CMW is presented with the Edie Klein Award in a virtual ceremony at the ACA Conference.
At this year’s virtual American Camp Association (ACA) conference the Camp Merrie-Woode Junior Counselor Program was awarded the Edie Klein Award for Program Excellence by the ACA – Southeast. This award is given in recognition of existing programs of an exceptional nature occurring at a camp or retreat center in the Southeast.
Merrie-Woode’s Associate Director, Betsy Reese Helms, created our current JC Program in 2009. For just over a decade it has been a signature piece of camp programming, helping some of our strongest counselors transition into their roles on staff. We always say each summer that it is our staff that makes the Merrie-Woode experience what it is. We can also confidently say that the current and recent generations of summer staff members are of the highest caliber Merrie-Woode has seen. This is in no small part due to the level of excellent training and leadership skills our Junior Counselors are given in this key transition year between their time as a camper and counselor.
In the JC Zoom Room last summer!
When camp was cancelled for the summer of 2020 due to COVID-19, Betsy leapt into action with Courtney Foster, Merrie-Woode’s current intern and former JC Leader, to adapt this program into a virtual experience for the two groups of JCs who would have been at camp last summer. They pulled every piece of programming they could into online sessions which met via Zoom multiple times a week. Each group gathered in the Zoom Room, wearing their blue uniform JC polo shirts, to cover topics ranging from the developmental stages of children and effective communication skills, to building a successful campfire and the full history of Merrie-Woode!
Camp Merrie-Woode alumna, Sara Huffman Schmidt presented the Edie Klein Award, giving a touching speech during the online ceremony. She stated:
Betsy and Courtney host a JC Zoom session in the summer of 2020.
“I did not hear about Camp Merrie-Woode’s virtual JC Program until summer was behind us. As a CMW alumna myself, I knew about and participated in the online campfires and devotionals…and I witnessed an endless stream of social media content and videos planned for nearly every day of the summer. But I DIDN’T know that they had created a digital version of a program that usually thrives on its in-person togetherness. The Merrie-Woode JC Program is chock full of camp-specific learning sessions and pre-staff training material that usually takes 3 – 5 weeks, 24/7, to download into seventeen-year-old minds. From where I sat on the other side of a computer screen, Summer 2020 seemed a little…sluggish…and sleepy. Because no one had to be at cookouts or evening programs or boat races or pull all-nighters building sets for the musical. (Or school or jobs, for that matter.) Many of us had to work up the monumental courage it took just to change out of our pajamas each day. But in a year when the answer was often “we canceled everything” for many good and realistic reasons, the team at Merrie-Woode still chose to do SOMETHING, even when I know it was probably hard for them to want to get dressed every morning. And that SOMETHING meant that the 2020 JC group got to have a unique camp experience and now we can look to camps like Merrie-Woode for their strength and flexibility in programming of the future. Congratulations and “Boo-Whoop,” Camp Merrie-Woode!”
Congratulations to Betsy and Courtney for making sure the CMW Junior Counselors of 2020 were able to continue to grow and develop, even though we couldn’t all be together at camp! Dammie Day would be proud!
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