Camp jobs are not just limited to counselor, nursing, or administrative positions. All overnight camps and some day camps have kitchen and dining facilities and need qualified people to staff them.
Jobs titles run the gamut from experienced food service managers and chefs to cooks and kitchen aids earning extra money working in summer jobs.
Food Service Managers
In camps and other food service facilities that operate long hours, seven days a week, the manager is aided by several assistant managers, each of whom supervises a shift of workers.
At some camps managers interview, hire, and, when necessary, discharge workers. They familiarize newly hired workers with the camp's policies and practices and oversee their training. Managers also schedule the work hours and days off of employees.
Food service managers supervise the kitchen and the dining room. They oversee food preparation and cooking, checking the quality of the food and the sizes of portions to ensure that dishes are prepared correctly and in a timely manner. Some kitchen managers must order supplies and maintain records of the costs of supplies and other equipment.
If a staff member is out sick, managers may roll up their sleeves and help with the cooking, clearing of tables, or other tasks. They direct the cleaning of the kitchen and dining areas and the washing of tableware, kitchen utensils, and equipment to maintain camp and government sanitation standards. They also monitor workers on a continual basis to ensure compliance with health and safety standards and other local regulations.
Managers are among the first to arrive at work and the last to leave at night. They also are responsible for locking up, checking that ovens, grills, and lights are off.
Cooks
Head cooks and their assistants are responsible for preparing meals that are tasty and attractively presented. Chefs are the most highly skilled, trained, and experienced kitchen workers. Although the terms chef and cook are still sometimes used interchangeably, cooks generally have more limited skills. Many chefs have earned fame for themselves and the restaurants, hotels, and institutions where they work because of their skill in artfully preparing the traditional favorites and in creating new dishes and improving familiar ones.
Cook Helpers/Kitchen Workers
Other helpers, under the direction of managers and cooks, per-form tasks requiring less skill. They weigh and measure ingredients; fetch pots and pans; clean, peel, and slice potatoes, other vegetables, and fruits; and make salads. They also may do some baking or cut and grind meats, poultry, and seafood in preparation for cooking. Such helpers are responsible for general kitchen cleaning, including cleaning of utensils, dishes and silverware, equipment, counters, and floors.
The number and types of workers employed in camp kitchens depend on the size of the camp and the number of people it feeds.
Dining Room Staff
At some camps the tasks of setting the tables, serving the food, filling salt and pepper shakers, clearing the tables, and mopping the floors after meals fall to senior campers or CITs. Other camps hire dining room staff to take care of those duties. Dining room staff usually work split shifts.
Working Conditions
While counselors and other staff get a chance to participate in camp activities, kitchen workers seldom, if ever, get the same opportunities. They might, however, get to use the pool or take a swim during times when the campers aren't using the facilities- early in the morning or late at night, for example, or during scheduled camper rest periods.
The day begins early for kitchen workers and runs late. Meals are generally served three times a day, and the food needs to be prepared and the kitchen kept clean and organized throughout the day.
After breakfast most kitchen staff spend the rest of the morning preparing for lunch. Sometimes, between the lunch and dinner hours, a kitchen worker might be given a break for an hour or two.
If a camp has late evening activities or offers afternoon snacks, the kitchen staff has to be on duty. When campers are taken on field trips, often the kitchen staff is responsible for preparing boxed or bagged lunches for each camper and staff member.
Training for Kitchen Staff
Food Service Management
Many food service manager positions are filled by promoting experienced kitchen staff and service workers who have demonstrated potential for handling increased responsibility.
A bachelor's degree in restaurant and food service management provides a particularly strong preparation for a career in this occupation in a variety of settings, including restaurant work.
In 1997 more than 160 colleges and universities offered four-year programs in restaurant and hotel management or institutional food service management. For persons who do not want to pursue a four-year degree, a good alternative is provided by the more than eight-hundred community and junior colleges, technical institutes, and other institutions that offer programs in these fields leading to an associate degree or other formal award below the bachelor's degree.
Both two-year and four-year programs give instruction in subjects such as accounting, business law and management, food planning and preparation, and nutrition. Some programs combine classroom and laboratory study with internships that provide on-the-job experience.
Cooks
An increasing number of cooks are obtaining their training through high school or post-high school vocational programs and two- or four-year colleges. Cooks also may be trained in apprenticeship programs offered by professional culinary institutes, industry associations, and trade unions. An example is the three-year apprenticeship program administered by local chapters of the American Culinary Federation in cooperation with local employers and junior colleges or vocational education institutions. In addition, some camps provide their own training for cooks. People who have had courses in commercial food preparation may be able to start as a cook without first having to spend time in a lower-skilled kitchen job.
Some vocational programs in high schools offer this kind of training, but usually these courses are given by trade schools, vocational centers, colleges, professional associations, and trade unions. Postsecondary courses range from a few months to two years or more and are open in some cases only to high school graduates. The armed forces also are a good source of training and experience.
Although curricula may vary, students usually spend most of their time learning to prepare food through actual practice. They learn to bake, broil, and otherwise prepare food, and to use and care for kitchen equipment. Training programs often include courses in planning menus, determining portion size and food cost control, purchasing food supplies in quantity, selecting and storing food, and using leftover food to minimize waste. Students also learn public health rules for handling food. Training in supervisory and management skills sometimes is emphasized in courses offered by private vocational schools, professional associations, and university programs.
Culinary courses are given by 550 schools across the nation. The American Culinary Federation accredited seventy of these programs in 1993. Accreditation is an indication that a culinary program meets recognized standards regarding course content, facilities, and quality of instruction. The American Culinary Federation has only been accrediting culinary programs for a relatively short time, however, and many programs have not yet sought accreditation.
Kitchen Workers
Some kitchen staff have had previous experience working in restaurants or fast-food establishments. Kitchen staff jobs do not usually require any specific educational qualifications, and most workers are taught their skills on the job.
Job Outlook
The job outlook is excellent for cooks and other kitchen workers. There is usually a high turnover rate in this area because jobs are seasonal and are often filled by students earning money to see themselves through school.
Workers under the age of twenty-five have traditionally filled a significant proportion of the lesser skilled jobs in this occupation. The pool of young workers is expected to continue to shrink through the 1990s, but then begin to grow. Many employers will be forced to offer higher wages, better benefits, and more training to attract and retain workers in these jobs.
Salaries
Earnings of food service managers vary greatly according to their responsibilities and the type and size of establishment. Based on a survey conducted for the National Restaurant Association, the median base salary of managers in restaurants was estimated to be about $27,900 a year in early 1993, but managers of the largest restaurants and institutional food service facilities often had annual salaries in excess of $45,000.
Wages of cooks and other kitchen and dining room workers vary depending on the size of the camp and its budget. Many earn an hourly wage from $5 to $7 an hour. Some are paid a flat fee, and this can range from $1,000 to $5,000 or more, depending upon the length of the season.
Firsthand Accounts
Diane Boone, Director of Food Service
Now retired, Diane Boone worked for twenty-four years in a variety of camps in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. At varying times she held positions as cook's helper, head cook, food service manager, and food service director. She also worked as a cook with the sheriff's department.
Diane also owned a business called Boone's Cooking Service, which provided food service to camps used as conference centers in the winter months.
How Diane Got Started
"I needed a job. We had just moved to the mountains and I heard about the job opening at Thousand Pines Baptist Camp. Because I had restaurant experience I applied. I started off as a cook's helper.
"It was also my love for children that attracted me to the idea of working in camps. And my love for cooking. This is a wonderful 'service' profession.
"I also loved nature, and this was a very rewarding job, making the camp experience better by providing good home-style cooking."
What the Job Is Really Like
"Most of the camps I worked in had a capacity of up to five-hundred. I would not say 'relaxed' is a word often used to describe a camp cook. I have not met a relaxed cook yet. I would have to say the unexpected is the rule for a camp cook. You had better be flexible and ready to change menus at a moment's notice and be a good sport about it.
"'Interesting' best describes life in camp, especially in the kitchen. We are 'Mom,' counselor, first-aid person-and that is just what we do in our 'spare' time! We deal with troubled kids (why do you think the parents wanted their children to attend at a good wholesome camp for the summer?), natural disasters, shorted food deliveries, angry camp directors, and upset staff (often other than our own kitchen staff). My duties include planning menus; interviewing, hiring, training, and scheduling staff; ensuring sanitation and the safe handling of food; actually preparing food; taking inventory and ordering all kitchen supplies; organizing the pantry and walk-in freezer; and overseeing the daily on-site cooking of main entrees.
I am also responsible for keeping a full pantry. I found I needed at least two weeks worth of meals in my pantry at all times in order to be prepared for those inevitable emergencies: roads wash out in summer rains, camp buses break down on the way up the hill, vendors back-order items you need-so you'd better have good back up.
"I always keep some powdered milk on hand in case the milk doesn't come in. There are no stores to run to in the wilderness areas. I have had to make my own mayonnaise on more than one occasion. Many times I make my own bread products because the deliveries don't come in.
"Power outages are common in the high country, too. I worked one camp where it had a beautiful, modern, stainless steel kitchen-all electric. Almost every afternoon my power was off because of daily thunderstorms. I quickly learned to have my dinner meal ready by noon and placed on the heavy steel plates on top of my ranges. There the meal stayed above 160 degrees F. until dinner at 5:00 P.M.
"I also learned to keep a supply of paper products on hand for when the dishwasher broke down or the power was off.
"Also, keeping big pots of boiling water on the stove was a must for pot washing later.
"Camp directors for summer camps often know nothing about food service. You have to learn to be a politician real fast, and also to be flexible. Sometimes I have had to go along with something I know won't work just because the director ordered me to; then you have to help them save face when it falls apart.
"I also learned early in my career to make friends with the wild creatures I shared the beautiful locations with. I have lots of fun bear stories. Fortunately, I never met a black bear I could not be friends with. I learned to talk, whistle, or sing when I left the camp kitchen and headed for my quarters so the bear would know it was me and not be scared. Only frightened or startled bears cause any problems.
"Raccoons also visited me every night in most camps. 1 let my staff and sometimes a camper feed them raw eggs. Skunks, too, were common as well as yellow jackets (a can of grease set some distance from the serving area drew them away from the campers), snakes, mice, and wood rats."
A Typical Day
4:00 A.M. Rise and shine.
5:00 Open kitchen, start dishwasher and coffee pots, boil water for hot cereal, place bacon in oven, turn warmers on.
5:30 Have a coffee break and evaluate the day's menus and staffing.
6:00 Helpers arrive.
6:00-7:30 Get breakfast cooked.
8:00 Serve breakfast.
8:30 Staff breakfast break.
9:00 Cleanup and begin lunch preparation, perhaps getting sack lunches ready for field trips.
10:30-11:00 Do my inventory check and make out food orders.
11:00 Finalize lunch preparation.
Noon Serve lunch.
12:30 P.M. Staff lunch break.
1:00 Clean up.
1:00-3:00 Start dinner and deal with any vendors.
3:00-4:00 Take a break if I can.
4:00-5:00 Make final dinner preparations.
5:00 Serve dinner.
5:30 Staff dinner break.
6:00 Clean up and prepare evening snack for camp counselors.
"With luck, I get to leave at this point, if I have a reliable assistant cook to supervise clean up and prep for the next morning."
Accommodations
"I have stayed in tents, Quonset huts, nice nurses' quarters, my own camper, and even commuted to nearby camps.
"Room and board for me and my two daughters and meals for my husband were always a part of my negotiations for any job. In fact, every summer my husband would usually come and stay two weeks of his vacation at whatever camp I was in."
The Upsides and Downsides
"I loved my work. I loved the challenge, the adventure, the surprises, the wonderful children and adults I met. I loved the friends I made along the way during twenty-four years of working with young people. My staff all became my 'adopted' children. You should see the pile of Christmas cards and letters I get each year. It is wonderful and so fulfilling. I am so glad I chose to be a camp cook all those years. I have dear former staff members I have seen grow up and now have families of their own. I've seen some of my 'kids' grow up to become forest rangers, doctors, counselors, and missionaries.
"I loved all those evenings when staff would come into my kitchen late at night and help me crack fifty dozen eggs for the morning-the crazy, fun, egg-cracking contests in the middle of the night; the star walks; the meteor shower watches; the camp fires; the camaraderie; the flooded kitchens; the rats loose in the walk-in; the bread dough that 'grew' and crawled across the kitchen floor during dinner break; the 'Christmas in July' parties; and all the cookouts.
"I think some of my favorite times have been with the bears. I have met many a bear late at night after I have closed up the kitchen. I love the fact that most camps are in the most beautiful locations you can imagine. I have worked at camps at 8,500 feet with a lake and wild donkeys. I have worked at camps at 7,500 feet with beautiful meadows that become gorgeous lakes as the winter snows melted, and that we could canoe on by the end of summer.
"I have also worked many adult conferences and enjoyed their speakers and the fellowship.
'The downside...if you are not a 'giver,' if you need instant gratification, if you must be concise and live on an even keel, then don't even think of becoming a camp cook.
"And honestly? It can be a thankless job sometimes. It seems people just have to complain about something, and we often get it. Everyone but the kitchen staff gets to go to campfires and other activities, but we have to work to get ready for the next day.
"One problem we face today in food service is the fact that this is a generation of 'fast food' addicts. If our macaroni and cheese doesn't look exactly like the Kraft product, look out! The kids, and even the adults, want no unfamiliar foods. We have had to become very creative in coming up with foods they will eat. Pizza and outdoor barbecues work well.
"We work long hard hours. The old saying-we are overworked and underpaid-is just how it is."
Salaries
"If money is the only reason someone wants to be a camp cook, and then think again. The most rewarding 'wage' I received was the satisfaction of a job well done. I helped make the campers' experience better because they were well fed with tasty meals.
"The best salary I ever got in camp was $7.50 an hour in 1988, and I was the head cook. Most get little more than minimum wage plus meals. To contrast, when I was a cook with the sheriff's department, I made $15.50 an hour plus fantastic benefits. But, I must say the camp experience got me the sheriff job."
Advice from Diane
"If you have a cheerful disposition, a gentle spirit, the patience to handle unexpected situations, and a willingness to keep on learning, then you are a candidate for a successful career in 'camping.'
"As far as cooking goes, buy a cookbook that covers cooking for fifty. Trust me on this one! I have worn out three editions in my thirty-four years of being a professional institutional cook.
"I became a food service director because the food service director at the camp where I was working as assistant cook had a heart attack. She gave me her old Food for Fifty cookbooks and told me everything I would need to know to run the kitchen was in it.
She was right, and that was the start of a great career.
"I would also recommend some courses in food handling, going to restaurant shows, watching cooking shows on TV (I've gotten lots of little shortcuts from the experts this way), and taking any classes offered by local colleges (some are free) that deal with cooking and general cooking skills. Camps are hard up for dedicated and qualified staff.
"You must also have some skills in baking from scratch, vendor management, people management, sanitation control, and good home-style cooking.
"A final word: I would not trade my years as a camp cook for any amount of money. It was a hard life, but the rewards were worth it to me and my family."
Jonathan Werner, Camp Cook
Jonathan Werner is a high school student who spends part of his summer as a cook at Camp UTADA, a program for children with diabetes.
How Jonathan Got Started
"I started eleven years ago as a camper, when I was told I had diabetes. My doctor recommended that I go to camp. I started working in the camp in the program area, where we played games and had different activities.
"Just this past summer I worked in the kitchen, and I will work there again in two weeks. I got the job by talking to the camp director. He passed me along to the food service manager, who told me which camp sessions I would be attending (there are seven sessions during the summer, a week each) and what I would be doing."
What the Job Is Really Like
"As a cook I wake up at 6:00 A.M. and start breakfast. It takes a long time to cook for sixteen families! (There are three family sessions and four other sessions for older campers.)
"I get done cooking as the families come in to eat. We get them seconds, if they need them, then we clean up breakfast and start lunch. We do the same thing, and then start dinner.
"It is really fun. What I like most is being involved in camp and spending time with friends and others with diabetes.
"All the jobs at camp are of volunteers except the kitchen."
Advice from Jonathan
"I would advise everyone wanting to work in the kitchen to get plenty of rest! Don't plan on just lying around. Get your work done fast, so you have time to play after the work is done. Be a really hard worker, and if you like it, then you will probably be asked to come back again."
Rose Elizabeth Ledbetter, Dining Room Staff
Rose Elizabeth Ledbetter has worked in camps in a variety of roles. She is currently a student at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, working toward a B.A. in English.
How Rose Elizabeth Got Started
"I was fourteen, so, of course the most attractive aspect of working at the camp was being away from home. For us, it was as if we were out on our own. Most of the children at camp were a great deal younger than we were, and though there were some who were our age, we felt vastly superior because we had no one telling us what to do. It was also about the only job available for someone my age.
"I got the job because a friend was going to be working at the camp. Her parents were friends with the director.
Working in the Dining Room
"I started out as kitchen help, the lowest of the low. Before each meal we set up trays, drinks, silverware, glasses, napkins, chaffing dishes for the buffet, and anything else that might need to be set up. While the campers ate, we filled drinks, refilled the buffet, and cleared trash. After the meal we washed dishes, swept and cleaned the dining room, took out the trash, and hosed down the kitchen floor.
"Once a week we waxed the dining room floor and every two weeks, as campers left, we helped the woman in charge of the kitchen take an inventory."
Accommodations
"Looking back now, I realize this was really hard work, but at the time, I was in heaven. I was free to do what I wanted as long as I turned up for work on time. We were housed in the upstairs of the camp director's residence with our own separate entrance. So we really were on our own. There were four large rooms, each with its own bathroom and two beds, and one large common area furnished with couches and chairs that had been cast off from the cabins. Some of them must have dated back to the sixties, judging from the lovely shades of lime green and orange they were upholstered in."
Snack Bar Work
"That summer was awesome, and although, by Alabama law, I was old enough to get a 'real job' the next year, I went back to camp. That summer I still worked in the dining room for set ups, but after the meals, instead of cleanup, I left to set up the snack bar where the children could buy snacks and colas after their afternoon recreation. To earn a pay hike that summer, I also helped clean the cabins after each group left every two weeks or so and helped stock and prepare the cabins when a new group was coming in. We also cleaned the bathrooms and the bunk area."
A Typical Day
"A typical day when I first started camp began at 6:00 in the morning. At this time I worked in the dining hall. Breakfast for the campers started at 7:00 A.M., SO we had to have everything ready for the campers and then feed ourselves and the other staff before the campers came into the dining hall.
"Depending on how many cabins were full and how many groups we had that week, breakfast could last from thirty minutes to an hour and a half. When the meal was done, we began our cleanup. The buffet came down and those dishes were left to soak for the cook to clean. The campers dumped and stacked their own trays and glasses, so we simply picked them from the stacks and washed them. When the kitchen was clean, we swept the dining room and dumped the trash out back in the dumpsters. Usually one of the guys helped us with that because the trash was too heavy for us.
"There were two boys who lived at the camp year-round, Cambodian refugees the camp directors had taken in. One day one of them was helping us dump the trash. He was sticking his hands into the trash cans of grits, eggs, biscuits, and other scraps and pretending to eat it. We laughed and laughed. Suddenly he sobered and looked at his hands. 'I used to have to eat like this,' he said. I will never forget his face.
"Sometimes we had other duties: cleaning windows, sweeping the porches, hosing off the back loading dock, stocking supplies. There were several of us on the kitchen staff, so the work was divided and went quickly. Then we were free until 11:30 to begin setting up for lunch. We repeated the same process for lunch and for dinner.
"Sometimes the campers had wienie roasts or they grilled at their cabins for dinner, and that meant we were free to do what we wanted. We did the same things the other campers did. We hiked, swam, and canoed. Unlike the campers, we had radios and TVs in our rooms and we used them, too. I remember one British chaperone who came with a group. She found out that we had a TV and she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, hidden in our rooms, so that she could watch the wedding of Charles and Di live on TV.
"At this camp, like at most others, you often do double duty. It is sort of like living at home; if something needs to be done, you just do it."
The Upsides and Downsides
"I suppose what I liked the most about the job the first few years was the freedom. No one told us a bedtime or what we could do or when we could do it. For a fourteen-year-old that freedom was heaven.
"After that, the best thing was the friendship. Most of the workers returned year after year, so we were a very tight-knit group. We were best friends. We also did our share of kissing and taking 'nature walks' with the boys who worked at the camp. Camp always seemed more like fun than work, even when I was cleaning toilets.
"Now, what I appreciate about the camp was what it taught me. The last two years of camp we had cancer victims there. Those children taught me more about life than any other single thing I have ever experienced. They helped heal the wounds of my own mother's death. They taught me about courage and spirit and living."
Advice from Rose Elizabeth
"Finding a job at a camp will probably be easy. If you are a churchgoer, your minister can provide you with a list of camps in the state run by churches. The YMCA has summer camps all over the country, including sleep-over and day camps. Contact your local YMCA for information. Look in the backs of magazines such as Teen and Seventeen. The same camps that advertise for campers also need staffers. Just call the number in the ad and ask for an application for employment.
'There are several Girl Scout camps in every state. Look in your Yellow Pages under Girl Scout Council. However, most Girl Scout camps look for staffers who are seventeen and older.
"Remember that while the pay may not seem as high as that for some other summer jobs, room and board are included in most salaries. Also remember that even if the pay is lower, you have little to spend your money on at a camp, and you'll have a lot left over at the end of the summer. It is a great way to save.
'The qualities you'll need to work at a camp are the same as they are for many jobs. Most important is a willingness to work. The pranks and fun you see in movies such as Meatballs, for example, are very close to real life in a camp, but those movies don't show the hard work. Remember, you aren't there as a camper, you are staff and you are getting paid. Be flexible. If you are willing to take on other tasks, even if they aren't in your job description, you may be able to move up. If you have special skills, you might find a camp to match them. These days there are camps for everything from music and writing to skateboarding and survival skills."
Katie Krieck, Assistant Cook
Katie Krieck has been working at camps for the past six summers as a counselor and as an assistant cook. The last three seasons she has been at Camp Boyhaven, a Cub Scout overnight camp in Middlegrove, New York. Currently she attends Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts.
How Katie Got Her Job
"I have no official training for this job. I am an English major and I work for the Marriot food service at my school. I have been at this camp for three years, and I learned all I know from my first summer as a prep cook. My bosses that year, who were my age, taught me all I know.
"I started to work in camp because I love working with kids, but I took the kitchen position rather than a program position because I am a very shy person and don't deal well with meeting new people. With the number of people that go through the camps, I would have probably panicked. I like being able to see the kids and interact with them when I feel comfortable.
'The first job I got in a camp was a favor for a friend. It wasn't a kitchen staff position, I was a floating counselor. She was in a bind and needed counselors. She fudged some paperwork because I wasn't quite 'of age' at the time, and then, I was in.
"That same person recommended me for my current job. She works for the council and knew the camp director that year. That got me through the first year. Since then, I was given the job because the people who ran the camp and did the hiring knew me and trusted my capabilities. They knew how much I loved Camp Boyhaven, the kids, and the kitchen."
What the Work Is Really Like
"My duties include everything from planning the meal, to prep-ping it, to preparing the main courses, to serving them-and, then, finally cleaning up and sometimes pitching in with the dishes.
"I am to keep the kitchen in clean, working order and make sure the rest of staff members do their job. This is no easy task considering the 'help' is a group of fifteen- and sixteen-year olds who have very little to no work ethic. I have to clean up and finish up what they don't finish-as well as do my job.
"The summer is long and tiring. Last summer we went through two head cooks because the first one messed up badly. This summer the head cook is older and she can't lift things most of the time, leaving it to me to pick up the pieces. Our staff this summer has also dropped from eight to three. One quit, one was moved, one was hurt, one left on vacation, and one was a CIT volunteer who had to leave."
A Typical Day
"My day starts at 5:30 A.M. I get up and shower and unlock the doors of the kitchen by 5:45. My prep cook lights the grills at 6:00 and by 6:30 we have to make whatever we're having for breakfast, maybe pancakes or French toast.
"It is far from boring; it is always extremely hectic. You cannot end one thing without thinking about what you have to do next. Many times I would find myself going to bed at night and worrying about dinner for the next day. The normal tasks always had to be done, like prepping our salad bar and making up bowls of peanut butter and jelly, as well as getting the main course done. This is no easy task when you have several sixteen-year-olds whining about when they could get a break and your head cook complaining about how much she is hurting. It is very frustrating and nerve-racking-especially for someone like me who hasn't really experienced this much pressure before. I am almost twenty and I feel about thirty as I wind up this summer. A lot of weight is put on your shoulders."
The Upsides
"I love the kids-they are so cute and they do talk to you, even in the kitchen. Especially if you go out to the program areas, they get a kick out of swimming with the cook or talking to the person who cooks the food for them.
"I remember last summer I would go out and see my friend who was director of scout skills. The kids would start talking to me, and they seemed to be interested in the fact that the person who cooks for them is like their older sister or their babysitter--not a seventy-five-year-old bearded woman.
"I also enjoy the people I meet. The leaders come in and chat. They are impressed when they find out how old I am and how much I have to do.
'The leader commended us by saying, 'I know how hard it is to cook for a family of four-I could only imagine one-hundred screaming kids. Good job.' I loved that because it is how I think.
"I love cooking--plain and simple. I get very offended when people pick on how I cook."
The Downsides
"I absolutely hate the complaints. We get them all the time, and they are very insulting to my ego. I get aggravated-especially when the staff complains. I do everything within my power to make the food taste good, and all they do is complain.
"The hassles of getting the food out on time and hot is another big problem. Keeping the food hot is key--because if it is, we get less complaining.
"The kids and adults can be very picky-even the staff gets to be a pain. I try to cater to them specially, to keep them healthy and happy."
Salaries
"The way Boyhaven works your pay depends on how many years you have been there, how old you are, and what your position is. I made $200 last year and $225 this year. It was low for the work I did, and there were many arguments about it, but some-thing other than the salary kept me there."
Advice from Katie
"You need to have nerves of steel. This is a must! You need them to deal with other crew members and the problems and the annoyances that come with everything that happens.
"Another thing is to love the camp you work at and have spirit-camp spirit and scout spirit, if it happens to be a scout camp like mine. I had both and it was hard to be one of the only ones with it. It will help you survive, however, and the love for the place and kids and the spirit will help you stay where you are and not quit despite any difficulties you face.
"Also, try to keep some sort of sense of humor and stand tall. Keep your head up high no matter what, and keep smiling. Never quit, it'll all be worth it.
"I just got home from camp and let me tell you that after a day or two of sleep, I will be missing it-missing my friends and the feeling of independence. So when you are there, relish every minute of it. You'll regret it if you don't."
