Be very wary of where you send your kids for camps, fyi

[Anonymous]

I don't want to name names as I think that would possibly lead to trouble, but I did want to offer a word of warning for parents who put their kids in camps. I know it's the end of camp season but this is useful knowledge for the future.

Basically, I would strongly suggest that you don't just assume that because a camp is a known name-brand that it is offering quality services. I worked at a camp that has that name recognition and it was horrible. It was unlicensed (the state didn't know about it and as employees we had to hide its existence from inspectors), the counselors were wholly unqualified and immature, they would have random counselors drive the mini-buses if the regular drivers didn't show up (with no driving training or CDL - it was my first time ever driving a bus), little attention was paid to medical forms to note which kids had allergies etc, our buses broke down daily, kids were wildly unsupervised at the pool - the list goes on an on. It really opened my eyes to how poor quality a camp could be while still getting tons of kids enrolled. Some kids complained about some things but a lot of it was behind the scenes stuff that kids would never know (ie having totally unqualified drivers).

Buyer beware, particularly when it comes to your children. Investigate fully the camps you send them to. Drop in during the day. Some questions to ask:

-Are you licensed/accredited? What is your record with violations?
-What training does your staff undergo?
-Who drives the children? Do they have CDLs? How are they trained?
-How do you keep track of allergies, medical problems etc?
-How are kids supervised at the pool?

...and then beware that you will not always receive the truth to these questions.

[Anonymous]

How do you hide a camp?

[Anonymous]

OP please tell us which camp or a very subtle clue so we know!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you hide a camp?

Lets just say the organization ran several camps and one of them was easy to disguise within the realm of the others. I would also say the states in inspection system made it easy to do this.

As for where it is, there are branches everywhere. I'm not sure if all were as bad as mine.

[Anonymous]

Branches sounds like a term from YMCA. They run camps not only on site but also at elementary/middle schools in town.

I used one week of Y camp several years ago, and was not impressed. Nothing this terrible that I observed, but a lot of young counselors, kids spending hours in a field as their assigned location, carrying backpacks everywhere.

Any other guesses?

[Anonymous]

I'll bite - Bar T or KidsCo? How is this post helpful if we don't know what camp the OP is referring to?

[Anonymous]

OP c'mon you have to name the camp you can't just leave us hanging like this....
guessing its the Y too...

[Anonymous]

Op here - the point wasn't to single out a particular camp. Did you read the post? It is giving advice of what sort of things to look for when you are shopping for a camp to send your child to. It is more of a caution to not always accept the places you trust with your children at face value - it's your responsibility as a parent to look deeper.

[Anonymous]

I don't think the OP was referring to Bar-T. They operate Ranch and Mountainside. It isn't like the school year where they have 30+ sites in the different school.

I have no knowledge of KidsCo or Y, the other 2 programs mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Bar-T actually does have more than just Mountainside and Ranch. They operate camps out of a handful of schools:

http://www.bar-t.com/kids-camp.html