Besides having the opportunity to continue to grow and have fun at camp, there are many benefits to MKDC’s leadership program:

1. For a kid who has grown up at camp, becoming an LIT is an opportunity to discover the other side of camp life – to experience some of the planning that goes on behind the scenes to make camp magic happen. Taking part in the staff secrets behind such events as colour war is an exciting feeling for former campers.
2. Young teens (13-15) aren’t old enough for most jobs yet, but are feeling the pressure to begin building job experience. Camp leadership training provides them with valuable job experience and skills they can put on their resume. CITs who successfully complete the program also have a “foot in the door” to becoming a future full staff member at Maple Key.
3. LITs learn a variety of important life skills while they are at camp. Empathy, responsibility, confidence, and teamwork are all heavily emphasized at in the leadership program. Whether LITs plan to become camp counselors or not, these skills will serve them well in both their work and personal lives.
4. All Leaders-In-Training receive a formal evaluation at the end of the summer, in addition to regular check-in points throughout the camp session. This encourages real growth in a short period of time, as well as providing a written evaluation that can be kept in the LITs portfolio and used as a written letter of reference.
5. Being an LIT is fun! Leaders-In-Training get to continue to participate in the camp activities they love, plus take on special responsibilities such as refereeing the (very funny!) counselor hunt. Isn’t that better than sitting at home?

One of the most important goals of MKDC is to foster healthy relationships between campers of different ages.

At school, children are separated by age and rarely have the opportunity to interact with kids from other classes. At our camp, we have brought back some of that “one room school house” feel by allowing the age groups to mingle on a regular basis. We do this in a number of ways:

• Whole-camp flag time
• End-of-day whole-camp activities
• Special “big buddy & little buddy” programming

There are many benefits to combining age groups:

• Older children begin to develop leadership skills and feel increased confidence when they have the opportunity to be “experts”
• Younger children look up to the older campers as role models
• Campers who are only children learn to interact with children of other ages
• Cooperation skills are more fully developed

By the time our campers are in their last year (age 12), many have already developed the characteristics of a good leader. These campers are encouraged to apply for our Leader-In-Training program. There is nothing more rewarding for us than to see former campers take this first step to becoming the next generation of counselors.

Camp professionals recognize the value in inter-generational relationships. Here is a fantastic article from the director of Centauri Arts Camp: Bridge The Generation Gap

How does the multi-age setting benefit YOUR camper?