Who Takes Care of Your Child

Year-Round Staff:

Camp Barnabas employs twelve full-time, year-round staff and two part-time, year-round staff with a combined 78 years of camping experience. This committed core constantly researches and brainstorms ways to increase the scope of your child’s camp experience. They spend the months outside summer camp planning the next summer’s program, undergoing specialized training, hosting retreat and service groups, recruiting summer staff and volunteers, researching and adapting new summer camp activities, maintaining and improving the camp grounds, participating in the leadership of our Barn-A-Break program and raising money to fund the summer programs and capital improvements of camp.

Summer Staff:

Approximately 130 summer staff guys and gals dedicate their summer to showing people with special needs and their siblings the love of Christ in and through typical summer camp activities. These folks come from all across the country to pour themselves out for your child. Many of our summer staff once served as a volunteer at Camp Barnabas. Summer staff arrive May 21 and undergo 10 days of training – day and night – to prepare them to care for and supervise the care of your child. Summer staff who lead our ropes course and horseback riding activities arrive May 15 to train for and pass certification testing for their programs.
 

Volunteers:

Almost 1,800 CIA (Christian-in-Action) volunteers round out our servant team. Volunteer staff undergo a screening process and come from youth groups, churches and a variety of community-minded organizations across the country. These volunteers arrive one day before your camp and participate in intensive training, including getting to know your child; for example, you may have told us your child likes someone to sing “Twinkle, twinkle little star” at bedtime. We also teach them the particulars of your child’s diagnosis and ways they can make his/her Camp Barnabas experience the best possible.

Medical Services:

There are two physicians and eight nurses (RN’s) each term of camp. These medical professionals – all volunteers - provide around-the-clock, on-site care to our campers, volunteers and staff.

How it Works:

Each cabin has two paid summer staff members. Volunteer staff ages 16-30 work in cabins with a 1:1 counselor-to-camper ratio for campers with special needs and a 1:3 counselor-to-camper ratio for sibling campers. Other volunteers ages 14-15 and those over 30 help staff the kitchen and clean-up crews, back up counselors in camper care and assist in the general maintenance and operations of camp.