Bunkie couple helps summer camps find counselors

{Editor’s Note: Some information for this story came from a Baton Rouge Advocate article published earlier this summer and is reprinted by permission.}

From their home in Bunkie, Chris and Lynn Roy operate CampStaff -- an online-based business that connects prospective camp counselors with camps all over the country. Over the years, many Avoyelles Parish youth have worked as counselors through the efforts of the Roys, including several this year.

While in college in 1989, Chris Roy of Bunkie worked as a summer camp counselor in New Hampshire, thinking an outdoor job might help him rehabilitate an injury. He loved it so much, he returned year after year. In 1997, Lynn Peterson, a New Yorker and Villanova University lacrosse player, took a job coaching at the same camp because she was tired of waitressing summers during college break.

They met, fell in love and married.

With a summer camp story like that, it’s no surprise they would encourage others to give it a try.

And they do — by the thousands.

When those camps opened earlier this summer, 12,000 to 14,000 of their counselors will have come through CampStaff, Roy said.

“In recent years, Avoyelles Parish has sent counselors to camps throughout the U.S.,” Roy said. “They are mostly from the Bunkie, Cottonport and Mansura area.”

Just this past week, Lynn and a couple of girls from the parish were at Camp Walt Whitman in Piermont, N.H., with 400+ campers and 200+ counselors.

Over the years, 16 counselors from Avoyelles have worked at Camp Walt Whitman.

An average camp usually has a 3:1 ratio of campers to counselors, she said.
job requirements

Roy, now 49, said counselors must be at least 16 to work at an accredited day camp and at least 18 to be a counselor at a residential camp.

He knows of counselors up to the age of 70, with most counselors attending college.

“A general counselor is normally paid about $1,000 a month but they get free room and board and medical care,” Roy continued. “Coaches, teachers, cooks, nurses and specialists can make several thousand per week depending on their skills.”

The camp also usually arranges day trips for the counselors to visit area sights and tourist attractions. Camp Walt Whitman arranges for counselors to visit sights in Boston and Montreal.

The selling point for potential counselors is opening a door to a world that, while not entirely foreign, is new to them.

Todd Politz, 41, of Baton Rouge went to Camp Walt Whitman in 1997, the same year as Lynn, and remains in touch with staff and campers he met.

One of the campers, Rob Cohen, is a writer for the TV drama “Law and Order SVU.”        

A counselor, Charles Socarides, is an actor whose TV credits include “When We Rise,” “Madam Secretary,” “The Good Wife,” “Elementary” and “Person of Interest.”

“It was probably the best college-age experience I could ever ask for,” Politz said. He works as digital media director for LSU Sports Properties.

Elise Pearce, who grew up in Bunkie, spent three summers at camps in Massachusetts that resulted in her having friends across the globe.

“Before I went to camp, I felt like I lived in this box that I didn’t even know existed,” she said.

Pearce, 30, an occupational therapist in New Orleans, said she had “a whole new perspective on the world” when she came back from camp.

The Roys also found it to be an eye-opening experience.

Although many camps are designed for week long stays, there are a number of New England camps where campers stay for almost two months.        

Such camps cater to an upper-class clientele, costing as much as $13,000 per camper, but provide plenty of amenities, including a lot of camp staff.

END IN AUGUST

Most camps end in early August so the counselors can get ready to go back to college or for teachers, back to their schools.

“Part of it is cultural, and it’s hard for us down here to fathom the idea of sending our kids away for that long,” Roy said. “It would be the equivalent of my New York friends not understanding how I could take our girls to deer hunt.”

Many counselors want to continue working summer camps, but only about 50 percent return to the same camp. Roy said they may go elsewhere in the United States to work at another camp.

As for the business, after returning to Camp Walt Whitman for several years,  Roy  went to work for the camp full-time at its New York office in 1993, handling camp staffing.        

The website he built for the camp was so successful in increasing job applications that he created CampStaff in 1996 to help other camps connect to applicants.

It was a sideline business for several years as he continued to work for camps, but the company may receive 20,000 applications in a year.

“The camps pay us a flat fee to list on CampStaff,” Roy said. “Camps can search for staff to fill specific jobs and staff, who register for free, can search for camps meeting their criteria. The camp then does the interview and background checks before hiring a counselor.”

Roy’s company only works with camps that are accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA).

There is an ACA called Camp Ozark in Arkansas and there are some camps in the Hill Country of Texas. There are about 7,000 ACA-accredited camps nationwide, but only two in Louisiana, Roy said.

RECRUIT AFTER SPRING BREAK

Getting applications is a year-around process, but camps start their serious recruiting efforts after the annual college spring break.

Roy was working at the New Hampshire camp in 1997 when Lynn -- now 40 -- called seeking a position.

She fell in love both with him and camp life, a big part of which was the natural beauty of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

“Every summer when I go back to camp — I think this happens for Chris, too — we get there and for the kids and the campers, that’s how they feel about it. Oh, this is amazing!’”

The Roys were directors of Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, an all-boys sports camp in Lenox, Mass., from 2004 to 2010 before moving to Bunkie. Roy is executive director of a law firm while Lynn works full-time with CampStaff.

“Lynn spends a lot of time helping the camps understand this current market,” Roy said. “CampStaff lets them go in and basically recruit.

“In today’s job market, if you’re a 22-year-old male who teaches water skiing, which is always a hot commodity in camps, you can basically write your own ticket,” he added. “Like any business, the camps are trying to get the best talent.”