FrançaisOur Staff
Wilvaken staff are a group of young people keenly interested in working and living in the outdoors with children. The majority of our staff return to us for 3 to 4 years and some for as long as 8 years. All our staff are able to communicate in both French and English and possibly a third language such as Spanish or German. We have had international staff working for us from Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, United States, England, Israel and Holland. This makes for an interesting mix, and is often an inspiration for our campers and Canadian staff to visit some of these countries.
Most of our staff have taken our CIT (counsellor in training program) which is offered to 16 year old campers. They then move on to being a junior counsellor at age 17 and senior age 18 and up. Our staff and lifeguards have a current first aid certificate and swim certificates. All staff participate in a pre-camp training session prior to the camper's arrival.
All the staff except the program co-ordinators and CIT co-ordinators have a chance to be in a cabin for half the summer along with being in charge of activities. Our camp is perhaps a little different than others as our staff are both cabin staff and activity staff. So they must be able to function well alternating between activities and cabin groups. At all times the campers are the main focus at Wilvaken.
While hiring staff we ask for an application which has references and questions as to why they want to be a camp counsellor along with their experience. All our returning staff must also complete an application form indicating their reason for returning and any ideas they may have for the new year. New staff are all interviewed. Our expectations are high and we expect 110% from all staff hired.
