Staff Stories

I’m Nature Rob, and this is my 15th summer at Camp Kingswood. One of my favorite things about having worked at Camp Kingswood for so long is that I have is the opportunity to meet new campers and staff every summer. Some of the campers I met in my early years on staff are now staff members and even leadership team members themselves. It’s a lot of fun to see quiet children who are unsure of their place in the community grow into leaders – and in some cases legends – of Kingswood. Every summer at Opening Campfire, as I look out amongst all of the new campers, I take a moment and I think to myself that somewhere in this crowd there is a camper who may need me, or someone who I can learn from, or someone who is a superstar in the making.

Every summer starts with a campfire full of new faces, and as the session progresses I get to know each one as an individual. There is always the funny camper, or the spirited camper, or the introspective camper, or the camper who just needs a little push to realize all of the great things about themselves. The fun for me is the process of learning which of those faces will turn into those specific campers. It’s amazing to me that we can go from strangers to family in the course of just a few short weeks, but that’s the magic of camp, and it’s what keeps me coming back year after year.