Counselor handbooks shed light on the changing expectations and roles of camp staff. The handbook is below is undated but was likely published in the 1930s, making it the oldest staff handbook in the Museum collection. It offers a charming portrait of life in the 1930s, reminding counselors,
“You must forget social dancing, jazz, joy-rides, examinations, movies and stiff collars. You must drop back into pre-adolescent boyhood and enjoy catching turtles, building shanties, throwing axes, hunting treasures, spending the night in a canoe at the dam listening for deer and moose, climbing cliffs, or catching perch.”
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Open in new tab The next counselor handbook in the Museum collection, printed in 1970, is significantly abbreviated. It explains that it is Kawanhee’s policy to have “as few rules as possible.” The three page document focuses mainly on days off and what not to do as a counselor. It is likely that a staff training week, initiated sometime in the years between this publication and the previous, replaced the handbook as a source for guidance on counseling.
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Though the following staff manual is undated, it is current as of 2017. It marks a return to the longer format handbook. Likely, the return to longer handbooks coincided with Kawanhee’s ACA accreditation in 1979.
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