Summer is here! The 3 months we spend all year preparing for have arrived — which means so have our summer staff! It has been an absolute honor and privilege to meet and engage with this year’s staff! They have come from all over the world to serve guests. And the only way to know how to do that well is to be trained! Our 200+ staff have spent this last week training on all of our activities. Let’s walk through what that looks like!
Day 1: Summer Staff Arrival Day
Day camp staff bonding on arrival day
Summer Staff dancing to church clap
All of our staff arrive by car, train, or plane! They settle into their new homes and spend the evening meeting new friends, playing games, and learning camp dances! Then they meet with their departments to get to know everyone’s names and learn the basic rules of camp. We open up our Family Camp Game Room retail space for them to buy our new merch and then they head off to sleep well for the training week ahead of them!
Day 2-5: Staff handbook and training
All of our staff spend time learning our staff handbook in order to love campers and fellow staff well! Each department then breaks up to get a tour of our campus, complete onboarding paperwork, and do group development! Each department has training groups so our staff can be trained on our 20+ activities, housekeeping, and retail. Let’s follow some of our staff:
Our conference staff training on Via Ferrata.
Conference staff training on Holcomb Rappel.
Our activities staff training on Scampi rock climbing.
Our activities staff training on Super Swing!
Evenings of Training
Each evening after a day full of learning, we have something special for our staff! The first night, each department has dinner at a host home. These host homes are full time staff families that make a meal and create a space for staff to relax, play games, and bond as a department away from work!
The second night, we have a gospel walk that ended in worship. The summer staff nailed things they needed to give up on the cross.
Summer Staff worshipping in New Mexico Hall
Summer staff nailing things on the cross
One night, our Family Camp team led a color wars experience that their guests will enjoy this summer! Our staff had a blast!
Then we ended the whole training week with a graduation luau party! One of our guest experiences is a luau night so we dressed the part and gave our staff leis instead of graduation caps. They all signed a flower and will create a unified staff lei!
We are so proud of our team for this summer! Not only are they fully trained, but are gifted with selfless and servant-driven hearts to serve our 20,000+ guests in the coming weeks You can support them by praying for safety and salvation this summer!
