Klee Is Going Back To School!
No one quite knows how to make summer camp an amazing and magical 8 week long party like Allison Klee. During the off season she managed hundreds of parent phone calls, interviewed countless staff members, and packaged almost every t shirt you received this past year. Read below as Klee offers some reflection from this past summer, and lets you know about her plans to return to grad school this year to receive her Masters in Social Work! We love you Klee, and we wish you nothing but success for the future!
It’s now officially been 4 whole days since I’ve been at camp and damn does it feel weird! I am missing the sound of jokes being made during meals in the dining hall, announcements on the walkie talkies, and frantically getting into a costume 5 minutes before a night game is supposed to start.
What a summer we had! We kicked off the inaugural summer at our forever home with the most camp sessions ever before, celebrated zero cases of COVID, and hired an incredible team of staff to support the wellbeing of our campers. I am so grateful for the campers and their families who trusted us during such unprecedented times to gather as a camp community and practice radical empathy. This summer challenged us in so many ways, and would not have been possible without the support of our camp community. Thank you.
The Stomping Ground community has meant so much to me since I joined as a seasonal staff member in 2016. That summer changed the course of my life in so many ways. I had never before been in a space that trusted kids so wholeheartedly, and was instantly committed to being a part of the Stomping Ground mission in whatever capacity possible. I returned to Stomping Ground each summer after that and worked as a village director in different capacities before being hired as a year round camp director in 2018.
I am not sure I will ever be able to convey the gratitude I have for Jack and Laura for hiring and trusting me, a 21 year old college graduate, who had only ever worked in camping seasonally and had no idea what kind of work I was getting myself into. Working as a camp director for Stomping Ground these past few years has quite literally been a dream come true, and I can not imagine a better first “real job” to have had after graduating college.
It’s hard to put into words all that I have learned and the experiences I have gained from this position with Stomping Ground. I have seen the hard work and dedication that is required to run a small nonprofit that is ever changing in order to adapt to the needs of the communities we hope to serve. I have seen this small nonprofit take a hard hit from the pandemic, like so many organizations have, and fight back with flexibility, ease, and grit, never losing sight of our mission to inspire the next generation of radically empathetic decision makers. Perhaps most importantly, I have seen firsthand the strength and heart of Jack and Laura that is required to build a camp from nothing, and watch it grow and succeed right in front of our very eyes. I wouldn’t trade the last few years for anything, and I am so grateful for Jack and Laura for trusting me, including me in decisions that affect the whole organization, and for seeing the capability I have to do this work that I didn’t know I had.
I am excited to share that this fall I will be pursuing a master’s in Social Work at SUNY Brockport. There’s no doubt that the knowledge gained from working with Stomping Ground, along with the incredible social workers I met along the way in this job (looking at you Laura!), have paved the path for me to know that becoming a social worker is something I am passionate about.
Stomping Ground will always be such an important part of my life and I will miss doing this work day in and day out full time. However, I am grateful to stay connected to camp in a part time capacity in a new role. As I think about all of the exciting changes that this year will bring I am nervous. However, I am comforted by a line from a poem written about camp by Zoe, camper age 12, “Sometimes we need change. Change is growth. And growth is an Old Song to a Crowded Table. A Crowded Table where we laugh over jokes and memories. That’s the only thing that isn’t a possibility, that’s a guarantee.”
