At many camps I hear a common theme re

peated:“We used to sing all the time, but now it is just too hard to find the right people to lead us in our old camp songs.” Nobody wants to step to the plate. Those that try to sing are often met with a deafening silence from the crowd of children and counselors they are trying to inspire. Each year it gets more difficult as the older staff move on and the new staff—even those who sang their lungs out as campers themselves—find it hard to continue the tradition of music. It is a tradition that is the heart and soul of the American camp experience. But don’t despair. Not yet anyway. The kids are still kids; they’re young, they’re fun, and they’re willing. They want to sing. Your counselors are just as energetic and motivated as we ever were. But, there’s this zone—educators like to call it the “discomfort zone’, and it stops a lot of people, old and young alike, in their tracks. For a variety of reasons, most of which are easily identifiable, this discomfort zone has widened its jaws and shut down a huge cross section of those who would lead us in song. My workshop is designed to help any camp find ways to minimize that zone of discomfort and nurture a self-sustaining cycle of participation in the music and traditions of camp songs.

The reality of being a camp director is much different today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Being a Camp Director involves a more complex and diverse portfolio of responsibilities. You cannot be both super counselor and super camp director. There is a wall of rules and regulations that need to be adhered to. There are standards that need to be sustained. There are a huge number of camper weeks that need to be filled. The camp season begins and you pray that someone you have hired will live up to their pledge to lead your camp in song. But it doesn’t really happen, at least not like you envision in your dreams or remember from your childhood. How often have you wanted to jump in front of the crowd and lead the camp yourself? How often have you wanted to show the reluctant ones that it is really quite simple? It is simple—it’s as simple as just doing it.

How do you begin? You begin by creating an environment where singing, cheering and musical risk taking is not only encouraged, but is also rewarded. My workshops are predicated on the assumption that you have already done your job well. You’ve hired the very best people you could find. Some you hired for a very specific reason to answer a specific need of your camp (don’t count them out as singers!). You hired other people because you sensed that spark—that elusive quality where enthusiasm, willingness, wisdom and talent all come together. The bottom line is always that you have to have confidence in your staff. If you have that faith (say, yes) I can help you enormously. If you don’t, it’s going to be a long rainy summer with large bullfrogs in the pools, strange howlings in the woods and a shortage of gimp in the craft’s shed.

If a camp that is alive with singing and cheering and laughing appeals you, and you feel you could use more of that at your camp, then please consider one of my workshops. If somehow your camp has managed to maintain its traditions of music and song, I’d still love to talk with you. The summer camp is the last stronghold of our oral tradition. It is the last place where music is being passed from one generation to the next through the magic and power of memory. It is the last place where kids hear and sing songs simply because they are good and fun and relevant to their lives; not because they are packaged and promoted by an industry disinterested in the moral and emotional growth of children. You have assembled a gift: a small world of children led mainly by an even smaller group of young adults. Without being melodramatic, they are our future. It is our responsibility to preserve and continue everything that we intuitively know is good and healthy for them. The camp experience, and camp songs in particular, fill a part of their lives with joy and remembrance; it is a happiness they carry with them through their whole life. It is important that our camps continue to create places where children can experience the traditions that came before them, It is important that our counselors be given the opportunity to express those traditions

Thanks

-Fitz