Summer Camp - Organization

Organization

In most camps, the adult supervisors are called counselors, but another name may be "cabin leader". In many camps, counselors are assigned to smaller groups of campers, called "bunks", "huts", "cabins", or "units", who participate in activities as a group. Counselors often share living accommodations with their bunk or other counselors. Most counselors are in their late teens or early twenties, as high school or college students on their summer break are frequently recruited.

At some camps, all campers stay overnight, and at some camps, so called day camps, the campers go home each night. Some other camps allow both day and overnight campers. In the USA, residential camps that have overnight facilities are sometimes called "sleepaway camps". Summer camp is often the first time that children spend an extended period of time away from home.

The practice of running residential holidays for children away from their own home seems to have originated in Appenzell in the Alps in 1876, when Pastor Bion set up holiday camps in which children made tree-houses, sang songs, did drama, made kites and had adventure games.

Post-war France used Pastor Bion’s model to take children who had grown up during the war years, away from cities, and their scheme ‘colonies de vacances’ became state controlled, part of their state education system for all children.

The American camps seem to have developed from a very different cultural root.