YMCA Mission Statement: "To put Christian principals into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all."

Consider Us for Summer 2009

Join Our Summer Staff Team - Click here to download an Application

3 Steps to Apply

1) Fill out and submit application

2) Scheudle an in person or telephone interview

3) Provide references for background checks

E-mail alferreira@campindiansprings.org for more information.

Camp Staff  - Traditional and High Adventure activities abound at the YMCA Camp Indian Springs residential camp. Come spend the summer with us and increase your skill base to enhance your resume for any career you may be pursuing through programs that build on your communications skills with peers and youth alike. We value honesty, caring, respect and responsibility.

Our Primary Staff  (Cabin Leaders/Junior Leaders) develop lifelong leadership skills while spending your summer in an outdoor setting supervising campers as a cabin leader or as part of our activity staff for boys & girls cabin groups (ages 7 to 16 years). Activity areas include low ropes, waterfront, arts & crafts, archery, ATV's, paint ball, camp store, English and Western horseback riding, BMX, indoor skate park, nature and more.

As part of our Support Staff team, you will have the opportunity to manage people, be a part of staff training and orientation, assist in guided education of campers, plan multi-faceted activities for large groups and have fun while learning and growing in a place that values honesty, caring, respect and responsibility. Cabin Leaders must be 18 years of age. Jr. Leaders may be 16 years or older.

 Support Staff (formerly Unit Leaders/Directors) are responsible for the day-to-day staff supervision of Primary Staff like cabin leaders and activity staff as well as the daily activities of campers. Support Staff will be a part of a team that plans and implements all areas of camp life from wake-up to evening devotions in the cabins. There is no better summer job that will offer you skills that can be used in every segment of today’s job market.

 A successful candidate will have leadership experience working with children and peers; exemplify a spirit of servant leadership, display strong values of honesty, caring, respect and responsibility, demonstrate proven record of supervision of campers and peers; and some working knowledge of camps including program activities and risk management

A recent survey (by the American Camp Association) revealed these comments on the value & impact of working at a youth-camp.

Tangible marketable skills
"What I do for a living now is I talk to people; I interview people and I write stories. (Camp) makes you very comfortable to be able to talk to people … it's a better story and I get better information if I make them feel comfortable and I show interest in what they're all about … I think those are probably skills that I learned, or at least were influenced positively at camp." (Journalist)

"The impact that (camp) had on my career was that it put me in a position of having to work on presentation skills, speaking skills, people skills. Working with a group of coworkers in not a lot different than working with a group of ten-year-old boys." (Business Executive)

"My camp experience was invaluable to my teaching experience. I glean from it all the time … I still have a file labeled "camp" with all my daily activities." (Teacher)

Intangible skills
"I think during my camp experience I learned how to deal with people and learned how to show compassion … a sense of trying to understand and communicate with people and get to their level. I felt that over those few years I came out of my shell, so to speak -- I blossomed … and ever since then I've had a more people-related job, helping people trying to alleviate their suffering." (Doctor)

Diversity
"It helped me open up and learn to accept people who normally I would not have sought out, people who had different personalities or different backgrounds than I did. It made me more accepting."

Job search
"The person who interviewed me -- she pulled my resume out of the stack of resumes because she saw 'camp' on there. Camp counselor. She had worked in a summer camp in her years of pre-professional work and knew it was a real growing job … to make a long story short, basically I got the job because of that."

Uniqueness of camp
"There's something special about this place … I looked back at the Web site, just kind of getting prepared for this and you could read the menu for dinner and it's still the same menu. It's like, 'Oh my gosh, those poor children! Eating ham loaf!' It's those things that I will love for the rest of my life, that Ish-ga-miligee-ala-ka-zatzkee-umptie-bumptie-la-ooo meant something to me …"

"Camp is the only place in the world where we get to decide how the world's going to be. So lying, cheating, being uncaring, disrespectful is not tolerated here. I don't care what goes on in the business world … behavior like that is not tolerated here. I love living in that world; it's a great world to live in."

"The smell, especially after a rain, the smell of wet pine needles triggers a memory … it is just the funniest thing , all of a sudden just like that, I'm thinking of camp."

“Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since I was in high school and I see my friends and they say, ‘You still look like you did when you first started working at camp’…it keeps me young.”

Making memories for children
"The looks on their faces … that you were bigger than life to a little kid and that they had the best week of their whole summer and that you were a part of it."

Freedom
"A place that is separate from the normal world … you have this freedom to go there to this place, and try things. You have eight or seven sessions of camp, and you can try something one week, and if that doesn't work you can try it differently the next week. It's almost like a laboratory for people. And I don't think people are conscious of that, but you're learning that works and what doesn't work for you for interacting with people, for leading people."

Apply by downloading our Application today and faxing or mailing it back to the camp office or e-mail a application request to alferreira@campindiansprings.org.

YMCA Camp Indian Springs will offer opportunities to develop and grow spirit, mind and body by providing positive leadership and encouraging a fun environment through an attitude of service to all.

YMCA Camp Indian Springs

2387 Bloxham Cut-Off Road

Crawfordville, FL 32327

(850) 926-3361

(850) 926-3624 FAX