amazing people (both young and old) and have two summers full of fun! If you enjoy spending time with children, living in simple surroundings, working hard and having fun then I recommend Arcadia- I will certainly go back again if I get the chance!
--Laurie,
Counselor Two Summers, England |