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The Kids are Ready:
For part of the summer, Camp Onas was thrilled to welcome Simone Gamble as an addition to our program leadership. Simone Gamble is the founder of OAAARS and a faculty member at the Summer Camp Society.
Simone came to Onas to deliver a new program, designed to engage middle school campers in conversations about social justice, identity, and our values. This program, developed by educators for delivery within the summer camp setting, leveraged activities and play to help equip participants with the knowledge and skills that help them become advocates for themselves and others.
Simone was present at Camp during staff training and Second Session. Simone grew up attending Camp Fiver in Upstate New York. They went on to be a summer staff member at Camp Fiver for ten years and they returned to Fiver in 2022 to run a program similar to the one that was run at Camp Onas this summer.
As a newcomer to Onas, Simone appreciated the aspects of Onas that make us unique, especially admiring campers’ freedom to choose activities for all four periods a day. Simone also said, “The fact that Campers were able to walk throughout the campgrounds with other campers and be responsible for themselves was really powerful.”
When asked about a highlight of running the program at Onas, Simone said, “It was the young people, their brilliance. All young people are brilliant but one thing that stood out to me the most about running the program was the way they had a handle of the language. And that they were so graceful with dealing with the concepts we were working on in a way that I haven't even seen adults do it.”
Simone on the Sports Field during E.A.
The program worked by breaking older campers who wanted to participate into groups. In their groups, campers would learn and discuss together during select activity periods. Once Simone’s time at Onas concluded, the work continued! Dex (Assistant Director and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Coordinator), Chance (Director’s Assistant), Sanaa (Senior Counselor), and Eliza (MESH coordinator) led this program for Third and Fourth Session campers.
“It was cool to have a train-the-trainer program where staff members and Camp leadership were able to take on the curriculum and continue it once I left. It was a really powerful moment where staff were able to learn about these concepts and then become the leaders once I left [Onas for the summer],” said Simone. Simone hopes to continue the “train-the-trainer” process at other camps, and was happy to see it done successfully at Onas.
During their time with us Simone felt inspired by the creativity and community of Camp activities, and even co-lead a hip hop dance course with CIT Aliyah. We love that Simone not only helped us launch and craft this important educational program at Camp Onas, but became a valued member of our community in the process!
Exploring our values and learning about each other has always been a part of life at Camp Onas, and we appreciate how this program and its participants helped deepen this tradition. Thank you Simone and all the campers and staff that took on this curriculum with compassion, careful listening, and empathetic understanding.
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