KAMP USA jobs last about 8/9 weeks. Your co-workers could be other KAMPers, international staff from many countries, or American teenagers. Just how rewarding and enjoyable your summer will be, depends largely on you. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to be conscientious, reliable, have a positive mindset, be enthusiastic, flexible, have a good sense of humour and be able to work as part of a team. Although you won’t be living and working with children, you will have some contact with the kids on camp so it helps if you genuinely like their company and are able to get on with them.

Jobs

Kitchen

Most KAMP staff are employed in this area. In the kitchens you can expect to be dishwashing or potwashing, usually with automatic machines, cleaning work areas and generally helping in the all-round preparation and serving of food. Kitchen work requires your presence before each of the three daily meals for preparation, as well as afterwards, for cleaning up. You may possibly be needed between meals for taking deliveries, although this does not occur regularly. There are also openings for those who have catering and cooking experience to work as assistant chefs (see below).

Dining room

This will probably involve some kitchen work, plus serving food, setting up, clearing and cleaning tables, floors, etc. for each meal. You could be preparing food, or helping to serve it to campers and other staff, either as waiters/waitresses or in a cafeteria style servery, or at a snack or salad bar.

Cooking

Anyone wishing to help with the cooking must have previous experience. On your application please state clearly what your hands-on experience has been. The director wants to know exactly what you can do – are you skilled in baking, have you been involved with menu preparation, if so for how many people and what types of menu? Whatever experience you have had, it is important to give us as much information as possible. As with other kitchen staff, your presence will be required before each meal and will involve getting up quite early in the morning for preparation.

Maintenance

Maintenance involves both outdoor and indoor work. On the grounds you will be cutting grass, trimming shrubs and trees, raking leaves, grass and other rubbish. You may be driving tractors and trucks, and may have some dangerous equipment to handle, e.g. chainsaws, etc. Obviously most of this work is in daylight hours but as a maintenance person you will be on call 24 hours a day for emergencies, although for the most part the job will be routine. Painting, changing lightbulbs, repairing sports equipment such as goalposts, repairing buildings (window screens, doors, bunks, walls, decks, docks and other fixtures) may be involved and some jobs may require carpentry skills. Indoor work may involve cleaning (including toilets and showers) as well as general repairs which may involve plumbing and electrical skills. Again it is very important to give us as much information as possible on your application form.

Laundry

An efficient laundry is crucial to the smooth running of camp! This is invariably one of the hotter jobs on camp and includes the collection of laundry from the cabins and other areas, plus the washing, folding and redistribution of the laundry. Laundry staff are also responsible for laundry supplies and minor equipment maintenance, such as cleaning filters as well as keeping the laundry room dry and organised.

Cleaning

This means cleaning toilets and shower areas as well as mopping floors, disinfecting kitchen surfaces, sweeping, collecting and disposing of garbage etc. You may be involved in other areas such as general maintenance. Flexibility is the key in all these job descriptions.

Housekeeping

Basically the same as for cleaning but not all camps have this position. General cabin and bathroom cleaning will be involved but also general ‘domestic’ duties for the living quarters of the director, senior staff and guests. Almost certainly the job will also encompass some or all of the laundry and maintenance duties.

Security/Night Watchman

Like most of these descriptions, the jobs mean different things to different camps, from sitting by the camp gate in the sun directing and admitting visitors, to patrolling the camp at night and being a combination policeman/firewarden/surrogate parent. Inevitably the job entails to some extent ‘policing’ your peers (many camps have a curfew) and you need to have the maturity, responsibility and management skills to be able to handle this appropriately. You have to remember that you are working for the camp director and not the counsellors and staff. For obvious reasons, camps prefer older applicants who can respond well and safely to both the routine and the unexpected from inside and outside the camp.

Driving

A job as a driver may involve the transportation of children, staff and equipment to various destinations. You will also be required to do various errands such as collecting the mail and are likely to be asked to go somewhere at short notice. Both a full UK and International Driver’s Licence (I.D.L.) are required and we need photocopies of both sides of your UK licence with your KAMP application form, please. Most camps stipulate that you be over 21 in order to comply with their insurance regulations (at some camps you need to be over 25). You will probably be asked to take a further driving test on arrival at camp. You should have some experience of driving on the right hand side of the road. When not actually driving, it is assumed you will be available for just about any other necessary work, both indoor and outdoor. A practical knowledge of auto mechanics is always useful.

Office

The camp office is the hub of camp, the centre for all camp business. Your job could involve working in any of the busy office areas at camp - answering telephones, bookkeeping, photocopying, computer/word processing (note, undertaking computer based courses is not sufficient experience), helping children with problems and certainly general reception and associated duties. If you are applying for this type of position you must like children as you will be in frequent contact with them. You must be organised and flexible, and be prepared for shift work and long hours - this is unlikely to be the 9 to 5 job as you might expect at home!

You are placed in a support role in camp according to your skills, preferences and experience. Previous work experience is an advantage for any position but essential for maintenance, office and kitchen (cooking) work. The sooner you apply, the more placements will be available to you. As more and more vacancies start to fill, you will probably need to keep more of an open mind and be prepared to be more flexible.

Is KAMP right for you?

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There is the opportunity to have a lot of fun on camp, but you will need to be prepared for a lot of hard work. At the beginning of the camp season, your hours may exceed the normal 8-10 hours a day, but as you get used to the job, you should speed up and achieve a fair amount of free time.

There may be some restrictions on your freedom such as curfews, unsociable hours and some weekend work. The rules and regulations that apply to all kids and other staff about smoking and drinking will also apply to you.

It is likely you will be living and working with people from a variety of countries, backgrounds and cultures. Whilst this is potentially great news for widening your circle of friends around the world, it can make communication challenging at times. In practice, if everyone works as a team and helps each other out when necessary, this international mix can provide an extra exciting dimension to camp life.

Accommodation can be very basic – rough wooden cabins, shared by a few of you. Probably the first thing you will have to do on camp is to clean them, as they will have been unoccupied since last summer.

We try to give as realistic a picture as possible, but generally we find most participants experience a challenging and fun summer, making lifelong friends in the process.

Time off

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On most camps KAMPers are generally able to take advanatge of camp facilities during their time off. This doesn't always happen automatically however, sometimes you have to politely ask if it's OK to use the facilities when the children are not using them. Similarly, while some camps are very good about helping get off camp on evenings or days off, others may not be able to provide that help. In that case, you may have to be a bit more pro-active in order to arrange transport off camp.

Types of camp

"Going to camp" for up to eight weeks each summer is a well-established North American tradition in a country where school holidays last for three months and the summer is generally hot and sunny. Since this type of camp is relatively unknown in Europe, some further explanation may be helpful.

Private Residential Camps

These are privately-owned and run on a profit-making basis by individuals (generally husband and wife) and cater for the children of high/middle income families. The camps are mostly long established, permanent structures set in wooded, rocky, picture-book parts of the USA and although some of them are lavishly equipped (even with electricity in the cabins), others are more primitive, emphasising the back-to-nature element of camping. Some even prefer platform tents to cabins.

Day Camps

At these camps, the children attend only on weekdays and return home at the end of each day. Day camps can be privately run, or they may be operated by the local town or an agency such as the YMCA. They provide the same type of activities as residential camps, often catering for several hundred campers each day.

Organisational Camps

This covers camps run by such bodies as the YMCA, Girl Scout organisations, as well as those attached to a church or charitable institution. Some are every bit as well equipped as private camps, others are quite rustic with basic facilities. Campers attending these camps tend to be a fair population mix – the children of doctors, lawyers and business people as well as kids from working class backgrounds. Campers usually attend this type of camp for between one and four weeks.

Camps for Disadvantaged Children

Operated by various social, philanthropic or religious agencies like the Salvation Army, the Fresh Air Fund of New York, or other local caring organisations, these camps aim to give inner city kids a break from the streets with a week or two in the country. The family pays very little for the child to go to camp or even nothing at all. Facilities tend to be very limited and on the worn and rustic side.

Special Needs Camps

On this type of camp, the campers require more specialised care and attention. Run privately or by non profit agencies, special needs camps include those for the physically or mentally disabled (adults as well as children), camps for diabetics, camps for overweight children and camps for kids with special learning or behavioural problems.