Planting Seeds of Success at Kids@Carroll Summer Camps

From camper to counselor, Madelyne Moore’s journey with Kids@Carroll summer camps has come full circle. In this Q&A, she reflects on how her time at Kids@Carroll shaped her creativity, leadership skills, and career path, and how returning as a staff member has deepened her connection to the program.

Q: What was your first experience like attending Summer! Kids@Carroll as a camper?

Madelyne Moore: As a child, I was a quiet camper, and I was pretty content with any craft or activity set in front of me. Initially, I was anxious to be in a new environment with lots of other kids, but I remember feeling warmly welcomed by the staff. I became comfortable with my new environment pretty quickly.

Q: Do you remember a specific activity or moment from camp that was especially meaningful or fun for you?

MM: I remember being in the Harry Potter camp with my sister. At the time we had just finished watching all the Harry Potter movies. I remember coming into that camp excited to make Harry Potter crafts and talk about our HP houses. For instance, we decorated a broom based on our preferred house—mine was a Ravenclaw theme while my sister did a Grinfindor theme. The camp’s teacher took us outside and we got to run around and play as if we were in a quidditch game. When I became a staff member, this fun moment became a very nostalgic memory for me. I am so happy Kids@Carroll continued this camp.

Q: How did Kids@Carroll summer camps help shape your interests or confidence when you were younger?

MM: I also did an art camp. I was always interested in arts and crafts, but I remember the art camp increased my confidence in creativity by thinking of new ways to make art. For instance, this art camp specialized in duct tape, and I remember being inspired to make duct tape water bottle holders with a functional strap as well as usable duct tape wallets. I found the art camps very inspiring as a kid because it created a building block to my interest in art and overall built confidence in my artistic abilities.

Q: Did attending Kids@Carroll influence how you thought about learning or school during the regular academic year?

MM: Attending Kids@Carroll as a camper influenced me that learning can be fun. Even if a subject may not be as enjoyable for me, I can always figure out a creative way to make learning that topic more fun. For instance, I could create a fun presentation—designing is cool!—that I can present to my parents. (Teaching a subject helps cement a topic in your brain.) Kids@Carroll summer camps helped me learn that school can always have a fun twist.

Q: What was it like being on a college campus as a kid? Did it make you more interested in college later on?

MM: Being on a college campus as a child inspired me from a young age that I will someday go to college and learn fun and exciting things. I remember that being at Carroll Community College sparked the idea that I may walk through the same halls as an adult about to go to class. Being on Carroll’s campus helped me become accustomed to the idea of going to college and becoming familiar with Carroll’s campus overall.

Q: What inspired you to come back to Kids@Carroll as a staff member later in life?

MM: I am a student at Towson University and originally was an illustration major. I soon came to the realization that this major was not for me, and I eventually changed my career path to speech language pathology (SLP) and audiology. At TU, SLP and Audiology is a conjoined Bachelor’s program that will eventually lead into a Master’s program in one or the other.

I decided to become a staff member at Kids@Carroll summer camps because I wanted to gain experience working with children in a learning setting. If I were to choose SLP for my Master’s program, I would be teaching children how to effectively increase their speech development in a fun environment. I thought this aspect was very similar to Kids@Carrol’s fun learning environment that I experienced as a camper. Additionally, if I were to choose Audiology as my career path, working with children was also seen as beneficial because there are multiple routes in this field as well. Overall, I found working with children very valuable for gaining experience in my career path and obtaining valuable skills in a leadership role.

Q: How did your perspective on the camp change when you went from camper to staff?

MM: As a camper at Kids@Carroll I enjoyed being taken care of by the teachers and camp counselors and doing the fun activities they set up for us. Now as a staff member, I enjoy looking after my campers and seeing them smile. I want to give my campers the same welcoming and fun environment I experienced at their age.

Q: What roles or responsibilities did you have as a staff member?

MM: I am a Personal Assistant for the cooking camps. In a kitchen setting, my number one goal is to make sure my campers are safe at all times. Some of the responsibilities as a safety monitor were making sure oven mittens are heatproof for the camper’s hands, ensuring kitchen knives were used properly, caring for burns and cuts, educating campers what can and can’t go in a microwave, and helping them if they were struggling with a tool.

Along with the importance of safety, I strive to provide a fun and welcoming experience for all campers. The cooking camp teachers and I found that our campers really enjoyed Gordon Ramsay’s MasterChef Junior TV show. While food was in the oven, we put on this show to provide the campers with an educational perspective of learning new cooking skills or allowing them to see mistakes other children made while cooking.

Q: What was the most rewarding part of working with campers compared to being a camper yourself?

MM: One of the most rewarding parts of being a cooking camp PA is seeing the campers run to their parents exclaiming what they cooked or baked that day. Their faces brightened up as they talked about their new experiences, and I am happy to be a part of their camp experience.

Q: What did you learn about leadership or teamwork from working at Kids@Carroll summer camps?

MM: I learned that leadership and structure are important in a cooking camp because without some sort of daily task and health standards, the kitchen could easily become chaotic and messy from all-purpose flour and dirty dishes.

Both leadership and teamwork skills came in handy when campers struggled to motivate themselves to wash their dishes. I learned that assigning roles in an assembly line helped campers get all the dishes done on time and provided them with responsibility skills. The assembly line tactic helped campers build teamwork skills as they learned each other’s names, formed bonds, and switched tasks if they wanted to try something different.

Q: How did your time at Kids@Carroll, both as a camper and staff, influence your personal or career goals later on?

In these camps I learned how to work alongside other children, how to use my creative abilities to build something functional and cool, and overall sprout self-discovery. I believe Kids@Carroll summer camps helped me from a young age glue my love for being on a college campus by learning and expanding my horizons. As a former dual enrollment student at Carroll Community College and a current staff member for Kids@Carroll, I hope my campers and peers experience the same memories in self-discovery that I hold dear to my heart.