On the Road

Have you noticed that a few of us have been out of the office as of late? Maybe it seems we have been elusive and hard to contact? It’s true, we have been out a good deal over the past three weeks. But with good reason! We have been on the road recruiting.

Members of the program crew have visited campuses all over recruiting potential staff members, as well as looking for new campers. We have all been taking turns traveling, rolling with partners or soldiering on alone: Andy, Brandt, Craig, Drew, Jay, Mary and Gami too – all are sharing the load out on the road (that was not meant to rhyme, really).

We have spent time at Butler, UW-Whitewater, Beloit, UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse, Northern Michigan, UM-Duluth, and we will be at Lawrence this week in search of quality staff prospects. We have been speaking to classes that are covering topics related to our mission and programming. We have been hosting events at climbing walls and giving presentations to outing clubs. We have been working booths at Camp and Job Fairs.

For campers, we have spoken to families at restaurants, malls, YMCAs, and in living rooms across the Midwest. Wherever people spend time and gather, we are speaking to them and sharing the message of Camp. We operate under the axiom: all people want to go to or work for Manito-wish, they just don’t know it yet.

The road trips are going to taper off a bit throughout March, so we all should be easier to reach. For those of you in Madison and Chicago, look for us at Canoecopia and the Chicago Kid's Expo, two upcoming events.

This is part of the crew that gathered in Madison on Valentine’s Day to hang out with fellow staff and prospects. They gave up their Valentines Day to hang with Manito-wishers, that's dedication.

This does not looked too staged, does it?

What trainings & certifications do I need this summer?

Alright staff, if you only read one post on this blog, make it this one:

We offer certification and training courses you will not find elsewhere. Okay, maybe you will find them elsewhere, but not at our prices, and convenience to you, our staff.

Trail Leader Course, May 28 – June 1
First, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It’s our Trail Leader Course on May 28-June 1. You should all sign up for this. This is a trip designed for both novice and experienced participants. Leaders learn and refine trail skills and techniques for teaching and leading kids in the wilderness. You can choose between Sea Kayaking in the Apostles, Backpacking in the Porcupine Mountains, and Canoeing in Northern Wisconsin. For a training you are not going to get anywhere else - it’s only $50.oo for our staff (or $200.00 for outside participants).


Certification Courses
One of the most common questions I get is – what certifications do I need? And here is the answer:

Counselors, Tripping Assistants, Voyageur Leaders, and Leadership Program Trail Facilitators you will need:
Lifeguarding: We offer a course here called Wilderness Water Safety (WWS) that meets this standard. WWS is offered prior to Boys Staff Training and Girls Staff Training. WWS is a three year certification. If you have a Lifeguard Certification already, this will meet this standard as well.

Wilderness First Aid (WFA) & CPR: This is offered at Manito-wish to staff for FREE prior to staff training. WFA comes with CPR. Both WFA and CPR are three year certifications. Standard First Aid will not do, you will need Wilderness First Aid. If you can’t make it to a course here check out http://www.wildmed.com/ to find WFA offered somewhere else.

Program Staff you will need:
First Aid & CPR: Standard or Wilderness, you just need First Aid and CPR.

Lifeguarding: All staff who are working on the waterfront, this is a must. WWS fills this requirement. Not working on the waterfront? You do not need a Lifeguarding certification, but it wouldn’t hurt to get one!

Outpost Staff:

I really hope you know exactly what you need for certifications.

Other courses offered? Need to get a WFR? Need to re-cert your WFR? First, check out the brochure. Still don’t know what you need? Contact us at Camp. We’d be happy to help you out.

Information: Click here for OLS information.

Registration Form: Click here for the OLS registration form.

Service Profile

In true Camp Manito-wish YMCA fashion, we will “try it, change it, and try it again.” After trying to decide how we could select one individual for a Service Award, we began talking about whether we truly want to pick one individual.

According to a current entry from Wikipedia about characteristics of public service; they may involve outputs that are hard to attribute to specific individual effort and/or hard to measure in terms of key characteristics such as quality. They often require high levels of training and education. They may attract people with a public service ethos who wish to give something to the wider public or community through their work and are prepared to work harder for less pay as a result.

We are not going to have an award but instead focus on highlighting staff in an effort to bring service to the forefront of our program. This will be a Service Profile. We will highlight many staff on this blog in the next few months. Some will be new staff members, some will be returning or former staff members and some will be people who fit the characteristics mentioned above.

Service Profile, Julia Ela

Julia Ela has been a Summer Camper and Outpost Program participant. She worked as a Counselor, Sailing Assistant and spent two summers as a Section Director.

In college, Julia was a part of the Roots and Shoots program that had the goal to facilitate environmental education for middle school children. Roots and Shoots engages and empowers youth with service learning projects. She also volunteered at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. She had an internship with the Pikes Peak Areas Council of Government in Colorado and helped to write an environmental impact assessment of their long term transportation plan. This work helped pave the way for a sustainable future for the Pikes Peak area.

Currently, Julia has an AmeriCorp position with the Nature Conservancy. This is a year of service to the Wisconsin Natural Heritage Corps working on protecting and enhancing State Natural Areas and other important environmental resources around the state. She is the Assistant Land Steward and Volunteer Coordinator. She gets to spend a lot of time working and learning about land management and helping others to do the same. Julia's picture is from a prescribed burn that she was a part of this past fall. If you are in the Madison area and want to get your hands dirty, I’m sure Julia could help you out.

Spring Break '08!!

Come up and help Andy with the wall - he can't do it alone.

Ok everyone, T-minus one month. That’s right, we are counting it down until Spring Break ’08.

For those of you that have not heard, prepare for the exciting news. You might want to sit down for this.  We are planning a Spring Break Work Weekend!

This is your chance to come to Camp, during the Spring and hang out with your friends. There will be down time and opportunities to get out and enjoy the Northwoods, but it is also a working break. We have special projects and areas that need attention.

This is an idea that came from a number of seasonal staff as well as the retreat back in January. And it is a great idea. If you don’t have plans yet, consider coming to Camp and enjoy a bit of snow while it is still around. Who needs warm weather anyway? Also, the way the weekend is structured you can come here and still have the majority of your break doing something else.

We understand that these dates do not coincide with everyone’s break from school. If your break does not line up with ours, we would be happy to have you join us for any part that you can. In addition, we know many of you no longer attend school, you too are welcome to come for the Break. It is open to all, not just students.  Now, for the details:

What:
Help clean, organize, repair, restore, revitalize, rejuvenate, and refresh Camp. Have fun, ski, snowshoe, sauna, hang with other staff, and help Camp all at the same time.

Dates:
Friday, March 14th – Tuesday, March 18th

Who:
Open to all seasonal staff

Tasks:

• Clean the climbing wall and holds
  
• Organize the Equipment Room
  
• Build Wannigans
  
• Catalog and organize Outpost Maps in the MLC Library
  
• Organize the PO
  
• Among others (The list is in flux right now, things will be added and/or subtracted as we approach the dates. Nothing is set in stone, it’s all written in Jell-O as Mark would say.)

Housing and Meals:
Both will be provided by Camp

If you are planning on coming up, please send an RSVP e-mail to me – craig.sweet@manito-wish.org – so that we can start to generate a list and give meal counts to Don. (If you can’t make, send me a note anyway, I like hearing from folks and having e-mails in my in-box.)

Talk to your friends and organize car pools. Get excited and get up here, it will be a good time at the ol' Manito-wish.