They have somewhere around 230 kids at Short Mountain this week. And about 70 counselors/staff. Every bed is full and the facilities are being used to the max. They actually have a waiting list for campers and staff. The unusual situation is that they have other weeks of camp which they only have 75 kids.
When church camps become overloaded and they have to start turning down kids, I see that as a major injustice. If at all possible you shouldn’t turn down kids for camp. Unfortunately the problem stems from trying to be nice to everyone. Kids graduate from high school and want to come back as counselors. No one wants to turn them down if they want to be a counselor. So you become overloaded with counselors who’s beds could be used for campers instead.
Instead you should only pick enough counselors that you need. And pick only enough of the good counselors. We’re talking good Bible school teachers; good encouragers; hard workers. I’m not saying that there are poor Bible school teachers; poor encouragers, and lazy people. It’s just that some are better than others.
Camp is about the kids; not some kind of pseudo reunion for counselors.
Yet, having a full camp is a good problem to have. It means you’re getting the most for your dollars. It also means the staff is doing a good job at retaining campers and/or attracting new ones. I wish we had the same problem at MJ’s camp. We are getting to have full facilities. However not all kids within the camp age bracket are attending camp. If they were, we’d have somewhere closer to 150 rather than the 80 that we have right now. I’m still pushing camp in my Bible class. But some kids seem unenthusiastic about it. I just about have to beg them to come to camp.