There is a valuable push in the camp industry to become more welcoming to people of color. We support this ideal and wanted to describe our approach.

At Camp Weequahic, we do the work – through our hiring, training and programming – so that every person feels as though they belong, that they are a valued part of something greater than themselves. This is the whole point of camp: to build a community that no one wants to leave at summer’s end. There are two important ingredients: a committed staff of diverse individuals and an engaged, excited group of campers.

For our staff, as long as you see the world through our lens of ‘gratitude, attitude and courage’ and have the potential of making our community and culture stronger, we are excited to work alongside you. We seek out team members that come from different places, backgrounds, and experiences. As long as we share the same mission, our diverse staff makes the Weequahic community better for each other and our campers.

For our campers, as long as you are excited to make new friendships, build new experiences, and approach each day and each person with open arms, we are excited to play alongside you. We are happy to have campers from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds with whom we enjoy the summer.

Certainly, we don’t get it right for every person who walks through our gates. And, we learn from our mistakes and work hard to get better each year. Like so many others, we celebrate how a diverse group of people can come form something amazing: a community of belonging.

Let’s Do the Work Together

Early this June, I spent some time with a handful of our past, present and future Black staff. Their honest conversation was wonderful and led to a blog post after the experience called Important, Uncomfortable & Necessary Growth. Having read the post again, I still feel strongly it represents who we are and how we’ll move forward.

If we all do our small parts, we’ll have a big effect. Weequahic will continue to do our part to ‘create amazing’ for our diverse and excited community. Our hope is that each Weequahic camper and staff member will take the lessons of gratitude, choosing your attitude, building courage, and being kind out into their own small pockets of the world.

That’s how lasting change happens: small, consistent, intentional moves. Keep doing your part Weequahic.