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Harriman Group Camps - 29 July, 2006
"I want mi Mami and mi Papi," Eyleen echoes softly in Spanglish, hiking single-file behind Bella.
Here at Camp Kahagon -- the YMCA of Greater Bergen County's day program in Harriman State Park for 5- and 6-year-olds -- parents are a topic of spontaneous conversation second only to bodily functions.
Arlene lightens the tone of this particular exchange by happily announcing that her dad returned yesterday from the Dominican Republic.
"I'm gonna see my Mom and Dad in a few days!" adds Leonard brightly. He lives in Florida but is spending a couple of weeks with his aunt in New Jersey.
Today I'm a guest counselor on the Red Team, a huggable group of about a dozen kids under the care of first-timers Samara Simpson, 19, and Trevor Milazzo, 17.
Campers and counselors arrive on the bus from the Y building in Hackensack at 9:15. One by one, the children introduce themselves: Charlie, Destinee, Bella, Arlene, Bryce, Eyleen, Susan, Leonard, Annabelle. "Bryce is a special name," Bryce informs me several times.
After we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, Assistant Director Liz Albolino explains that later each team will create an American flag to present at Field Day, prior to relay races and running games.
"You're going to use red, white and blue -- but I don't want it to look ANYTHING like the flags you're used to seeing," Albolino says. "You have to use your IMAGINATION."
It seems to me that the hardest part of a counselor's job is talking loudly enough to be heard over the chatter and giggles and screeches. Yet Albolino tells me her biggest challenge "is keeping this many kids happy all the time. But no matter what, we do."
There are 46 kids enrolled in this two-week session of Camp Kahagon. The beautiful and spacious Rockland County campgrounds also house Michikamau for 7- to 12-year-olds and Oratam, an overnight camp.
Over the years, says Kahagon Director Alison Spagnuolo, there have been quite a few counselor romances and even a marriage or two. Although many staffers hail from southern Bergen County, an increasing number are recruited from Australia and New Zealand through a summer jobs program.
"It's getting harder to hire enough college-age counselors locally," explains Y Camping Director Ken Riscinti, who's been here every summer for 28 years. "Either they don't have to
work or if they do, they can make more money at other jobs."
Salary varies according to experience, but suffice it to say, Spagnuolo remarks, you really have to love kids to work here.
Believe me, it's easy to love these kids.
After wriggling into their swimsuits (except Bella, who claims she has a boo-boo but really just doesn't want to get in the lake), the Red Team is ready to head out for instructional swim. They wait while I take Eyleen to the latrine. Bella is hungry. "I ate my sandwich in the car, and that's it," she says as she walks, struggling to carry her Dora the Explorer backpack and minicooler. "I love to eat." (At lunchtime, she will eat one quarter of her ham-and-cheese and one baby carrot, and that's it.)
No pushing, Milazzo reminds the tiny marchers. "Everybody keeps their hands to themselves."
Simpson starts a rousing round of the team song: "We are the Red Team, the mighty, mighty Red Team. Everywhere we go -- people want to know -- who we are -- so we tell them -- we are the Red Team, the mighty, mighty Red Team. ..."
As we reach the shore, everybody crowds around Spagnuolo's visiting beagle. Most of the kids love animals and get excited over every deer, snake and chipmunk they see here.
The drawstring on Destinee's shorts is all knotted up, so while she's in the water I sit on the dock with Bella and manage to tease the strands apart.
When the shivering swimmers come out, I rub Bryce's back to warm him up and help him and Leonard brush the sand from between their toes. I tie a lot of shoelaces even though their counselor assures me they all know how.
As we line up again, Charlie announces that he is going into first grade. "I was in kindergarten once, and then I graduated."
"I'm 4½," says Bella.
"I was once 4," Charlie tells her encouragingly. "Then it was my fifth birthday, then it was my sixth birthday."
Field Day
When we arrive at the arts and crafts cabin, counselor Ciaranne Strickland gives the group a large sheet of paper. Milazzo draws a big star and stripes with markers. Each child chooses a blue or red crayon to fill them in. Then they add little stars in the white spaces, and Bella connects the stars with blue lines. Simpson adds all their names.
"Tomorrow everything will have a bug theme," Strickland tells me. "They'll each take a box and make it into a bug, then they'll put the box over themselves and run a relay race. It's adorable."
Next we're off on a long, rocky hike to lunch and Field Day. On the way, I ask some of the kids what they like best about camp.
Charlie: "Shooting arrows."
Leonard: "Swimming with boogie boards."
Bryce: "Campfire. We eat marshmallows."
Bella: "I like when I go in the bus, and that's it."
Destinee asks if I'm a TV reporter. She's a little disappointed that I'm not. But apparently my lesser profession is good enough, because -- while most of the other kids run relays -- she spends much of Field Day plopped on my lap. Eyleen joins her, followed by Arlene. We all link hands to play hula-hoop pass and red light, green light.
"This job is fun if you make it fun," says Milazzo, a Hackensack High School senior. "You have to come here with a positive attitude. It may be a little annoying from time to time, but the kids always manage to make you smile."
Goodbye time
Later, while most of the kids get soaked in the sprinkler, I play Miss Mary Mack with Bella and Destinee. Annabelle complains that Eyleen keeps poking her in the tummy.
"I can see why," I tell her. "Your belly button is SO CUTE!" I'm rewarded with a big smile.
When it's time to leave at 4 p.m., I walk through the playground saying goodbye. Susan, Arlene and Annabelle are in the sandbox.
"Are you coming back tomorrow?" asks Susan with big brown eyes that could melt steel. "I love you." Arlene and Annabelle repeat the sentiment.
"I love you too," I tell them, and I actually mean it.
E-mail: leichman@northjersey.com
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