Last week, two K&E counselors threw me in the lake.

I was “dressed up” in a sport jacket and everything. Though, in fairness, I had it coming. I’d just been convicted, in front of about eighty people, for the “murder” of our operations director, who was very much alive an hour earlier.

This was Staff Training night 1, maybe two hours in. So far, so good.

Earlier that night

We had gathered everyone over at the freshman compound. Grills going, frisbees in the air. Typical summer night.

I gave a welcome speech, and we did a cheer to the summer.

Then Greg, our Marketing and Hill Director, hit the ground. Oh, did he ever play it up. The “he died” bit went a little too long, but in the best way.

From there, the murder mystery was on.

We broke into small groups, each with a captain. The mission was to walk the property and visit a list of suspects (Jacki, Bob, Scott, and a few others) asking them why they might have wanted Greg offed. The suspects were in absurd costumes.

Each captain pointed out spaces along the route. It doubled as a walking tour of camp for the new staff.

Then everyone came back to the campfire pit for the trial. Presided over by the Honorable Judge Golf’s ghost.

Greg returned with flour all over his face doing a weird-ghost-burnout-hippie-music-festival character, which I cannot adequately describe.

He asked the crowd if anyone had any clues.

Lede stood up. She runs tennis at K&E. It’s her third summer here, and she accused me. An incredible prosecutor.

I pulled a life insurance policy out of my pocket showing I’d taken one out on Greg. Did not help my case.

The conviction was swift. Jack Seebell and Jordan Cohen threw me in the lake.

The verdict came down that the Potter Place Phantom had possessed me, and once I dried off, we all ate ice cream.

End of night one.

Why we did it

Camp is going to be silly sometimes. We’re going to need our counselors to raise their hands and bring some enthusiasm without worrying about looking foolish in front of the kids.

That’s actually a hard thing for adults to do without practice.

Some of the hardest moments of being a counselor are the ones not on the schedule, where someone has to step up and say, “Hey, let’s do this thing. It’ll be awesome!”

So we start training the skill the first night they’re here.

And then along the way, we’ll do our camp schedule. All the sports, the creative pieces, the swimming, the boating, the ropes course, all of it. We’ll compete against other camps, and we still want to beat them. It’s all part of the camp experience.

There are a million other parts 6.5 weeks here. This in one of them.

A few days later

Jonah came up to me wanting to bring back Kenwood water aerobics. If you know, you know, but mostly it’s something from a few summers back where staff lead kids through some hair-brained water activities. Of course, we’re bringing it back!

If Greg can do a ghost burnout hippie, Jonah can do silly water aerobics. This is part of the “Hey, let’s do this thing. It’ll be awesome!” -vibe.

The skill compounds fast.

Camp starts tomorrow. I don’t plan on getting thrown in the lake again. Unless there’s another camp mystery to solve.

We got this,

Jack

PS - Instagram has a bunch of camp staff training to see.

And, if you have someone you think would be a good fit for a summer at K&E, they can schedule a call to talk camp.

114 Eagle Pond Rd, Wilmot, NH 03287
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