This summer, Centauri Arts Camp is welcoming back a number of program directors who worked with us for years before moving on with their arts careers. One of these wonderful instructors approached us at the end of the first day of staff training this summer, a smile on her face, and said: “I was so worried things might have changed over the years, but they really haven’t. Centauri is just the same as it always was.”
What this instructor was referring to is the spirit of community and support here at camp, something we take great pride in. It’s a special and delicate atmosphere that only exists because the right staff are hired, trained in exactly the right way, and because we all see great value in nurturing our campers, and celebrating the uniqueness of each one of them. It exists, also, because we value and protect camp traditions – the Meece, the Tooth Fairy, the Secret Ceremony and countless others. And it exists because we have a high rate of returning campers to help maintain the special atmosphere at Centauri, from one year to the next. That’s why so many campers tell us each year that when they return to camp, they feel as if no time at all has passed since they were here, last summer.
But the truth us, in some ways Centauri does change from year to year. We have to move with the times, and in our view the most important part of that is looking closely at the needs of young people, and adapting as necessary to meet them. The prevalence of technology in our world means a greater degree of social anxiety in young people than we have ever seen before, and this means we must be prepared to offer a new kind of nurturing and support, to put these campers at their ease. Most teachers and youth workers will tell you that the percentage of young people in all our communities struggling with anxiety is far higher than it was ten years ago, and that is another need we’re changing to meet, this year and into the future. We are setting up a ‘quiet space’ at camp this summer, to be used for yoga, meditation, journaling, mindfulness and other peaceful self-awareness activities. We’re also adapting our staff training to better equip our counsellors to meet these kinds of needs in their campers.
Until five years or so ago, campers rarely cared which ‘number’ their dorm was, as long as they were with their age group and their friends. This is something else that has changed over the past years, and perhaps it is this that has led to the biggest change at Centauri this summer. Dorms are no longer numbered, but are known instead by the names of the counsellors, something that makes much more sense when there may be three or four dorms of campers who are all the same age.
So things do change at Centauri because all camps need to move with the times, to meet the needs of their campers. But there are some things that never should: the atmosphere and traditions that make a community unique and special to those people who value it, and count themselves a part of it. In these important ways, as our returning instructor pointed out, “Centauri is just the same as it always was.”
Julie Hartley
Director, Centauri Arts Camp
416 766 7124