I always worry when I tell people I’m a summer camp director that they’ll assume I just play with kids all day – I want to make them understand that I do “real” work: most of my days are spent on the phone or emailing parents, searching down kids to see if they’ve changed their invisalines or received their bunk notes, listening to staff tell me about challenging camper issues, and making to-do lists to plan for the next special day. But what people don’t realize is that the REAL work happens on nights like tonight when I step out of the office and join in an activity with campers. Participating in the Junior Boys evening activity Survival turned out to be a way better barometer of campers’ well-being and staff performance than any check-in I could do with a supervisor. I noticed the kids who teamed up, shared knowledge of where food and water stamps were, and protected each other from predators, and those that lurked under the Arts an Crafts building collecting dropped beads to add to their lives (not the most honest but certainly a creative idea). I saw the kids that played to win and those that played to have a good time. I saw the ones who accepted being caught graciously, and those that put up a fight and became defensive. I noticed the staff that volunteered to be herbivores and played along WITH the children and those that opted for the “special” roles of hunter, truck driver, mother nature, etc. I luckily didn’t see any staff criticizing or punishing campers for cheating, but I noticed those that turned a blind eye and those that used it as an opportunity to have a discussion with campers about their motivations.