Introducing: Paige & Allison!

We started The Summer Camp Society in 2017, and, for the past five years, we’ve very much been a start-up. We’ve been both doing all that we can, whenever we can, to build TSCS. But over the course of this school year, we realized that the foundations of TSCS have been built, and we were the constraints stopping it from meeting its potential. When we brought Paige Moffett onto our admin team last spring, she took a small idea and made it into what is now a flagship program. We never would have been able to do that without her. We realized we needed more leadership to bring our ideas to fruition and make lasting impact in our industry and our world. So, with that, we are thrilled to announce that Paige is formalizing her role with us as the director of continuous improvement and we’ve also hired Allison Krabill to be TSCS’s first executive director. 

Why we are excited about Paige

Paige gets things done. But she doesn’t just get them done once—she creates systems so projects are easier to do again, so organizational expectations are clear, and so great ideas can scale. She has a keen eye for detail, a hugely creative mind, and has spent the past six months providing guardrails for all of the kookie ideas that we come up with. Paige knows the questions to ask, the solutions to institute, and has already taken our membership program from a dreamy idea to a thriving program. 

Why we are excited about Allison

When we started The Summer Camp Society, we wanted to create camp-like learning experiences for camp leaders. Through our retreat and members program, we have done just that. And now, we are thrilled to announce that Allison Krabill is joining our team to be our first executive director. We can’t imagine a better camp director for camp directors. Allison has a wealth of executive leadership, is incredibly flexible and creative, and is extraordinarily supportive. She’s going to be able to expertly manage all of TSCS’s programming, build new ways for camp leaders to learn and connect, while also building relationships with and between members of our camp community. 

Read on to learn more about Paige and Allison, and return to the blog on Thursday to meet TSCS’s first faculty members!

With Love,

Kurtz and Jack

About Paige

My Camp Story

Growing up at camp

I grew up as a camper at El Lago Del Bosque Wilder, a Spanish immersion camp run by Concordia Language Villages. My 8 years at “Spanish Camp” were extremely formative, moving me towards the education field and the Spanish language, which eventually brought me to Guatemala, and then back stateside to open a similar program in a different area of the U.S. 

Founding a camp

Helping to open a new camp in Chattanooga, TN - El Pueblo Spanish Camp - with Emily and Teo Valdés was a defining experience for me. Like the camp I grew up at, this was a Spanish immersion summer camp. Founding El Pueblo was a massive undertaking. And while it was somewhat short-lived (we closed during the pandemic), I felt like I was in a cocoon of growth. I learned how to lead a team, how to create real cool spreadsheets, how to market, how to hire (and fire), how to make tough decisions and have tough conversations, and all of the many other aspects of how to run a camp (y’all know). And most importantly, I learned how to create a community of people grounded in love for each other, in keeping themselves and others safe, and in continuously finding opportunities to learn and grow together. 

While I’ve learned many skills relating to how to run a camp, open a camp, and even close a camp… the most important takeaway I find myself journeying back to are the moments with campers and team members that remind me that camp can truly be a place that fosters community, unity, empathy, love, and connection. And that I want to be part of creating these spaces and moments. 

Our 4 foundational values at El Pueblo were: 1) to show up in all spaces as learners, 2) to demonstrate love for ourselves and others, 3) to create safe spaces, and 4) to process life and camp through intentional and consistent reflection. 

My camp closed… Now what?

It turns out there was an additional hidden 5th value we came upon at El Pueblo somewhat accidentally: Clear, collaborative process.

In my work with El Pueblo, TSCS, and other organizations, I have become more and more convinced that process, done thoughtfully, can change the game. I’m sure that El Pueblo could not have moved within our values as confidently without it. 

Jack said it well in an email to me once: “I am seeing more and more how writing this stuff down is not only an act of organizational efficiency, but also illuminating the hidden curriculum and inclusion.”

I believe clear, collaborative processes can…

• Make your camp more inclusive 

• Help your team experience more moments of success and less moments of under- preparedness

• Save you time and money 

• Build positive team culture through clarity and ease of access to necessary information 

• Make your life as a camp leader way, way easier

I see so much space for this in the industry, and I’d like to be a part of making it happen. The question on my mind is: How can we use clear, collaborative processes to make it easier for camp teams to focus their time on creating life changing moments for campers at our camps? And that is the question I’ll be answering in my work moving forward with the various organizations I work with: TSCS, Change Summer, S’more Melanin, OAAARS, and counting! 

It’s been a fun journey, and I am more confident than ever that I am in the best industry ever. I’m excited to continue to connect, innovate, unlearn, and rebuild with Kurtz, Jack, Allison, our new faculty, the TSCS members, and the entire camp industry.

About Allison

MY CAMP STORY

50 years ago, a first-time camper pulled through the gates of Warner-Tully YMCA Camp. He did all the normal activities — he swam, he hiked, he did it all. He then did some activities that we as camp directors may think are normal(ish), but his 7-year-old cabinmates did not — he peed in the bed and pooped in the mudpit. He vowed never to return. And he didn’t. Until about 25 years later when he drove me through the same gates, dropped me off, and went on vacation. Seriously, though, I am so glad my dad took a chance and sent me to camp.

I went to Warner-Tully as a camper and CIT for years and met people who are still my best friends (Marion, text me back and Erin, I love you). I became a counselor at 15 (Mississippi rules — I also got to drive myself!) and just kept coming back. Every summer I swore would be my last summer, but something kept me there. A few months before I was set to graduate college, our camp director left, which left a group of us who had been there forever nose goes-ing it for who was going to put their life on pause and take care of the camp we loved. Technically, I lost, but, wow, did I win.

It took just a few months of me working in camp full-time for me to stumble upon the Summer Camp Professionals Facebook group, and from there, I read every blog, listened to every podcast, signed up for every webinar, and did everything I could to learn more about camp as an industry. It was eye-opening and incredible to see that there were other camps doing things differently (and better!) than we were doing them. That’s when I really fell in love with the industry.

Life happened and I had to leave Warner-Tully. I did a brief stint at a digital marketing agency (PHOS - I truly can’t recommend them enough and learned SO much from their culture) and then found my way to Camp Weed & Cerveny Conference Center. During my time there, I went to my first retreat with The Summer Camp Society, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

At heart, I’m a Y person. So when the opportunity came up to work at YMCA Camp Immokalee, I jumped on it. I accepted my offer as associate executive director (Y speak for assistant director) the day the executive director resigned. I started April 1. Nothing had been planned. No one had been hired. And I was the only employee. It was truly a whirlwind.

Fast forward three years and Immokalee is in a completely different spot. We more than doubled our budget, more than doubled our camper weeks, more than doubled our weekend groups, grew to THREE employees, and so much more. We repaired community relationships, fought to make sure the small town our camp is in wasn’t left out of association (Y speak for… maybe group is the best word?) programs, and built relationships everywhere we looked. During my time at Immokalee, we created a master plan and invested around $2M in facilities. There is nowhere I could’ve learned or grown more. There are no kids, families, and staff I could love more. And there is no one else that will ever be my home quite like YMCA Camp Immokalee. I am so excited to see the way my good friend Richard takes care of my camp baby.

In August 2021, I had a real baby. His name is Jack (or baby Jack so it doesn’t get confusing with Jack Schott), and right now, I need to focus on being his mom instead of growing a camp. We moved to Tennessee to be closer to family, and after a brief stint with the Red Cross, Kurtz called me with the perfect opportunity. To be a camp director for camp directors. To get to talk camp all the time. To get to help camps grow. To get to help people grow. To get to help TSCS grow. A dream come true. I LOVE camp, and I LOVE helping people, so this is truly a perfect fit for me.

I am so excited to work with Jack, Kurtz, Paige, our incredible faculty, our awesome members, and every amazing answer-seeking, big-thinking person who takes our seminars, downloads our resources, etc. I truly believe in what The Summer Camp Society is doing, and I have no doubt that it’s changing the world. I can’t wait to work with you!

P.S. You could’ve seen me out in the camp world as Allison East, Allison Vining, or Allison Krabill. Life’s been weird.

P. P. S. Some random camp things I love to talk about: budgets, having babies at camp, coming from a Southern upbringing and having my eyes opened about DEI, marketing, different possibilities, and really anything.