Camp Hosting Positions - Fabulous? ...or... Farce?

We know the dream:  The idealized view of a camp host.  Can you see it?  The cute carved sign with your name on it, the Christmas lights hung and the potted plants blooming all around your shiny rig.  And there's probably a cute pet or two in your vision of the perfect hosting site.  Fantasy?  We found more than one such site at California's Carlsbad State Beach.  Hosts had been delighting visitors by inviting them to decorate a rock.  Fun idea, since the beach was made up of wave-worn rocks...all of them natural beauties....wanting a bit of paint.  If you host in a national park or forest, then you will be asked to leave your host site "natural" looking.  This Forest Service "rule" is often ignored...especially by returning camp hosts who have become much-loved by their managers.   Besides, it's always some kind of holiday....isn't it?  And we must do a bit of celebratory decorating.

We were just offered what I thought was a fabulous dream job in Everglades National Park.  We got an email from Environmental Ranger Greg Litton asking if we were interested in working at their Hidden Lake Environmental Education Center.  He included a brief description of duties:  "Provide logistical support to rangers leading 5th grade curriculum-based environmental education programs.  Two people needed who want to be a part of a nationally recognized environmental education program.  Lots of opportunities for making a difference in urban kids’ lives – this can be hard work too."

This was like candy to a former science teacher who likes working hard and misses working with kids a GREAT DEAL .  I read everything I could about the program.  Greg seemed like a super-star keeper of the Earth.

Ranger Greg passes out periphyton to 5th grade students at Long Pine Key.

 Then the "Fabulous" job started its decline. Here's a bit of sad news we received on Dec 15, 2011, from Greg:  "The only real concern I have is that you don't have a vehicle to get you to camp and back.  It is 10 miles round trip across paved and unpaved roads in a variety of environmental conditions.  That may end up being a real sticking point since some of the VIP duties involve hauling bags of recycling and garbage from camp.   I'll be talking to my supervisor today to see if there is really any other solution."

The Everglades is a Sea of Saw Grass filled with life.

I was thinking we'd just ride our bikes to the camp each day, but it was clear we were supposed to provide a "garbage truck" of some type 5 days a week.  I seriously thought of renting a car.  I wanted to do this!  But thoughts of "farce" started to sneak into my mind.  The previous volunteers quit this job....that's why it was open.  I already knew it was a big commitment.   The work schedule is Mon-Fri with hours as short as a half day to as long as 10 hours.  I started to read the fine print about our duties.  They included: 

Duties include python checks under tents.

Pressure wash, mow grounds, “take care” of unwanted rodents, cockroaches, snakes and ants in tents, care for activity boxes and touch tables, split all of the wood, clean fire pits nightly, cut out poisonwood and poison ivy (it’s around the bathrooms where you have to do string trimming) launder kids’ sleeping bags, spray structures with bleach to control mildew, repaint surfaces damaged by bleach...on and on....

Slough Slogging - a kid favorite!

A big job is being “dock master” for the kids, getting them set up in their canoes, hauling, maintaining and locking up the canoes, camp and trail maintenance, cleaning camp and restrooms, helping students to follow the rules (behave)…and lending a hand to the park staff. You are warned it may be humid, buggy, sweaty work with no showers, and as said...you have to haul the garbage away in your own vehicle.   But you get the weekends off! And we’ve heard the staff is wonderful to work with. They are much younger (and stronger) than we are and tend to wonder why volunteers struggle with the work load. 
Greg put a stop to my trepidation over this "volunteer opportunity" with this Dec 20th email:

Bob and Eileen,
Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm for volunteering at the Everglades next month. The January - April Hidden Lake camp caretaker VIP positions have now been filled. I will keep your applications and info close by since you both were in the running for these positions. [If we only had an extra vehicle to offer in addition to our labor.]

Will work for Badge on Hat

So what do you think?  Fabulous job or a Farce??   I'll give you a hint:  I have heard many volunteer coordinators and managers exclaim:  "I cannot believe what volunteers will do for us and the time commitments they will make to one location."  They say it with appreciative wonder, but also with an incomprehensible gasp or two thrown in.   

Ranger Linda at Bahia Honda State Park gave me this insight:  "They [the bosses] think you volunteers walk on water."

Here’s the job EVERYONE wants!

Salt Springs has to be Florida’s best….very best! Campground. It’s well run by American Land & Leisure. Employees get a free site for as little as 5 hours of work a week. And you are paid minimum wage for your hours. There’s an activities barn with a full schedule of fun get-togethers and staff and campers who are living together as one caring family. Sweet! In fact, this fabulous park-like campground is so popular that every day of the week campers stop by asking how they can camp host here.

Office where we asked for a Job

We asked for a job ourselves, and there’s so many waiting in line to get in, we were given a zero percent chance of being hired. An “internship” is required, where you work through the summer to show you are the right stuff and deserve the job. We’ve lived through 14 Florida summers and you don’t know hot until you’ve experienced stifling, still, super-heated, 100% humidified air. If you aren’t used to it, it can even be life threatening. We went to the Forest Service Visitor Center and found out they need help there, so we blew the dust off of our application and tried to reach someone at the ranger station about getting a job.  We spent hours trying to get an email through to the volunteer coordinator (there's no internet service in The Ocala).  After two days we finally got through and received the following email with 4 generous offers:

Hi Eileen,
I found your application.  Chris mentioned to me that he felt you had great qualifications and would be a great addition to our volunteer program.  We may have a spot opening at the SSVC [the visitors' center link] if we can't work out some details with the current inbound volunteers but I don't know as yet.  We have 3 other sites open:  Delancy West, River Forest, and Big Scrub.

Campground host:  Delancy West is an OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) campground year round and also serves as a huntcamp from November thru January each year.  The host site is primitive and offers a landline and septic.  Water is brought to the host site by forest service employees or volunteers and a gasoline allowance is provided by the FS for a host provided generator.  This position is available right now.  Lake Delancy Link

Campground host - River Forest Recreation Area is a group site available by reservation only.  The camp ground is located on the St. Johns River.  The rec area is currently closed for use while we upgrade the the facilities but we like to have volunteer on hand to help keep up with maintenance and provide security.  This position is available right now.  The host site is full hook up.  River Forest Link

Recreation maintenance - Big Scrub Recreation area is and OHV campground year round.  The majority of the sites are available by reservations with a few sites remaining on a first come first serve basis.  Big Scrub has approximately 60 campsites, 3 full hookup host sites and 2 new (3 yrs old) bathhouses.  This position is available January 1- April 15.  The available position is a recreation maintenance position; duties include assisting with trash removal, bathrooms, mowing, etc.  Big Scrub Link

Looking for a Job Camp Hosting in all the right places

Turn downs, “no openings”, “we have all of the help we can use“, “keep us in mind for next year”...

and other nice ways of letting us know we didn‘t get the job abounded this week. We did get two more job offers, but not in the Orlando area. We really do want to stay close to our son and his cute, cute wife and girls and to our nephew, Craig, and his wife, Tanya. They are expecting their first baby, and we just have to be a part of that. Besides, they all have Disney passes and I, like all of the world, want to go to Disney.

The two offers were intriguing: One in a Florida Preserve , helping in the visitor center, and the other in the Everglades, working in a lab studying marsh lichens . But the jobs were not only too far from family but involved too many scheduled hours, which would kill exploratory trips. Florida truly is Adventureland. And I’m done with 100% of my time being tied up with work.  We need time to play with little mermaids and baby tigers.

Camp Hosts - Is there such a thing as a bad one?

Are you kidding? Camp Hosts are the hardest working, friendliest, most giving people we have ever worked with. And we've had a TON of jobs. (Just look at our business card collection some time.) Here at Bahia Honda they work until they are soaked in sweat or rain (or both) despite ravenous, agressive mosquitoes, plastic-eating rats, scorpions and never-ending beach garbage that washes in from ??? (We don't know where from, or we could send it back.) Above Thel is happily greeting visitors from all over the world in the Nature Center, and Theresa has just ended a tough shift of cleaning bathrooms, shower houses, emptying garbage, picking up trash, etc., and she's still here with her generous smile...ready to give you a hug, if you're needing one.

The EZ-Go electric vehicles cost thousands of dollars per year to maintain. The high UV index, coral dust and gusting salty sea winds keep the repairs coming. The keys are made of the remains of an ancient coral reef, so the tires don't have a chance running over cutting coral chunks. We know! Our first day on the job we had a huge "firecracker" thrown under our EZ-Go, and we came to a sudden halt....only to discover a front tire had blown out (with a BOOM) after its coral encounter.

So...did I answer the question? Are there bad hosts? NO, emphatically, "no"....we have never found a bad camp host...after a life time of camping. My hypothesis: They don't exist, so the question was not necessary.

Bahia Honda it is! Life in The Keys begins...

I know if you are a human-fish or paddler, island life must be paradise.  But I am a "Shore Bird".  This key is seriously the stage for the most enticing and exotic post cards ever made...but to a non-swimmer with a sinus infection and feet that must stay warm... "what the?!!@!!"  Nevertheless, we pulled into our assigned spot the evening of October 4, 2011, with the wonder of Florida enveloping us.  There's a nurturing feel to the warm, moist air...and who can resist a flamingo pink sunset with silouettes of darkened palms along a shore... complete with the sound of gently lapping waves.  What does one do?....why hurry and cruise the whole park on bikes to see where everything on the map might be and what we will shortly be tending.

There's 80 glorious campsites and 8 big cabins on stilts.  Four overly "delicious" beaches have pavilions, outdoor showers (known to have nude bathers we need to ask to cover up) and lovely tiled change houses.  There's even a Nature Center and butterfly garden!  Click-4-pictures!



Buttonwood Camping Area

 Link to Campground Map                                                         Link to Park Reservations

So what's stopping you?  Come on down for the adventure of your life!!

How to get Camp Hosting Jobs (National Parks)

It was September 2011 and we had no job to go to in Florida.  Then I was struck with an idea....an inspiration?  Well, we had been praying.  Why not apply to a national park?  Unlike Utah, Florida has only one.  So we called their volunteer coordinator.  Bob was so excited! because the job he was told about was being an interpretive guide at the formerly secret Nike Missile Site in the Everglades.  The RV site provided was just a mile away in beautiful woodland... so we could bike to the visitor's center.  Wow!...with our science background, this had to be the job.  We'd get a uniform and a propane allowance.  The job had barely been posted on http://www.volunteer.gov/gov/    We were told to fill out the online application.  We'd already sent in the paperwork to get a background check and an authorization for driving a government vehicle.  We needed to take a defensive driving course, provide a driving history (listing all of the vehicles we could drive and our hours on each of them) and a DMV 3-year driving record.  There's pages of government paperwork.  I can send you a copy, if you'd like.  The required driving tests were a bit intimidating.