I did Camp America ( but not with kids ) AMA

[Zoflorabore]

Hi all, not sure if anyone is interested in this but it’s something that has shaped my life and it was an experience for sure.

bit of background- I applied through Camp Counsellors USA- ( CCUSA ) but everyone tends to just say Camp America. When applying there was a tick box which asked if you would be able to work at a camp which had disabled people and i ticked YES.

the camp I worked at has been the subject of a Netflix documentary based in the 70’s but has
now closed down for good.

AMA 😊

I did this too and it was awful!

Was it in NY state?!

Did you do more than one summer? The camps for disabled campers have a really high return rate.

Awful in what way?

Lord. Not the one that beat all the kids and had them in isolation for
Hours!!!

Did you tell any adults that were
Not involved.

We're you badly treated too?

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale no I only did the one summer which was 1998, I was 20. When I got home I fully intended to go back but within a few months I had met someone who I ended up being with for 7 years and he’s the father of my son.

i am still in touch with my original friendship group who I shared a cabin with and none of us returned but the return rate for this camp was high.

I obviously can’t regret it because I have my son ( now 21 ) and my daughter (13) and believe things happen for a reason.

I did it too, Vermont. I was 19. One night in New York at 19, lush.

@HeBeaverandSheBeaver I don’t think it is the same place as my camp only took over 18’s and was run in conjunction with the cerebral palsy association of NY.

I would be interested to see the one you’re referring to though.

Dd's friend looked into it. It didn't look like a financially good deal for the summer workers. Did you find that?

@something2say did you stay the night at Columbia University? That’s what I did. The students had gone home for the summer obviously and we all had a room overlooking the campus, I can remember such vivid things about it.

I was extremely naive though before going as didn’t know what it really involved!

But why aren’t you identifying the camp, and naming the Netflix documentary? Why was a documentary made about it? Why was one summer in the 1990s so significant in your life you’re starting an AMA about it?

To be fair to camp America, it highlights in their own website (or did) that this isn't a scheme to make money. You get bed and board in exchange for work, with then a bit of cash to enable you to do a little bit of travelling afterwards - the visa you need allows you around a month following the end of your scheme to travel.

Dd did the summer Disney exchange (for students) and it was similar in terms of payment - you don't really make money from it, you just get pin money more than anything else. But it gives you experiences and a bit of adventure, and a month to travel cheaply after it ends.

@LucyTeatime totally!

my own ds has said many times that he would love to do it but at a sports or drama camp but he would struggle I think as he has ASD and it’s such a huge culture shock.

one day we sat down and worked out we were paid about 1 dollar an hour! Room and board was included and the majority of the flight costs ( Air India ) but for the hours worked it was basically slave labour.

I also underestimated how much money I would need as lots of my friends done loads of travelling after camp and I couldn’t.

Yes I worked at a summer camp in Connecticut in 1995 and I remember this bit vividly too!

I did BUNAC in the mid-90s and stayed at Columbia university too! I remember the room was dirty and very stuffy, but it was my first time in NYC and found being there quite thrilling.

I came home with around $4,000 dollars after Camp America. We were able to work extra weeks beyond the initial weeks we signed up for and it was easy to save pretty much all that pay as no food or living costs.

@SuprasternalNotch i have no problem naming both the documentary and the camp.

the camp was called Camp Jened and the Netflix documentary was called “Crip Camp” which is an awful name imo and it was made to show how disabled people were viewed and treated back then.

I started the AMA because I don’t think it’s something that most people have done.

@ladybirdsanchez definitely stuffy! Mine was clean but tiny. I felt on top of the world that night. I didn’t know what was to come though and I often think if I had known the reality would I have still done it. I HATED the first few weeks and was desperate to go home but the camp had our passports which looking back is so wrong.

Could you tell us why you hated the first few weeks?

Also, do you have to be fairly young (late teens and twenties) to work there? I’d love to work at one (a good one) but guess I’ll have to wait til I’m retired.

I know of the documentary, and have heard of the camp, but wasn’t the ‘Crip Camp’ title, and the camp’s importance, due to it having been genuinely radical when it started in the 1950s, and the fact that it absorbed hippy values in the 60s and 70s, and spawned a lot of key disability activists? I’m assuming it was a very different environment in the 90s?

They held your passports? Bloody hell! Doing Camp America or BUNAC you are quite vulnerable really, aren't you? So you just went and did the camp and then went home again? That's such a shame. I travelled loads after we'd finished working and ended up getting the last BUNAC flight back to the UK in October.

I did BUNAC Work America in the mid 90s and worked in a restaurant.

They worked us like dogs, but US tipping culture for the win, and I was able to travel all over the East Coast for a month afterwards, take home $1k, and then reclaim all my tax when we got back to the UK.

It was one of the best experiences of my life and I'm still in touch with several people I worked with.

Sorry op - didn't ask you a question!

What was the biggest cultural shock for you?

What were your 5 favourite things about it?

What made it something that has shaped your life?

How has it shaped it?