A couple of days ago, almost 40 of the Centauri staff gathered at our home for a Winter Celebration. It was glorious to see everyone again. When we first set up the camp, and all communication with parents was through the mail, our parties involved dozens of dedicated, staff stuffing hundreds of envelopes. We laughed and chatted as we worked, then, at the end of the evening, we would bring out a sack of gifts for everyone. These days, we don’t need to stuff hundreds of envelopes… and the gifts have become a donation to a worthwhile charity, on behalf of the wonderful staff who make Centauri what it is. There is just one catch… the staff have to ‘earn’ the charity dollars by participating in games that resemble exactly the type of evening programs we do at camp! This year’s charity was of a save-the-rainforest type, so all games had a rainforest theme. In the first game, counselors and program directors placed themselves in teams, and worked blindfolded to build big rainforest trees, using pipecleaners. Each team then received a set of paper monkeys. They had to attempt to hook the monkey tails around the branches of their trees. 
Each monkey was worth one dollar to our charity! One team cheated a little and speared all their monkeys on the pipecleaners, which led to a lot of laughter. In another game, Aaron (office administrator through the year, art teacher in the summer) played an evil woodcutter, wearing a mustache which kept coming off. The staff had to attempt to get a lot of little paper trees from one side of our house to the other, and safely into a box, without Aaron-the-evil-woodcutter seeing the trees and stealing them. Another game required crazy impersonations of howler monkeys, crocodiles, sloths and so on. The games resulted in so much crazy laughter that by the end, no one was really able to hear the rules and just made them up as they went along! We finished the party by consuming vast numbers of holiday cookies, and counting the trees. The games resulted in a donation of $200 to a rainforest charity. Not bad, given the amount of fun we had along the way!
New staff members – many of whom were senior campers last year – often join us for the Winter Party, participating as a staff member for the very first time. This year, one of the new staff made an interesting comment. She said that when you are a camper, you always wonder whether staff really are their wonderful summer-selves once they re-enter the real world, or if they just have to be that way at camp. She said that several of the new staff were a little nervous about the party because they had seen their counselors as perfect role models for years, and didn’t know if they were about to see a different side of them. But no. She quickly relaxed and realized there is nothing false about the way our staff are at camp. They really are incredible people, and when you see them outside of camp, relaxing together and having fun, they are exactly the same selves you see at camp, when they make each summer magical for their campers. I spoke to a lot of staff during the evening, but of every conversation I had, this is the one I felt to be the most profound. Perhaps it’s one of the things that makes Centauri so special. For our staff, camp is not just a job, it’s a vocation. With their personalities and skills, it’s a place they truly belong. When you meet them outside of camp, they truly are the same exceptional human beings. Centauri could not be the place it is, without them.
Julie
Director
www.centauriartscamp.com