By Henry Hofheimer

As the last car travels down the gravel road, leaving through the gates, over 700 campers embark on their journey to make new friends and learn skills that will last a lifetime.

Camp Sea Gull is an all-boys camp in Minnesott, North Carolina, founded in 1948 by Wyatt Taylor and the YMCA. Campers have the option to attend for one, two, four, or eight weeks. The one-week experience is called Starter Camp. The campers are ages 6-9, and it is an introduction to overnight camps. There are two four-week sessions for ages 7-16, where campers set goals and work on ranks on any of the various activities camp has to offer. Inside of the two four-week sessions, there are four two-week sessions for campers ages 7-10, to do all the same things that the four-week campers do but in less time. Although rare, there are some campers who attend both four-week sessions of camp for a full eight weeks of activities.

Camp Sea Gull has 68 cabins that house over 5,000 total campers, counselors, and other staff over the summer. The cabins are not fancy; they have no AC and mesh windows. This past summer, four weeks of camp cost $6,910.

Every day, campers wake up at 8:00 a.m. and eat breakfast. During a meal, each cabin has their own table in the mess hall where they eat family-style. Campers participate in two three-hour long activity periods, where they can do anything they want. Along with sailing and powerboating, there is a wide variety of land and water activities, including swimming, fishing, creative arts, archery, golf, tennis, pickleball, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, environmental discovery, riflery, canoeing, paddleboarding, kayaking, and high ropes courses. After dinner, each cabin spends an hour together playing games, then back to the cabins to shower, clean, and get ready for devotion. Every night, counselors lead the cabin in a devotion before bed. Lights out is at 9:30 p.m. Through their experiences, campers learn about leadership and how to cooperate with fellow cabin mates. 

My experience at camp is the most extraordinary thing I have ever had the opportunity to do. I started at Camp Sea Gull when I was eight, because my dad went when he was a kid. As a camper, I spent all my time on a sailboat, learning everything there is to know about sailing various kinds of boats: Sunfish, 420s, Lightnings, and Lasers. Over the last two summers, I was a counselor, leading a cabin of ten 13-year-olds and teaching campers ages 7-16 how to sail 420s.

As a counselor, I was given the rare opportunity to become a leader and problem solve through challenges that I never saw coming. This summer, I experienced a little bit of everything: a camper who had been in ten different foster homes, not having drinkable or showerable water for three days, and everyone in the cabin, including me, needing to get rabies shots because I was bitten by a bat. Although navigating these challenges was extremely difficult, it is the people at camp that make it easier, because many of the counselors continue coming back.

However, in recent years Camp Sea Gull has struggled to maintain counselors and other staff. Carlyle Chandler is a senior at Wofford College and former head powerboat counselor at Camp Sea Gull, and we recently sat down at Moe’s Original BBQ in Spartanburg, South Carolina to catch up. When I asked if he was planning to return to camp this coming summer, his response was similar to that of many other camp veterans: he wants to, but the pressure to get internships and summer job experience makes it difficult. 

In order to fill the spots of the staff members who can’t come back, the camp recruits international staff from places like Spain, Mexico, Australia, and England. Several problems arise from this. It is sometimes difficult for international counselors to become accustomed to camp. For many of the staff, English is not their first language, which makes it challenging for other staff members and campers to communicate with them.

Some of the international staff acclimate to camp well, however. In the cabin next to me this past summer was counselor Mane Miceli. Miceli was a studying translator from Mexico who spoke four different languages, including fluent English. He was a great counselor because it was his second year, and he was accustomed to the rules and how to deal with kids.

Having an exceptional counselor can make or break a camper’s experience. When I look back on my six years as a camper, I can still remember the counselors I had and what they did that imprinted a lasting impact on my life. It is how the counselor responds to a challenge or a problem and makes it enjoyable that determines if their success at the job.

When the counselors that truly understand the meaning of camp stop coming back, it creates a gap that no one else can fill.

Camp Sea Gull is a very important place to me, and the impact that it had on me and other kids will last a lifetime. Looking forward, I am also worried about getting internships and responsibilities that I will need to take on eventually, but I look forward to returning to Camp Sea Gull this upcoming summer.

All photos by Henry Hofheimer.