I honestly don’t remember the very first year all three of our kids did the Cornelius Parks & Rec summer camp. What I do remember is how much they loved it, because by the time spring rolled around the next year they were already asking when they could go back.
That second year is when I signed them up, and I remember being a little nervous about it. Three kids in full-time camp is not cheap, and you have to sign up while there are openings.
Then Covid hit, and I spent a stretch worrying about whether we’d be able to get our money back. Maddie was in fourth grade in 2020, which would have been one of her last years as a camper. I remember her being sad about missing out on what was getting close to being her last camper summer.
The Cornelius Parks & Rec Summer Camp Counselor-in-Training Program
When Maddie hit the age where she had aged out of being a camper, we found out Cornelius Parks and Rec had a Counselor-in-Training program. She was excited about it for a few reasons. She’d stay busy over the summer. She’d get to keep going to camp, basically for free, as a helper. She’d get to do what she has always loved doing, which is take care of younger kids. She has been that way her whole life — the one who wants to help, who wants to be in charge, who naturally steps into the big-kid role.
I remember her first interview, which was on Zoom. The big thing the camp leaders asked her about, and I think they came back to it more than once, was how she would handle being a leader to kids only a few years younger than she was. They said a common problem with CITs was that they would slip back into acting like campers themselves, hanging out with the younger kids as peers instead of stepping up as leaders.
That was never a problem for Maddie. She went into it taking the role seriously from day one.
The First Year Felt Like Free Camp. The Second Year Felt Like a Job.
That first CIT year, our family looked at it as a win. Maddie got to go to camp all summer, she stayed busy, and she got to do something she enjoyed. She was a helper. A bigger, more experienced camper, basically.
The second year was different. She took the job a lot more seriously. She wasn’t just an older camper anymore. She was a leader.
I remember waiting for her in the pickup line at the end of camp days. All the little kids would file out to their parents, and Maddie wouldn’t come out right away. When she finally did, she’d say something like, “Sorry, I had to take out the trash first.” Small things like that, week after week, are how you know a kid has stopped thinking like a camper and started thinking like staff.
That detail came back to me this past school year. Maddie got her first official paying job, at Chick-fil-A. One night she mentioned in passing that she’d had to take out the trash. I said something like, “Those bags can get really heavy.” Without missing a beat she said, “Yeah Mom, that’s the kind of trash I took out at camp.” She didn’t say it to make a point. She said it as an offhand comment. But I caught it. The hard, unglamorous work she had been doing for free for two summers had quietly trained her for the hard, unglamorous work of a first paying job. She didn’t even notice. That’s the part that gets me.
Growing Up at Home, Too
Another small thing I noticed during those CIT years: she would come home and immediately change out of her camp shirt. I think it was actually a rule that camp staff couldn’t wear the shirt outside of camp, but the part that stood out to me wasn’t the rule following. It was what the shirt seemed to do for her while she had it on. She was more patient with her brothers. Less likely to get pulled into the usual sibling bickering. It was almost like the shirt put her in a mode where she saw the boys the way she saw the kids at camp — younger people in her care, rather than annoying brothers. The minute she changed out of it, she was back to being a regular older sister. But for those hours she had it on, something shifted.
She came home with stories. The talent show at the end of the season, where she helped the campers put together skits. Field trip days. The way the kids who looked up to her would run up to her in Target or at a restaurant in town. “Hi Maddie!” complete strangers’ kids would yell across the parking lot. We started running into her little fan club everywhere. There’s something especially sweet about watching your kid be respected by a six-year-old who thinks she hung the moon.
This Year She’s a Paid Counselor
This summer will be different again. Maddie graduated from CIT to paid counselor, which means she actually gets a paycheck for the work she’s been doing for free for two years. A couple of months ago, the Program Manager emailed Maddie and told her that she had accumulated 552 volunteer hours over those past two summers.
That’s not a number on a college application. That’s showing up week after week, all summer, in the heat, for free, because she said she would. That’s the kind of thing that has shaped who she is in a way I’m not sure school could.
The transition reminds me of when she went from being a mother’s helper to a babysitter. It’s like that, but more. She’s experienced now. She knows what she’s doing. She’s not just older. She’s become someone.
Maybe the moment that hit me hardest wasn’t about her paycheck or her hours. It was a conversation about her younger brother. For years, camp was Maddie’s thing. She didn’t want the boys there. That was her space. This spring she came to me and said, “You need to make sure you sign Eli up soon, because it’s going to fill up.” Then she walked through which weeks she thought he would like best and why. The same kid who used to guard camp as her own territory is now the one making sure her little brother doesn’t miss out. That is what growing up looks like, and I didn’t even see it happening until it had already happened.
A Note to Other Parents Mapping Out Summer
If you have a teenager who has aged out of being a camper but isn’t quite old enough or interested in a traditional first job, look into whether your local camps have a counselor-in-training program. For us, Cornelius Parks and Rec has been the gift that keeps giving, first as a camper experience for all three of our kids, and now as the program that turned my oldest into a young leader.
It is not just resume building. It is character building. They learn what it feels like to be needed, to be looked up to, to show up when they don’t feel like it, to manage kids who don’t listen, and to notice the quiet ones. They learn what their summer can be when it’s structured around other people instead of around themselves.
And eventually, if they stick with it, they earn that first real paycheck. Which, as any parent knows, hits different than allowance money.
Almost Time
Camp starts soon. She’ll get her official Camp Cornelius Counselor t-shirt. The kids she’ll be in charge of this summer are still finishing out their school years, not yet knowing which counselor they’ll get assigned to. Some of them will end up with Maddie, and a few of those will probably still be yelling “Hi Maddie!” across parking lots ten years from now.
She is not the same kid who showed up to her first day of camp years ago. And in a few weeks, some six-year-old is going to meet her for the first time and have absolutely no idea who she used to be. They’ll just know her as Counselor Maddie.
Planning Summer for Your Own Family?
If you’re mapping out summer plans for your kids — or your teen is wondering what their next step might look like — you can check out our Ultimate 2026 Lake Norman Summer Camp Guide for 65+ verified camps across the area, including the Cornelius Parks and Rec programs that have meant so much to our family. The Counselor-in-Training and full Counselor opportunities are worth looking into for the older kids in your life too.
About KB Fisher & Co
We’ve had the privilege of helping families settle into the Lake Norman area for over 25 years — and a huge part of what makes this place feel like home is the community that raises our kids alongside us. The camps, the schools, the neighborhoods, the people. If you’re thinking about a move to the area, or just want to chat about what life here looks like, reach out anytime at 704-363-5120 or contact us online.
Did your kids do CIT or a similar summer program?
I’d love to hear about it in the comments — every family’s experience is a little different, and there’s something powerful about seeing what these summers can do for our kids.
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