Name: Richard Small
Company: BUNAC
Location: NY, USA

	BUNAC Spend the summer working with kids aged 6 to 16 on Summer Camp USA. It's a great value-for-money package that includes a return flight to the USA, comprehensive insurance and free food and accommodation for the duration of your time on camp for only £279.
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It all began in 2002 when I finished my A-levels and had decided to take a year out, it would turn out to be a working holiday that changed my life.

My experiences at camp are unrivalled and it's something that I love to do. As I am writing this I am finalising my visa for my sixth summer at Camp and there could be more...

I had put aside one summer to go and be a camp counselor because as a kid I remember watching 'Bug Juice' in the school holidays and thinking "I want to go". I never had the chance as a child and i wanted to travel on my own so i started surfing the internet for a route into this adventure, which led me to www.bunac.org.

At the time i was 17 and wasn't really eligible for summer camp (generally you have to be 18 to apply), However i would turn 18 before i flew out and was eligible for a J1 visa.

Throughout my teenage life I gained a lot of experience of working with children - I was head coach for 2 youth football teams (with coaching badges) and junior captain at the local golf club and also worked in a children's adventure centre as a leader.

This luckily got me accepted into the visa sponsorship program via Bunac and I was eventually selected at the last minute by 'Brant Lake Camp'. Now a lot of people said that I would be too young to do it, even in the interview they didn't fancy my chances of getting a placement but they (Bunac) kept trying and for that i have to thank them.

At a later date the camp director even said it was a last minute gamble that he selected me due to another member of staff withdrawing a week before the start of camp. (I don't mean to discourage younger applicants but it is much easier to get onto these programs if you are over the age of 18 and have at least some experience of working with children in a leadership role.)

Brant Lake Camp is a predominantly Jewish sports camp for boys aged 7-16. It is rather affluent with children mainly coming from the New York City area. It has a strong family tradition and even has fourth- generation campers (Their great grandparents went to the same camp). The kids stay at camp all summer and generally return year-after-year (40 of the 55 graduating campers had been returning there for 7 years or more). More info is here (www.brantlake.com)

So, a week before i left for the states i got the acceptance email from the camp director telling me i'd be a counselor at his camp. The worrying thing for me was that camp would be in progress when i arrived - all the other counselors had been there for a fortnight and the kids got there 5 days later. I would be thrown in at the deep end!

To say i was apprehensive would be an understatement but i had always wanted to do this so i took the plunge and accepted the offer. A week later i set off for the States, on my own, to one of the busiest cities in the world. As it was late there was only one other counselor at the Bunac hostel that night but the guys there gave us all the information we needed. Wandering around the city that night was an experience i'll never forget.

The next day i took off to the bus station and got the Greyhound to the Adirondack Mountains, up-state New York. It took 5 hours but the scenery was beautiful. america is so vast, all people tend to see are images of deserts and cities but we drove hundreds of miles on the freeway into the mountains through thick forests. It was then i realised another thing... my hayfever didn't occur in America.

I arrived at camp wondering what i'd be faced with, i knew no-one, had no idea what job i'd be doing or what kids i'd be looking after. but the first face i saw was a guy called Richie, the camp owner. He recognised me instantly (he knows everyone before they arrive and i have no idea how he does it!) and showed me round, introducing me to kids, counselors, alum and the rest.

What took me aback was not the vastness of the camp, nor the beauty of the surroundings, what caught my eye was how much fun everyone was having. There were kids and counselors everywhere playing games, having lessons and having fun.

It was then I knew i'd made the right decision. About an hour later i was settled into my bunk with another counselor from England with six eight year olds asking continuous questions. (and to answer the popular myth: they do all think we know the queen at that age).

To cut a long story short, the summer went like lightning, every day was better than the last and the progress the kids made was amazing. 'Soccer' as they call it was just getting popular over there and the willingness to learn and progress was 10 times what it is with children over here.

They listen, they're polite and as i said before, they're fun. In a flash it was visiting day (where the kids had so much candy I was nearly sick!), colour war, tournaments against other camps and then the final day came - it was over. The boys that were crying with homesickness on the first day were crying because they had to leave, Everyone piled onto the buses back to the city as the counselors got ready for the second part of the adventure - post-camp.

I'll break the story to quote my camp's director; "To every child here you will be their friend, their big brother, their dad and their teacher".

It's said at the start of every summer and only takes 30seconds with the kids to understand and believe it. They hang on your every word, they love your attention and will follow you round until it gets dark. From the first moment you meet the kids to the last, they're your friend.

Even during the winter I keep in touch with some of the kids who send me emails telling me they've just won a 'soccer' game or lost a tooth etc... You make friends for life at camp!

For more information about BUNAC placements or to apply visit: www.bunac.org

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	BUNAC Spend the summer working with kids aged 6 to 16 on Summer Camp USA. It's a great value-for-money package that includes a return flight to the USA, comprehensive insurance and free food and accommodation for the duration of your time on camp for only £279.
	Visit Website	View Placements >