Pre-Camp

Pre-camp is over- whew! I sort of hate pre-camp, although it is an important few days. I went home on the 28^th and 29^th to meet with S and A in the office. S is really nervous since this is her first summer and she hasn’t seen camp in session yet. There is a LOT of paperwork to do and I think she is a little bit overwhelmed, so I wanted to make sure she and A (who is back for summer #4, this time as the at-camp administrator) were on the same page. I think some of the problems with J last year came from her feeling disconnected, so I’m trying to fix that this year with S.

May 30 and 31, more staff started arriving and then June 2-5 was lifeguard training. I always dread it, but then it’s sort of fun once we actually get into it. The classroom work is sort of boring, but actually practicing skills in the pool is sort of fun. I had 4 staff go through the training and it was nice to get to know them a little bit before training starts. They are enthusiastic and excited to begin.

The water at the beach is really high and nearly covering all of the sand at the beach. Also, because the beach is a peninsula, the water on both sides of the path is up so high it’s up to your knees and it’s kind of a gross walk to get to the beach. We haven’t put the docks in yet, which made it a little more difficult to do my usual training. I like the staff to see the beach so they can imagine it when they are learning the general lifeguard skills. I also often will pause the standard training and reference specific examples of our beach. I also like to have them practice some skills at the beach. I’m hopeful that sometime during the next week, the water will drop and we will be able to get the docks in and we can practice some lifeguard things during training.

Today was CPR and first aid all day. I dread this day too,  because it’s a long day and it is boring material, however, becoming a Red Cross instructor for lifeguard and CPR/first aid was one of the smartest moves I’ve made. Not only is it more convenient to get everyone trained, the repeated practice makes me feel very confident in my ability to use the skills if there was an emergency. Everyone made it through pre-camp training and staff training officially begins tomorrow. I am ready for it to start.

M, M and A are WONDERFUL already and I can’t imagine the summer without them. I was nervous to have new program directors, but they are doing well. They kept everyone who didn’t need to get certified busy while I was training. Pre-camp is awkward for the new people arriving randomly throughout and it is a lot of work to keep everyone busy. I am ready for the official start of training.