Vista Camps

Vista Camps is a private Summer Camp for children consisting of a boys camp Rio Vista and a girls camp Sierra Vista. I Interned here during the 2017 Summer season from the end of May to the beginning of August. Vista Camps was established in 1921 and has been under its current ownership since 1976. Vista camps mission is “To provide a safe, wholesome, fun-filled learning experience to every boy and girl”. The philosophy behind the close family setting at Vista Camps is to provided a comfortable and inviting place to grow physically, spiritually, and emotionally. All the while building lasting skills, friendships and memories.

Job description

As a Recreational Intern my responsibilities include developing curriculum, teaching, and managing activities. Assisting with preparation, set-up and break down of evening activities. Leading activity sign-up and making counselor activity assignments. Being an outstanding role model for all counselors and campers. Responsibility for the performance, behavior, safety and happiness of counselors and campers. Responsible to all Camp Directors. To promote and maintain harmony, unity and discipline throughout camp. Uphold all rules and see that camp policies are being upheld by the staff and campers. To be present and available to counselors, campers and families for any questions, advice or assistance. Use marketing and social media techniques to deliver information to families

Requirements

To be eligible to work at Vista Camps you must be over 18 years of age, be able to pass a background check, complete all training's required including child abuse training, be able to pass a drug test, looking to make a positive impact in children's lives and a willingness to provide excellent instruction and leadership.

Benefits and Opportunities

There are many great benefits to working at Vista. Room and board are provided (Mrs. Becky makes some pretty great cinnamon rolls) and while there is no A/C you learn to be okay with it. The girls camp Director Beth Rumbo is a great resource to have and is helpful in finding jobs in the camping industry for employees and putting in a good word for them.

Achievements

The many things I learned this summer included scheduling for many areas such as counselor off nights, activity schedules, rotations for special events and office rotations. I also learned all of the parts that go into activity sign ups for the kids daily schedules and I ran one sign up on my own. I was in charge of activities for a week making sure they had the correct supplies to run their programs and making sure they were doing things related to the activities so that the kids would get the most out of camp. I helped organize evening programs and facilitated them. We had evening programs almost every night. I was also able to help create a new evening program called "Man Night" brainstorming ideas of activities to do within that night. I had the opportunity while there to get an extra training for DFPS reporting and participated in a report. I was presented with the opportunity to shadow a health inspection that happened and the inspector was very insightful on things they look for and how they run camp inspections. I was also privileged to learn that not everything a Director does is just fun games and paper work, they also have to do the dirty things that no one wants to do like cleaning a stained blob or fetching dead animals stuck in the swimming area.