Silver-haired staff's mighty impact.

People choose to work at camp for many different reasons. Generally, the draw to camp work comes during the college years when group living and shared interests are desirable. But today many in the forty-plus-year-old population are returning to camp to work as waterfront directors, camp nurses, woodshop directors, sports instructors, maintenance and office staff, cooks, and dining hall supervisors.

For many, camp was an important part of their youth. Now, due to vacation time, retirement, life transitions, geographical moves, and job changes, they have the opportunity to go back and re-experience the joy and excitement of camp while sharing their skills and experience with the younger staff and campers.

These silver-haired staff members are a calming presence among knobby-kneed campers and excitable college-aged staff members. Their manner is generally low key, commanding yet gentle, and caring. They can be great motivators among younger staff and trusted supporters of busy directors. They know the impact that camp can have on the future lives of campers and staff and understand how difficult it is for directors to run a good camp.

Experience to Share

Silver-haired staff can assist campers and staff in feeling some stability and security during their days at camp. When homesickness abounds, creativity runs dry, and staff wonder why they chose this job for the summer, an older staff person can usually come up with answers. They have walked in the shoes of younger counselors and can appreciate the issues they are dealing with. Further- more, many older staff members have been campers themselves and know what campers need to be happy and productive.

Campers feel a sense of closeness to these older staff members. Most will tell you they feel "safe and secure," as one teenage camper said, around them. Campers look to these staff members with a different eye than they do to the younger staff. One camper said, "I feel taken care of" of" when this person is around. When learning a new skill from an older staff member, campers say they feel "challenged."

Campers can also learn from older counselors' experiences. For example, a silver-haired camper covered cabin duty one night. When one teenager played music from the 1960s, the older counselor could share the delight of the songs as well as answer campers' questions about that decade. The campers in the cabin were amazed that this older person was "fun to be around," as one camper claimed.

Older staff can make a difference in the dining hall as well. Directors tire of complaints from fussy eaters who want only spaghetti and hot dogs. Older staff, many of whom may have raised children of their own, may know how to make jambalaya in the dining hall or aluminum foil dinners on a fire sound like gourmet foods. Many a silver-haired staff member has been heard to coax a finicky eater to try a "no-thank-you helping" (a teaspoonful of something undesirable to the yet-developed taste buds).

Build a Tradition

Campers thrive on seeing familiar faces at camp year after year. As younger staff members move on with their lives, leaving counselor days behind, the familiar silver-haired staff member is a welcome sight even for the parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles who come back to visit. If directors focus on staff in their growing up years (as one camp brochure advocates), they deny their campers and staff the joy and thrill of a program that has grown out of dedication over many years.

At a camp in New England, the director of the nature program has been with the camp for twenty-six years. He has built a program that is the envy of several camps around. The nature director enjoys his job and the nature cabin shows the love and perspective built over the years. Grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles can share the memory of this program and the current camper in the family can look forward to sharing the family tradition.

Another camp in New England has a camp nurse, who despite her connection with a prestigious medical center during the year, spends her summers working at camp. She has built a noteworthy medical program and looks forward to seeing familiar faces of campers and staff each summer. Children, staff, and parents have come to feel secure with the medical facilities at this camp because the nurse is committed and quickly learns the names and medical needs of new campers and staff.

Needs of Older Staff

Silver-haired campers do not ask for much in return for the attributes they bring to camp. They just want to feel valued, appreciated, and important to the directors. They want to feel welcomed and feel that their wisdom and expertise are valued. One older counselor commented, "At the end of camp, despite their high-level, time-consuming recruitment of me, they never once said they appreciated my coming or thanked me for the work I did. [Younger staff had received many kudos and public rewards.] I felt taken for granted!"

Silver-haired staff also noted being bypassed in the decision making when leading an activity: staff would go directly to the director to get their own way. To prevent these frustrations, directors should remind staff to respect silver-haired staff for the knowledge they bring to the camp community. During precamp training, staff should be encouraged to see older staff members as valued members of the team.

Some older staff also felt a lack of companionship. On days or evenings off, younger staff wanted to be with those their own age, and directors didn't think to invite the older person to do something with them. Some found that other older staff lived off camp and were at camp only for a few hours during the day, making friendships difficult to foster. Another concern was being expected to "act like an eighteen-year-old."

Silver-haired staff have wisdom and experience to share. Their presence in camp can be memorable and meaningful for everyone they meet. Once hired, they ask only for respect and support. They shouldn't be expected to have the vim of youth, but they can bring a quiet, focused, and enthusiastic attitude to camp. If directors nurture this, they may receive a life-long commitment from these older staff members. Besides, you probably will never have to worry if they are keeping curfew or not - they will be!

RELATED ARTICLE: Hiring Older Staff

As hiring season approaches, directors should review the backgrounds and range of experience of their staff. If you find that you need to pepper your staff with a few sages, consider these tips on recruiting, hiring, and retaining older staff.

* If you do not receive applications from older staff, ask around to see if anyone knows of someone interested in working at your camp.

* Create an atmosphere of respect and appreciation for your older staff. Let younger staff and campers know these people have a lot to offer.

* Make meaningful contact. Get to know older staff, especially if they are new. Sit down and have a cup of coffee and relax with them, even for just ten minutes. Don't just talk to them on the run.

* Let them know you value their input. Don't take them for granted.

* Sit at their table at lunch. Get pizza with them at night.

* Remember, older staff love camp or they wouldn't be at camp; they love kids or they wouldn't be at camp; they have energy and spirit or they wouldn't be at camp. But don't expect them to be eighteen year olds, they aren't.

* Don't hire them just to turn around a program. Invite them to be a long-term part of your community. Campers and staff alike look forward to stability of program and staff. By retaining good staff, you can watch your program grow better each year.

* When the season is over, let them know you appreciated their coming. Chances are they would like to come back.

* If they can return for only a short time - a week, two weeks, or four weeks - use their skills in a special program and activity. Perhaps they cando a special staff training segment, special project for CITs, or a program for campers. Campers and staff will look forward to an exciting activity in the middle of the summer.

RELATED ARTICLE: Trend

Could Executives Be Your Next Staff Pool?

Three million additional students will enter schools in the United States in the next decade. Hopefully, you will need to expand your camp program to accommodate more camper-age children. But where will you get the staff you will need? Corporate America?

Millions of middle-aged Americans are abandoning their corporate careers to teach, volunteer, or work for community-based nonprofit groups or to simply re-evaluate their lives. The Trends Research Institute attributes the trend to an absence of spiritual fulfillment in their work. One in twenty baby boomers has taken a sharp detour from the fast track. The number will rise in the years ahead. Even those who don't totally drop out of the corporate world are ready to give some of their time to a cause they can believe in like the development of children.

Adapted from Trend Letter, May 15, 1997.

In her not-so-youthful, forty-plus years, Ann-Maureen Pliska, Ed.D., recently returned to work at camp. For four summers she has shared her skills in program and staff development. When she is not at camp, she is a research associate for ACT, in Iowa City, Iowa.