5 reasons YOU should work at a special needs camp!!

1. Your comfort zone grows

You learn to become comfortable with things that you never imagined you would do, from helping others with personal care, feeding people, lifting or using equipment to lift other human beings. You won't just step outside your comfort zone; you will be shocked and pleasantly surprised at how quickly your comfort zone grows

2. The family:

You create a bond like no other but you help each other through every day at camp together, facing these new challenges and growing together, not just as yourself. They'll be your shoulder to cry on, your hug in the morning and the reason you laugh until your stomach hurts.

3. Travel
Something I didn’t do a full post on but on your J1 visa, you have 30 days of travel allowance after camp which is the most incredible thing to experience after working non-stop for 3 months. It is a time to relax and enjoy discovering new places with your new best friends.

Grand Canyon, AZ 

4. You will appreciate life
Working at a special needs camp in particular, you will learn to appreciate everything which we’re so lucky to have and take things for granted a lot less. It’s truly humbling to know the difference you have made to your campers’ lives & the fact some of them wait all year just to come back to camp.

5. Unconditional Love
Everyone has their ‘one camper’, they’re the reason you love what you do and return to camp summer after summer. It doesn’t matter if they sleep a total of 15 hours in a week and run out the cabin at 4am (can you tell I’m speaking from experience???) because you have unconditional love for them and your bond will never be broken.

My 'one camper' Elijah 

In camp spirit,

Tasha xo

Life after camp...

No-one can prepare you for what comes next...

First of all, leaving camp will more than likely be the most emotional you've ever felt. It’s saying goodbye to friends you’ve gotten so close to but live on the other side of the world and the uncertainty of not knowing when you’re going to see them next. 

After having a surreal summer of making incredible memories and having no worries it’s now time to return home... to a land where no-one understands camp and your friends will love to take the mick out of you saying “wait you went to camp?????” as if you haven’t heard it 1000 times already. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll be so excited to see your friends, family (& mostly your dog) again, but you’ll soon come to realise that people don’t understand camp life unless they’ve experienced it themselves. 

Going home can be difficult to adapt to after camp, you’re often returning to the same uni course and same job even though you’ve developed so much as a person. On the other hand, your home life can be shaped and affected by camp, I have multiple friends who have changed their entire career paths after being at camp, going on to study courses such as Learning disability nursing and social work at university. 

Personally, I questioned my career path multiple times at camp and ended up coming home and getting a job through one of my camp friends. Now I’m a support worker for kids with additional support needs and 3 of us from camp work for the same department.

I promise you it’s worth it but I’m not going to hide the fact that post camp depression is real no matter how many times people tell you it isn’t.

The only thing worse than camp goodbye's are airport goodbye's... (we were smiling through the tears don't be fooled)

In camp spirit,

Tasha xo

A day at Camp Fairlee

At a camp for kids and adults with additional support needs, the campers are given the opportunity to   participate in activities which they may never have done before and only get to experience at camp. The most amazing feeling is seeing the sheer joy on your campers face when they go down the zip line or canoe around the lake for the first time.

Climbing tower & zip line – allows campers to soar through the forest and feel a sense of freedom they may never have felt before. This is particularly amazing if your camper is in a wheelchair and is not able to move independently.

Swimming – there’s nothing quite like the pool during autism week as it creates an excellent sensory experience which people with autism are often unlikely to have elsewhere. 

Slime time !!! – exactly as disgusting as it sounds, counsellors and campers alike get slimed... sounds fun up until your camper’s wheelchair gets covered in slime and it’s your responsibility to clean it

Camp fire – Sunday we have s’mores and sing all the camp songs to welcome campers and settle in to camp. At Thursday camp fires everyone sings their national anthem to end the week on a nice note and be thankful for the week we have all had.

Talent show – every week we come together in cabins to create a talent show piece (extra points if it fits into the theme of that session), getting the campers as involved as possible

Camp dance – a chance for campers to dress up a bit and look nice and dance to their favourite songs with their new and existing camp friends (and of course an opportunity for Scottish counsellors to dress  up as William Wallace during international week)

In camp spirit,

Tasha xo

The friends that become family

“Camp is a place where strangers become friends and friendships last forever”

Camp friends are literally unexplainable to someone who hasn’t done camp, you just don’t understand. You’re all in the exact same situation, you’ve flown across the world, have no idea where you are or what you’re doing, questioning every decision you’ve ever made and probably missing your pet. 

During staff training, you’ll bond over the stupidest things (like Ailidh telling us how she tried to toilet train her cat...), excessive amounts of name games and big group walks to the lake. Then it’s time to take a trip to Walmart and find out who the shopaholics are.

There will be nights that you cry in the rain over your uni course and job at home, wondering whether it’s right for you when you’re loving helping people at camp so much, but at this moment your camp mom turns up and you realise your camp family is incredible, other people are going through the same feelings and you’re all there to support each other.

On the contrary there will be nights where you laugh until your stomach hurts and the next day you won’t even remember why. Not to throw Ailidh the limelight again but my funniest ever moment from two summers at camp is her trying to teach about 20 people how to play the grass.

A point will come during summer where you realise that some of these guys aren’t just camp friends, but they’re best friends for life. You’ll spend so much time on Facetime and end up missing out on plans at home since you’re saving up for a trip but it’s so worth it because when you’re back together it feels like you’ve never been apart and it’s the best feeling in the world.

I could talk about how amazing my camp friends are all day long but I’ll probably end up crying because I miss them so here’s a few pictures instead.

In camp spirit,

Tasha xo

Top 5 skills you will learn

Working at any summer camp (special needs in particular) you’re going to develop a whole new skillset, some of which you’ll never even use again in your home life, but hey ho they’re useful at camp, here’s my top 5 summed up:

1. Functioning on 4 hours sleep – whether your camper has been up and down during the night or just decided that 4am is time to get up then that’s you up for the day too. Somehow, you manage to get on with your day as though you’ve had a beauty sleep (having an instant coffee machine to hand always helps though).

2. Personal care – this is a skill I had absolutely no prior experience of and was quite scared to do. However, once you’ve wiped one bum, you can do them all (TMI soz), you will pick it up so quickly and then it becomes second nature (although you will NEVER forget the first time).

3. Patience – this is a skill which can’t be taught but will take you very far at camp. Sometimes you have to accept the fact you might spend an hour eating breakfast in the dining hall, or that it’s going to take 10 trips to the toilet before your camper settles down to bed.

4. Communication methods – personally, I had no idea how many different ways there is to communicate until I worked at a special needs camp. Some campers will use sign language, some will use communication devices or apps on their iPod/iPad to tell you how they feel and what they need. 

5. Determination – staying positive for 9 weeks straight is a serious talent, of course there’s going to be points during when you’re tired and upset, I’d be lying to you if I said it was fun and games 100% of the time. But somehow every time you’re down, it doesn’t last long and you find the determination to carry on and stay driven, a huge part of this is due to the people you’re surrounded by and they’ll know you better than anyone by the end of summer.

In camp spirit,

Tasha xo

Welcome!

My name is Tasha, I’m 20 years and studying International Business at the University of Strathclyde (although constantly wishing I was spending my days at summer camp). For the past two years I’ve worked at Camp Fairlee in Maryland (don’t worry I hadn’t heard of it either, most camps are in the middle of nowhere). 

Even though there are loads of different types of camps, mine is one for both children and adults who have a range of additional support needs. This blog will take you through the reasons why being a camp counsellor is the best job in the world: what it’s like to work at a special needs camp, the activities you can expect on a daily basis, the skills you’ll learn, the bonds you’ll form and why you’ll be left with a constant hole in your heart and long to return to camp year after year. 

In camp spirit, 

Tasha xo