I Love Kids!
Written by Lauren Montanari
Being a staff member has greatly impacted my life. When I began working last summer, I saw being a staff member as a last opportunity to earn some money before university began. I had no idea the impact that the camp and the kids would make on me. I’ve always liked kids, but after meeting the kids at Camp Dakota, I found that I love kids!At first, I was worried that maybe the children wouldn’t like me. I feared that maybe I was too old or I wasn’t going to be as fun as the other staff who had worked there before. But the kids at Camp Dakota are very loving and accepting. I grew in maturity because I quickly realized that the kids look up to staff as role models.If we fail to follow any rules, they will do the same, so it was important to stay focused and mature at all times. An eye opener for me was definitely some of the children’s financial situations. I remember going to glue one boy’s shoe sole back onto the shoe with hot glue, only to find that it had already been glued back on many times. It was eye opening to see how some children’s families don’t have the resources to have things that I take for granted, such as clothing and shoes. It taught me to never judge a child’s behaviour before learning more about them.
One child that stood out to me was Jamila. She instantly became one of my favourite kids to be around because she was always so sweet and happy. For the first few weeks, she mostly hung out with her best friend, Journey. However, in August, Journey stopped coming to camp everyday and Jamila was very sad. At the time, I didn’t really know why Jamila was so sad all the time, and why she only ever wanted to hangout with me. After talking with her, I realized that she missed Journey, and thought that she wasn’t going to make any other friends. I helped introduce her to some other kids and she made other friends with kids who came to camp more often. I believe that it changed her camp experience and it warmed my heart to see her so happy again. Knowing that something so small could make one child so happy made it very worthwhile for me. I believe that throughout the summer, I saw Jamila go from a very shy kid who relied on her brother for a lot of things, to a very happy kid with lots of friends and a greater ability to socialize.