Summer job as camp counselor offers financial and emotional rewards
By Kate Jonuska

While other kids were flipping burgers and mowing lawns over summer break, Jordan Brooks was busy playing volleyball, hiding and seeking, hiking and being adored by a group of younger campers at Blue Mountain Ranch near Florissant, the same camp that he went to every summer as a boy.

“Camp was always the highlight of the year for me … I had always just assumed that I would be a counselor,” says Brooks, who is originally from Dallas and is currently a student at Colorado College. “You get to go to camp and get paid for it!  You get to play sports or hike in the woods all day, and you make some of the best friends you’ll ever have.”

“Honestly, I had just as much fun when I was working as a counselor than when I was a camper,” says Abigail Tudor, who will be spending her tenth summer at the YMCA’s Camp Shady Brook near Deckers in 2009, her second year as a counselor after two years of being a counselor in training.

“It has been such an important and influential part of my life,” she continues. “Meeting different kids from all different walks of life gave me a totally new perspective. It was so amazing and touching to see all the kids throughout the summer change, just like I had when I was a kid.”

CLICK HERE to read the full text of this article, which published in the March 2009 edition of Pikes Peak Parent magazine.