What Do You Mean They’re Here For A Week: Planning, Coordinating, and Hosting Summer Camp for Elementary and Middle School Kids

By: Dayna Verhey from Humane Society of Charlotte

Planning summer camp is an endeavor, and it’s one that can quickly shift from exciting to overwhelming. I’ve found a variety of strategies and tactics that have made my life easier, and I am hoping I can answer some of the questions that you may have regarding preparation, logistics, and the day-to-day mechanics of running camp.

At Humane Society of Charlotte, we begin our camp registrations in January and use Sawyer to manage them. This means we are actively advertising on social media as early as December, and we have our general camp information posted usually by the end of November. Of the nine weeks we offered this year, the twenty slots for each of the three 3rd -5th grade camps filled up within hours. The remaining slots are still filling up, and several other weeks are already full. Our camp runs from 9-4 Monday-Friday, and we priced it at $380 for the week with the option to add aftercare until 5 pm for an additional $70. Our pricing is based on our area and similar nature and animal-oriented summer camps within the region. There are several things you need to know before you can post about your camp, though, and one of those is your theme.

The theme is the core of your camp. What do you want the kids to take away from the experience? If you’re looking to focus on social-emotional learning, use that as the foundation for your theme. A theme also tells parents what they’re signing their kids up for, generating interest and offering a glimpse into the kind of experiences kids will have throughout the day or days even before you share a snippet of the schedule. We went with the following themes this year: Pawsitive Pals for our 1st and 2nd graders, Shelter Explorers for our 3rd -5th graders, and Animal Perspectives for our 6th -8th graders. Pawsitive Pals is all about that social-emotional learning element, focusing on the kids’ relationship with animals, other campers, and themselves.  Shelter Explorers focuses more on the inquisitive nature of that age group, allowing them to explore their interests and encouraging their curiosities. Finally, Animal Perspectives is all about understanding animals and looking at the world from their point of view as a way to foster empathy. These overarching themes break down into pieces, allowing us to explore different topics each day. For example, with Shelter Explorers we devote a day to each of the following: the shelter, animal behavior, veterinary medicine, animal-oriented careers, and animal welfare.

Our intensive planning starts in January, when I draft our daily schedule based around camp themes. This is an outline where some of the activities are fully fleshed out and others are still in their theoretical phase. Then we go through a thorough revision phase to begin preparing what works and scrapping what doesn’t. You know your space best—make sure you’re accounting for it! It’s easy to get over-ambitious; I like to check in by mapping the space to determine whether an activity is feasible within the given parameters. Consider table placements, space for kids to move around, and how much time it will take to arrange and rearrange tables and chairs or other supplies and equipment. As I work through this planning process, I also consider what activities and events can be scaled up or down for different age groups, as well as what activities are limited to specific age groups based on their nature. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Borrow from the APHE Resource Library, reach out to other organizations, and if you can use an activity for multiple age groups, do it!

 When it comes to selecting activities, think about what makes your shelter unique. For example, we have a really wonderful clinic and veterinary staff. When I plan behind-the-scenes tours, I take them into the clinic after surgery is done for the day because I know our clinic is a strength. I also coordinate with our vets to have the kids watch them perform a spay surgery on a teddy bear, giving the kids a glimpse into the kind of work that our vets do every day. The goal is to give them experiences they can’t get anywhere else, and we use every part of the organization that we can to enable this.

To help run our camp, we have two full time staff members (myself, the Youth Programs Coordinator; and the Education Manager). We hire two part-time seasonal employees, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. They have an orientation where we go over the schedule in its entirety and break down activities. They are expected to be able to lead the groups through the daily activities. We post four volunteer slots per day as well, two for the morning and two for the afternoon. Our volunteers are expected to monitor the campers and assist them and us as needed. We also bring in two CITs, or Counselors-In-Training, per week of camp for our elementary kids. Our CITs are 9th and 10th grade students, as kids 16 and up can volunteer with us. We do not utilize CITs for 6th -8th grade camp weeks, as we feel the age gap is not wide enough. Our CITs go through a one-day orientation before camp begins, and the registration fee for them is $200 per week. Our CITs are given directions for the day while campers are going through their daily orientation and icebreakers, after which they are expected to run simple activities (such as games) and assist with a variety of daily tasks.

One of the trickiest parts of camp, for us, is making it feel like summer camp. As humane educators, it’s in our nature to try and lean into the educational aspects. The way that we found our balance was by weaving necessary conversations into games and content but also offering “choice time,” where campers can decide what kind of activity they want to do for two sessions each day. We give them three options: outside time (weather dependent), crafting, or playing a game (such as dog breed bingo). Another way that we try and provide the “camp” feeling is by creating traditions that campers get to enjoy, such as giving returning campers painted paw prints specific to the child based on the number of years they have attended or creating flags with their names on them that they get to add to each year. Our content is firmly rooted in education but making it fun and interactive is just as essential.

So, when it comes to camp, start planning early! Start with a theme or foundation, then flesh it out from there. It’s okay to start with rough ideas of activities and scrap or refine them as you go, and don’t be afraid to ask other organizations for help or borrow APHE resources. Seasonal employees are great if you can get them, and effectively utilizing volunteers can take a lot of pressure off each camp day. Finally, keep in mind that while our mission is humane education, campers are here for a week of fun summer camp delight. Weave humane education into games, crafts, and any and every aspect you can, but camp isn’t class. Help them learn through doing, through feeling, and through seeing all the awesome things that your organization can do. Summer camp is an amazing way to help make those lessons stick, as they learn that humane education looks like empathy, compassion, and a whole lot of fun!