The Camp program is led by our experienced Senior Staff. Our Counselors, who live in the cabins with the boys, are carefully chosen for their character, personality, and leadership abilities. Nearly all of our staff are former campers. They believe in and embody the ideals and values held in the Camp spirit that they themselves found as campers.
Camp Country Lad Staff
At Camp Country Lad, our staff are carefully chosen for their character, personality and leadership abilities. Almost all of our Staff members have been Country Lad campers, so they have grown up with us, absorbing the values and spirit that Mr. Malcolm founded Camp to nurture. They know Camp well and we know them well. Leading through character and by example is a central aspect of Camp life. At Camp, campers learn to “have fun in the right kind of way” by seeing it all around them as much as ever being told.
Program Directors
Our Program Directors run our Camp program. They are involved in every aspect of Camp life from training and supervising our counselors, to planning and overseeing all activities, leading our church and Campfire programs, and being a friend to each boy. They are, as we say, “in charge of having fun!”
Paul Means - 4-week Camp Program Director
“I first came to Camp as a counselor after graduating high school in 1969. I was a counselor from 1969 - 1972. In 1973, Bennett Spong (who is also still part of our Senior Staff, running the woodworking shop) and I were the first ever Senior Staff and stayed in the farmhouse. I went off to a career and returned to Camp as Senior Staff in 1994, bringing my own children with me to be campers. I have been every summer since. So, a total of 34 years.” After having worked alongside Mr. Malcolm for decades, “Captain Paul” became one of our Program Directors in 2016.
Ben Wilkins - 2-week Camp Program Director
“I’ve spent more summers of my life at Camp than not, which is something that feels pretty lucky to say. I began as a camper, then served on staff as a cabin counselor for many years, then transitioning to Senior Staff. For the past 6 years, I have been working in Memphis, TN as a middle school and current elementary school teacher, and I have been glad to have summers off to devote time to Camp. Though my time as a camper is where I first fell in love with CCL, what keeps me returning is a desire to kindle and foster the love of Camp, the outdoors, and ‘having fun in the right kind of way’ on a new generation of campers.” Having worked alongside Mr. Malcolm on Staff, Ben will join us in this new capacity for the summer of 2024.
Senior Staff
The Senior Staff lead our Camp staff, they work with the counselors and their campers in all activities and outings, providing supervision and ensuring safety. Almost all Senior Staff members, like our counselors, have been Country Lad campers and often counselors themselves. Now, grown men with full lives and sometimes sons or grandsons as campers, they return to Camp to give back, to give the boys the same experience that they were able to enjoy as boys and that they see as having been so important throughout their lives. They direct and oversee all aspects of the Camp program, from planning the daily activities to working with the counselors, from supervising activities to participating in nightly devotions in the cabins.
Counselors
Counselors are college-age men who live in the cabins with the boys and help shape cabin life. They also serve as activity heads, leading program activities. As former campers, they know camp well and we know them well. They return each year to share a little of that “Camp spirit” with the boys.
Assistant Counselors (ACs) assist the counselors in the cabin and at program activities, gaining experience and assuming new responsibilities. They have traditionally completed a year of CIT training or have equivalent experience.
Counselors-in-Training (CITs) were previously campers who have been asked to return and prepare to join our staff through this year of hands-on training. CITs work alongside and observe the counselors in the cabin with the boys and help out at all program activities.
Kitchen Staff
Our full-time Kitchen Staff oversee the operation of our dining hall and prepare homecooked meals. The kitchen is managed by an experienced dietician with much of the cooking done by local cooks. Their hearty meals keep us all going strong, fueling our busy days with summer highlights from our surrounding farming community – fresh corn, watermelons and cantaloupes, tomatoes and zucchini – as well as the cinnamon rolls and tortillas from neighbor bakers that make their way to our tables.
Our Kitchen Staff also includes a rotating group made mostly of parents who work at Camp in exchange for the tuition of their child. They live with us at Camp and help the boys set the tables and serve out our family-style meals. They organize our older boys as they wash the dishes, and they help prepare drinks, desserts and food for outings and campouts. These parents join in the fun and become an important part of our Camp family.
Camp Nurse
Our Camp Nurse is a licensed nurse or doctor who takes care of all of Camp’s health needs, as well as dispensing all camper medications and any needed first aid. They live at Camp in the infirmary and are available 24/7 to attend to any medical concerns, or just listen and sometimes give a hug if that is what is needed.
All medications are kept securely by the nurse in the infirmary and the nurse dispenses all medication directly to the campers at prescribed times when in Camp. Our Camp Nurses work closely with the rest of the staff to make sure that campers are well taken care of across all areas of basic health and safety such as hydration and nutrition, insect bites and stings, good hygiene, and the bumps and scrapes that come with active life and adventure in the out-of-doors.