Preventing Spread of Norwalk and Other Infections at Camp

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App (search for CampHacker)

I have often said that camp would be an amazing place for a public health researcher to take a look at the ways that diseases are spread throughout communities. I have watched little things like pink eye or head lice (traumatic, but not life-threatening) run through camp in less than a day.

In this episode of the CampHacker Podcast Gab and I were thrilled to bring in Marty Ferguson from YMCA Camp Chief Ouray in Colorado. Camp Chief Ouray has developed some very smart protocols to protect their camper and staff from diseases that can spread at camp.

We also had John MacDonald, my step-dad, who is a retired Health Inspector from Ontario, Canada. John has had a long career in the public health field and was always a great resource to Beth and I.

Thank you to both of them for being on the show!

Download our Camp Kitchen Compliance Record

We hope you get lots from our discussion.

If you have any questions about communicable diseases at camp please leave them in the comments below or send us a tweet to @CampHacker using the #CampPros hashtag.

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: FocusatWill.com
Gab: Twitter for your desktop
Marty: Season of Life by Jeffery Marx
John: HACCP training

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.org
G abrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau
Marty Ferguson, Director - Camp Chief Ouray (YMCA of the Rockies)
John MacDonald, Retired Health Inspector

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Keeping campers is much easier than finding new ones

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App (search for CampHacker)

One of the great tricks of being a good camp director is finding ways to keep campers coming back year after year.

I have heard a number of directors, when I talked to them at conferences, who have said that they feel like they need to add something new and exciting to their program every year. I know from my own experience that it was never the programs that I remembered each winter when I was at school but it was my counsellors and the other kids that I went to school with - many of whom are still friends today.

Dan, Joe, and Gab share great, easy to implement ideas from their very successful camps.

How to you make sure that as many campers as possible will return year after year? Please leave us a comment!