By Kevin English
Executive Director & Co-Owner
Camp does good things. I believe this to my core. I didn’t always believe this or was even aware of this but I stumbled upon it after my first summer at Mt. Hood as a 22 year-old counselor.
I originally came to Mt. Hood to further my aspirations of becoming a pro snowboarder. After all, this is THE epic center of skiing & snowboarding every summer. The thought: meet the right filmers and photographers and become famous. Travel the world snowboarding on someone else’s dime. “One summer and I’m out,” was the thought. It was a truly selfish pursuit and camp was just a stepping-stone toward achieving my dream.
One sweltering July night around 1am, however, my co-counselor and myself started smelling cigarette smoke through our open bedroom window. After a bit of tip-toeing and sleuthing, we discovered one of our campers (all high school aged in our house), trying to sneak a cigarette. It’s amazing how dumb they think we older folks are. Really.
After questioning the camper for a bit, trying to do my best cop impression, we finally broke through our expected roles: a camper doing a bad thing, and me, the counselor “doing my job” by busting him. It turns out, sneaking a cigarette was not the real issue with this young man. His family was torn apart. He was confused, frustrated, and felt abandoned in a sense by both parents. One parent in New York, the other in Australia, being shipped between the two.
His suffering made me hurt. I realized that, as a 22 year-old, I was in a unique position to create a safe space for him to talk out his feelings without judgment. I simply served as a sounding board and expressed genuine care and concern.
This moment at 3am at snowboard camp back in 1999 changed my life. In the following days, I internalized how special that moment was for that young man and myself. I often wonder if he remembers that night. I remember it quite vividly as it led to me becoming a camp professional. A responsibility I take extremely seriously.
So while your child may want to come to Windells because they love skiing, our intent is to provide much deeper and meaningful experiences. By virtue of their age and shared interests, our staff is able to connect and support a young person who may not even realize they need it. We all need support and love. That is what we do and we hope to have the opportunity to show your child an incredible, life changing experience this summer or in the near future.
