June 26, 2015
Cultural aspect accents summer camp
Bob Ellis/staff photographer
Emma Keen, left, and Emma Holden-Maillard, two students from England, will work as lifeguards through the Camp America program at Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Camp Owahta in Solon this summer. The program brings in international staff members, offering a blending of cultures.
SOLON — International 4-H Camp Owahta staffers Emma Keen and Emma Holden-Maillard could not wait to get off the Greyhound bus after the final leg of their long trip from the United Kingdom, which dropped them off Wednesday afternoon in front of the Cortland County Office Building.
Their first order of business? A trip to Taco Bell.
“We have a whole list of things we really want to try,” Keen, 19, said, adding she is really excited about being in New York even though this is her fourth time to the United States.
For Holden-Maillard, 18, this is her first time in the United States and she said being in Cortland feels “surreal.”
“Being immersed in this entirely new culture ... it’s just overwhelming,” Holden-Maillard said. “Am I really in America right now?”
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cortland County’s 4-H Camp is welcoming international staff for the second summer, hoping the cultural exchange will benefit both the Cortland campers and the cultural exchange students. Keen and Holden-Maillard, who will be working at the Solon camp, were selected through Camp America, an international camp program which has a variety of candidates from all over the world, including France, Poland and Australia.
Roger Barkman, director of the 4-H Camp Owahta for two years, said Thursday morning in the Cooperative Extension kitchen that the program brings an educational aspect to the campoverall.
“Bringing international staff to us, there’s a cultural exchange,” Barkman said, adding he had two international staff members last year from the UK, also.
Keen, who lives in a town called Southport in northern England, said she has friends of the family who live in Connecticut, but being part of Camp America gives her the opportunity to travel to new places like Cortland.
“I love working with kids,” Keen said, adding it is good work experience for her to get into college. “I always wanted to travel.”
Keen said she is glad she picked Cortland in which to spend the next two months.
“Cortland’s gorgeous, there’s so many trees,” Keen said, adding her town is mostly surrounded by flat farmland. “To us, this is the wilderness. It’s something completely different.”
Holden-Maillard, who lives in a town called Totnes in the southern part of England, said she was also impressed by the forests in Cortland County. In her short three days of life in the states, she already thinks it is “incredible.”
Holden-Maillard added she is grateful to take part in Camp America.
“It’s such an amazing program especially if you’ve never been out of the country,” she said, adding the experience also gives her a taste of what it is like to be independent.
Barkman said he was looking for two lifeguards for camp this year and Keen and Holden-Maillard were a perfect fit. Barkman added he hopes to find candidates next year from the other 20 countries available through Camp America.
4-H Camp Owahta has six weeklong sessions, starting July 5 and ending Aug. 14, for ages 6 years old and up. Barkman added slots are still open for campers to sign up.
Jacob P. Brown, the camp’s waterfront director, said the international student exchange was a success last year, noting he has stayed in touch with the camp staffers from last year.
“Camp has a bond that is amazing,” Brown, 26, said, adding it is his sixth year with the 4-H Camp. “You don’t realize the friendships you have until you’re with them ... all the time.”
As part of the Camp America program, both Keen and Holden-Maillard will be taking 14 day trips exploring either the eastern or western halves of the United States. Keen is going to New Orleans and Las Vegas while Holden-Maillard is venturing to New York City andChicago.
Both students said they did not know each other before coming to the United States, but connected through Facebook and shared checklists with each other when they found out about their placement in March.
Keen said she is happy to share this experience with Holden-Maillard, knowing she might become homesick. “I brought my own tea bags,” Keen joked, also grateful for making another “long-lasting friendship.”
“We’ve know each other for only three days, but it feels like we’ve known each other longer,” Keen said.
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