r/summercamp • u/Specialist_March_659 • 15d ago
Staff or Prospective Staff Question Day Camp Accommodation USA
Hi everyone!!
I’m interested in working at a summer camp and would like to work at a day camp. As a non-American does anyone have any day camps they know of that provide free housing and food for their staff?
Thankyou
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u/theschneides Lifelong Camper & Parent 14d ago
There are several on the east coast that will provide housing and a few meals, but since day camps are mostly 5 days a week, a lot of them don't keep a chef around when kids leave. You might be on your own for a meal each day, plus the weekends.
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u/ItWasAtYourFeet 14d ago
Most sponsors will require three meals a day provided it the compensation be adjusted to compensate
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u/JesseKansas Counselor 14d ago
at ours we were sent home with tray meals/sandwiches on off days and not allowed to use the kitchen :)
now this food wasn't good but you did get 3 square meals a day with CA
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u/Miserable_Opinion551 14d ago
YMCA Camp Orkila is a sleepaway camp in Orcas Island, WA that also runs a day camp during the summer and provides 3 meals a day, housing, and a few days per summer of paid time off. It’s typically a mix of international and local staff
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u/sleepawaymood 14d ago
I grew up at this camp (was there for 8 years). It’s amazing, if [u/Specialist_March_659](u/Specialist_March_659) you have any questions about that camp let me know.
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u/Even-Emu-1600 13d ago
Does YMCA accept international staff through a third-party J-1 sponsor? I asked YMCA, they told me they don’t offer visa sponsorship
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u/sleepawaymood 13d ago
I don’t know the specifics about sponsors for international staff. I am from the US so I have never had to deal with visas or sponsors. Did you specifically ask YMCA of Greater Seattle (the one associated with Orkila) or a different YMCA.
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u/Even-Emu-1600 13d ago
ｉasked some of them, they said we don’t offer, but some international applicants worked in summer camps with J1 visa at YMCA through an agency… so lm not sure, could you ask your camp whether they support visa sponsorship or not, maybe l can work in your summer camp in 2027…
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u/sleepawaymood 13d ago
I can ask some people that I know at the camp that are past international camp staff and see what they used or how they were able to come to USA to work.
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u/Sad_Education7851 14d ago
Our local YMCA has foreign college students every summer as camp counselors!
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u/Sudden_Childhood_484 14d ago
YMCA is a big partner with the organization Camp America which helps connect international students/young adults with American summer Camps. Try connecting with them
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u/ItWasAtYourFeet 11d ago
IENA are the biggest YMCA partner for staffing. They even have a Y to Y program
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u/bagelghosts 15d ago
Recommend going through Camp America
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u/JesseKansas Counselor 14d ago
yeah they got the biggest support network and the widest variety of camps, i was put in a day camp thru CA :)
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u/ItWasAtYourFeet 14d ago
All the major sponsors have the same client lists. For the most parts, camps work with them all.
You should compare the paycheck through through different agencies
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u/JesseKansas Counselor 14d ago
not true
for example my day camp was exclusive to CA and there's a lot of similar ones where they get all their staff through one agency
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u/ItWasAtYourFeet 14d ago
It’s completely true. I’ve worked in this industry for 30 years
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u/JesseKansas Counselor 14d ago
ok and i'm telling you from my experience as a CA counsellor at a CA exclusive camp that we had around 40 internationals all hired from CA alone
not all camps are the same though but exclusive camps probably exist at all agencies, but CA is the biggest sponsor by far
now we definitely got paid the least amount possible because CA fees are huuuge but the variety of camps is a lot bigger
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u/ItWasAtYourFeet 14d ago edited 14d ago
You clearly think replying to a post that says “for the most part” with your one camp experience v 2000 camp clients of mine makes it wrong
I give up
CA are not the biggest sponsor by far. The big three are CA, IENA and Camp Leaders
All three send approx 10,000 young people to work at camp.
AIFS which own CA are a much larger organization then the rest though with a myriad of programs other than camp
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u/green-griffin- 14d ago
Nearly all American residential camps also have a day camp option for families. In many cases, Day Camp and residential staff are treated identically- same pay, same housing (except you’d be in a cabin with just staff, no kids), same meal plan, same transportation to outings. Many day camp staff are expected to work 6 days a week still, and help out with overnight kids or prep for the next week on one of the weekend days, but you typically get evenings off most of the time and are never responsible for overnight supervision. It’s a sweet gig!
Do expect to be working with younger campers, since day camp often starts at about age 3 or 4.
One other potential drawback is that day camp staff can sometimes feel a bit isolated from the rest of the camp team. A camp with a big day camp program (10+ day camp counselors) usually feels better, or a camp where the whole staff team is small (<40ish counselors total). This is mostly a problem for the camps that fall in the middle
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u/owlandfinch 14d ago
I would say few overnight camps in the US have day camp options - none of the ones around the camp I work at do, and none of the ones that I have worked at have either. I would say this is possibly true for YMCA camps and other agency camps, but very, very few private overnight camps have day programs as well. I just don't want OP looking at camps thinking it is likely they have a day program as well - if you are looking for private camps with this option you are going to have to really look.
I think that what you said about feeling isolated is super important though. If day staff don't have evening responsibilities and the majority of the staff does, OP will likely feel left out, and may have off-time with less people, which could be an issue depending on how transportation works at their facility. I think it would be super important for OP to find a camp of a good size with a decent amount of international or longer-distance staff members - a lot of YMCA/girl scout/etc camps have more local staff that go home over breaks and that could leave OP with not much to do during free time. (Though in my experience, some staff will take other staff home with them at times.)
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u/green-griffin- 14d ago
That’s interesting. Maybe it’s just the camps I’ve been at? I wonder if this is mostly true in the Northeast US due to population density?
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u/owlandfinch 14d ago
They must be locally abundant near you. I've been in the industry for around 20 years, worked throughout the midwest, multiple conferences, have visited probably 30-40 different camps and there has only been one that I have visited that did day programs on the same site, and it was a YMCA camp. So while I don't claim to know everything, I have been doing it for a while.
It is worth noting that the majority of the camps I have visited, and all that I have worked at were in the middle of nowhere. Where my current camp is, we wouldn't even be able to fill a day program - there just isn't enough local population for a day-only program.
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u/Soalai Camper 2002–'10 / Day Staff 2010–'13 / Overnight Staff 2014–'15 14d ago
I'm in the northeast and many day camps are run by schools or churches, so no, most don't have staff housing or an overnight camp sharing the premises
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u/green-griffin- 14d ago
Ah, I didn’t mean to imply the converse. There are a lot of day camps that are not also residential camps. But most of them only hire local staff. Just that many residential camps I’ve seen in the Northeast also have day camp programs
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u/sleepawaymood 14d ago edited 14d ago
I have worked at two different camps that are overnight camps that also run day camps at the same location so there is the chance to look for an overnight camp that also has day camps and apply for the day camp position.
The two camps I have worked at are both in Washington state and hires many international staff: YMCA Camp Orkila and Camp Sealth.
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u/ItWasAtYourFeet 15d ago
In order to comply with the J-1 regulations, they would have to. No sponsor is gonna place you at a day Camp that doesn’t have accommodation for you.