A Day in the Life

7:15 AM Rise and Shine!  Help your campers get up on the right side of the bed and to breakfast on time.

8:00 AM Breakfast: Time to fuel up for the day!

8:30 AM Cabin Clean up: Time to tidy the cabin with hopes of the cleanest cabin award!  “Be clean both yourself and the place you live in.”  (Woodcraft Laws)  Assist your campers in packing for their daily Mentor Hikes.

9:15 AM Campers and staff depart for daily Mentor Hikes.  Each morning counselors are assigned and rotate through mentor hikes, the farm, camp projects, or a free morning.

12:30 PM LUNCH in the lodge with your campers.

1:30 PM Rest Hour:  a counselor’s favorite time of day!

2:30 PM Activity Period 1

3:25 PM Activity Period 2

4:15 PM Activity Period 3

Counselors are assigned to different activities depending on their skills and preferences.  Each counselor will either lead or assist in one or more of GRP’s 20+ activities.

5:10 PM FREE TIME:   Campers enjoy free swim, fly fishing, field games, quiet reading, or board games in the lodge.  Staff is assigned and rotates through different free time areas each day.  This may also be a “time-off” period for staff.

6:00 PM Cabin Time:   Counselors check in with their campers, monitor shower time, or a quiet time.  If a themed dinner is planned, counselors assist campers in preparing for it.  Remember to bring your favorite pirate digs and best tacky party shirt!

6:30 PM Dinner with your cabin.

7:30 PM Evening Programs are one of the highlights of the camp day and a great way to bring the entire camp community together in a shared activity.  Be sure to bring your running shoes for predator prey, capture the flag, or staff hunts.  Creativity abounds when planning for the variety show, contra dances, or council fires.  Costumes and musical instruments are welcome at camp!

9:00 PM Cabin Time:  Remind your campers to brush their pearly whites and shower if they did not have time earlier to do it.

9:15 PM Rose, Bud, Thorn:  This is the GRP way of putting closure to a fun camp day.  A camper’s rose is their highlight of the day; their bud is what they are looking forward to tomorrow, and their thorn is their least favorite time of the camp day.  It is a wonderful way for your cabin family to share with each other and say good-night.

9:30 PM Tuck in… early to bed, early to rise…

What Will I Learn?

“You may think all camps are roughly the same, but if so you clearly haven’t been to the GRP. Beyond the hiking, waterfalls, and playing games with kids, there is the opportunity to connect spiritually with nature and foster greater respect for the wonderful land you become immersed in. Working here allows you to get in touch with your creative, exploring, inner child, the one that somehow gets lost out there in the “real world”. It’s an experience like none other, and the closeness the staff achieves by having that experience together lasts for years. Never have I worked with a more open, inspiring, and FUN group of people!” ~ Becca Shareff

“I think the best part about being a staff member at the Green River Preserve is that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been a camper since you were 9 or if this is your first summer at the GRP. By the end of the staff training, it’s like you’ve known everyone forever. And by the end of the summer, it’s like a second home. Everyone’s experience as a staff member is different, but I can guarantee that you’ll act ridiculous, have amazing stories to tell when you leave, meet some great people and campers, and you won’t regret that you did it.” ~ Lizzie Smith

“Working at Green River Preserve has undoubtedly been one of the most important experiences in my life and has intensely shaped who I am as a person. To have the opportunity to do what you love to do is a truly incredible feeling and the sense of community at Green River only amplifies the entire experience. Simply put, I cannot say enough good things about my time working at Green River Preserve.” ~ Elan Solveson

“For the past eight summers I have given up my weekly massage, my monthly pedicure, my television, my cell phone reception…in exchange for things of real value. Like Ortman, s’mores, and waterfalls. Just kidding about the pedicure part, by the way.” ~ Ben Wyrick

What Makes Working at Green River Preserve Different?

Everything!  GRP has a unique community of staff and campers.  At Green River Preserve, campers and staff are their “Best me at GRP!”

Each camper cabin has 2 counselors and up to 7 campers per camp session.  Our 3 to 1 camper to staff ratio provides counselors with the opportunity to truly mentor their campers.

Group Learning Projects:  During our 2 and 3 weeks sessions campers are able to build on the skills they have learned at camp as well as explore some of their interests in a more depth way through Group  Learning Projects.  Group Learning Projects are day long special projects or adventures created by our staff for campers.  GLPs change from year to year.  Some previous GRP days include:  Climbing Big Bradley Falls, a musical theatre workshop at the Flat Rock Playhouse, tubing the Davidson River, fly fishing the Green River, creative writing at the Carl Sandburg house, Appalachian Folk Art Day, making leather journals , collecting native plants and vines to weave baskets, painting murals or buses, and many more!

Campout: During the 2 and 3 weeks sessions, each brother and sister cabin group is led by their counselors on a two night, three day campout.   Counselors assist campers in packing their pack with their gear and supplies and head out to Green Rivers’ various campsites.  GRP is a Leave no Trace partner.  Counselors teach their campers the  low impact camping ethics of this program and the joys of being outside amongst friends.

Opening and Closing Campfires:  These campfires are reverend times for GRP and are held on opening and closing nights of camp sessions at the Upper Council Fire.  Campers enjoy the company of their camp friends and learn about time honored Green River Preserve camp traditions including Chief Seattle’s letter, the Woodcraft Laws, camp songs, and staff stories and readings.

Green River Preserve is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex religion, natural origin, or ethnic origin.