The trio have a very timely 2-part episode all about Social Distancing Activities. These two episodes are a perfect listen for you program staff and counselors. We recommend sending the link to this episode to those staff members or saving it to listen to during staff training this year!
Does your camp have kiddos who get homesick? Does your camp have parents who have a hard time letting their kids go? Do you work at a camp?!?!? Check in with the Scamp Life Crew this week for some excellent tips on dealing with homesick campers as well as parents who have a bit of a hard time leaving! This week’s episode also makes for great listening to summer staff as they will be dealing with a lot of this!
The group talks with Royleane Allen of 413 Strengthgear this week to discuss all things camp store again (but this time from a vendor’s point of view)! Royleane has some great tips and tricks for Camp Store Directors on what they should and should not buy for their store. Check out this episode if you are prepping your store for the summer!
Our podcast trio welcome back Samantha Townsend of Kennolyn Camps this week to discuss changes she will be making to camp this summer. There’s lots of changes and great ideas to help with new COVID restrictions. If you run an sleep-away camp and plan to open this summer, check out this week’s episode for some things you maybe didn’t think of!
Kellie and Curt interview Shanelle Lambert-Rauh, director of Whippoorwill Farm Day Camp, about the lessons learned from running day camp in 2020 and how those will apply to the 2021 summer season. If you run a day camp and weren't able to offer programs last summer, this is the episode for you. You'll get some great insight on things you may not have thought about.
In this fun episode, the three camp pros discuss all the things staff don't like about camp. From curfews to cell phones to paperwork, they cover pretty much everything. The best part? The Scamp Life Crew give some great suggestions on how to help your staff deal with some of these things they hate! Check out this week as you prep for staff training this summer to nip any problems in the bud!
This is part two of our interview with Jason Brown on how to run and maintain a successful camp store. In this episode, Jason gives his ideas on how to set up a store if you don't have the space, his favorite (and least favorite) camp store items, the craziest item he has seen in a camp store, storage tricks, and he ends it with a final tip.
In this two-part episode, the SCamp Life crew (now with 3 rockin' co-hosts!) talk with Jason Brown all about how to run and maintain a successful camp store. Jason is a pro at this and built his store from the ground up and has since been asked by ACA to teach classes on it! If this is something you are considering for your camp, be sure to check out this two-part episode.
Kelly Coulthard co-hosts this episode as the three talk about the anatomy of a great special event.
Shauna Guglielmo joins the guys this week to talk about her Zoo Camp. As the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo Camp, Shauna has a ton of great ideas for implementing animals into your own program, as does Chris. She also has some great insight on doing camps on location at public places. This is definitely one of Chris’ favorite episodes because it’s a lot of discussion about animals! If you enjoy that too, give this show a listen!
L.E. Dubois guest hosts with the guys this week for an interesting episode about making day camp awesome with limited resources - really limited. Curt used to work at a camp on an island and they could only bring 2 carts full of supplies, so he challenges Chris and L.E. with coming up with ideas on what to put on those carts! If you have limited space or rent a location where you can only bring so much, this episode is for you!
Kelie Cook joins Curt and Chris again this week for this super fun episode! They play a game of Would You Rather! This isn’t the disgusting, gross choices you normally see in this game, these are all things that you would like at your camp. Would You Rather have a lake or pool? Would You Rather have go-carts or horses? Would You Rather have a zipline or high ropes? Would You Rather listen to this episode or get eaten by a bear? All great questions for you to consider!
Roz Buck guest hosts this week as Chris and Curt talk about how to keep your staff engaged pre-camp. Do you have a hard time finding staff each year? Is the number of returning staff pretty small? Do your staff complain that they don’t feel engaged? Well then, this is the episode for you!
The guys are green with envy this week as they chat with Danny Sudman about sustainability at camp. Danny talks about great ideas that any camp can start doing now. Whether it be as big as solar panels or as small as turning off lights, Danny’s got some excellent ideas. Each person at camp can do their part to help out our world just a little bit more. Check out some fun ideas on what you can do at your camp!
Curt and Chris give some great ideas for keeping your families and campers engaged with your camp all year long! This isn’t your grandma’s boring Birthday card ideas, these ideas are contemporary and awesome! From Weird Holidays to Virtual Escape Rooms, check out this episode for unique stuff!
Lindsey Sigler joins the guys to talk about things she has learned from her theater background that can be applied to summer camp, from stage binders to drama programs and more.
Our guest host this week is Samantha Townsend from Kennolyn Camps . Samantha helps the guys come up with fun ideas around using a book to come up with fun programming or a theme. Samantha and Curt share some great tried and true ideas that they did at their camps! If you run a day-camp or need some fun programming ideas for your overnight camp, check out this week’s episode!
Jason Levasseur is an award-winning performer, songwriter and speaker. He joins the guys this week as they talk about the Rock Star Project and how it can benefit your camp! Find out what Jason can do for your organization. Bonus: He shares 5 rock star tips that will help your staff out today! Listen to this week’s episode and then check out the Rock Star Project!
It’s hard to believe that Chris and Curt have been doing this for 100 years…uh, episodes! The guys have a blast this week discussing fun and crazy memories from the past 99 podcasts. Hear about their favorite episodes, funny moments, dumb things they’ve done, and even some things they didn’t like! This week’s episode will be a fun walk down memory lane as well as some behind-the-scenes shenanigans!
Curt and Chris had Kelie Cook on this week to guest host. The three of them talk about Chris’ favorite thing: Stealing Ideas from other Camps!!! Give this show a listen for some super sweet ideas from programming to staffing to misc that our hosts have stolen! If you have a great idea that you would love to share with them, send Curt or Chris an email and they may just have you on to talk about it!
Mara from Camp Arowhon joins the guys this week to discuss ideas to help with the biggest camper complaints. Having an extra host definitely helps when it comes to discussing some great ideas to fix some of the issues that campers have with camp! Check out this episode to get some extra helpful ideas.
This special Friday Podcast has a great interview with Elliott Sprecher from JotForm! Curt and Chris learn how JotForm can be very beneficial for Camps! Everything from registration to payments, to forms to surveys! They also talk about some of the many widgets JotForm has available, too!
In this episode Curt and Chris welcome Christina Gibbs as a guest host. Christina is the program Director at Mount Shepherd Retreat Center in North Carolina. The three of them discuss different things that parents have complained about at camp. Most camp directors have heard these same complaints. They also dive into solutions and tips on handling these complaints.
It’s that time of year where Camp Directors start going crazy trying to find summer staff. This week, the guys have some interesting ideas to try out as you go out hunting. Be sure to listen to this week’s episode ahead of any of your college staff fairs and test out some of these to see if you can fill your staff positions fast!
Kelie Cook joins Curt and Chris on this week's episode. Kelie ran an in-person camp last year and has now switched to the director role at a different camp. Give this weeks episode a listen to hear about some of the craziness of running the various camps, being a part of the Camp Admin program at Touro, and even get some fun ideas for a couple games (the name Mortal Poodle should entice you enough!).
The new SCamp Life Podcast name change is now official!!!! This is one of those episodes that you need to have your summer camp counselors listen to! It’s fun and silly, but also very thought provoking and will help those counselors remember some tips on being great counselors. Be sure to download this one and make it required listening during your training week!
This week, the guys chat with Michelle Cummings of Training Wheels. Chris might have been fan-boying it a bit, but it was definitely an awesome episode with some really cool team building ideas! Michelle talks about a great staff training activity, how team building is going in a virtual world, as well as her new podcast, Ask Michelle and Chris.
This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Curt and Chris talk about incorporating Gaming into your Camp with a whole theme! Get great ideas of what you can do as well as where to find some very helpful sites. Since Chris is planning on adding this theme this summer, he, as always, has gone way overboard on out-there ideas! With everything from coding, to diy escape rooms, to giant board games, these 2 episodes will give you a ton to start planning yourself!
This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Curt and Chris talk about incorporating Gaming into your Camp with a whole theme! Get great ideas of what you can do as well as where to find some very helpful sites. Since Chris is planning on adding this theme this summer, he, as always, has gone way overboard on out-there ideas! With everything from coding, to diy escape rooms, to giant board games, these 2 episodes will give you a ton to start planning yourself!
Curt and Chris interview Michael Garcia this week. Michael is the Camp Director of Camp Centerland as well as the host of the Youth Development Professionals Guidebook Podcast. Michael talks about what it was like to run in-person camp during a Covid Summer. He also has Chris’s new favorite rules for camp: 1. Campers leave with same number of fingers and toes they came with. 2. They’re dirty (glitter counts as dirt). 3. They are a zombie at dinner when they get back home.
