Summer Staff Training – 2014!
Date posted: June 9, 2014
Hello again! Well it has been a busy few weeks getting ready for camp! My fellow coordinators and I are very pleased with how our staff training went, and are looking forward to seeing all of the training and knowledge put into action in this first week of camp and throughout the whole summer. We are very proud of our new team of staff and think they will make the Stepping Stones community extremely happy this summer!
We began our first session of training over two weeks ago with our team of Supervisors. Our team of 9 supervisors for all three camps arrived on Saturday, May 24th and spent four days going in and out of various trainings that all combined to them becoming the best possible leaders for our camps. They learned how to communicate effectively as a team through team-building activities, discussed how they would respond to different scenarios at camp and learned strategies on how to best lead their staff through proper modeling. Below is a picture of all of the supervisors this summer, modeling their “super” visors!
Our second session of training involved our Leads & Specialists! A group of 50 staff who all hold leadership positions at camp arrived on Wednesday, May 28th and spent three days with us. Leads and specialists refer to the Unit Leaders, Lodge Leaders and Program Specialists for all three camps. These individuals are responsible for large groups of participants, and also plan the many fun activities and games that go on during our camp season. We celebrated training this year with a “Superheroes” theme, and it served to inspire our leaders of camp into the level of programming that we expect to see at all three camps. We had some amazing outside speakers come in to discuss different areas of disabilities, and the staff were blown away by them all! s.
Our third, final and biggest session of training involved ALL staff! 120 of the most amazing people arrived early on Sunday, June 1st for an intense week long training! Our theme for everyone training was “Magic,” so we also incorporated a little bit of Harry Potter. When staff arrived they were “sorted” into the four different houses of the American School of Camping and Wizardry, and they were treated to many surprising events throughout the week, including a troll visiting the cafeteria and the transfiguration of one of the heads of houses into a cat! Between all this fun, we put our focus onto becoming the best counselors possible! Staff attended trainings on People First Language, Introduction to Developmental Disabilities, Direct Care, Professionalism, Staff Appreciation, Lifting and Transferring, Pool Training, developing camp goals, and much, much more! We also had some special visitors during our week! Melodic Connections came and performed some great songs for us that had the whole crowd up and dancing in the aisles. Majorie Books also came and put on an assortment of plays and we were very impressed with their talents!
Needless to say, we are 100% ready for summer camp!! Thank you for reading! I look forward to seeing all of your smiling faces really soon!
– Bridget Rahill
