After 25 Years, What’s Old is New
Earlier this summer, Richard Medina brought his daughter to the Park Slope Day Camp office to hand in her employment paperwork. It would be her first summer working as a Junior Counselor at our Park Slope location, but with six years under her belt as a camper, she was a familiar and welcome face. Her arrival was made even more special by the presence of her father. Richie was quickly greeted with smiles and hugs and “Remember when…” stories from friends he’d known since he was a teenager.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed camp until that moment,” Richie told me at the start of our interview. “So I asked if I could come back and revive Storytelling.”
It’s 10’clock on a Thursday at Windsor Terrace. Richie has just finished a workshop with our Young Leaders and is waiting in the schoolyard with On Wheels. We’re leaning against the fence while campers await their workshop assignments. He’s wearing the ubiquitous PSDC staff t-shirt, camo shorts, and a backpack stuffed with books and notebooks needed for his work craft.
I watch a few campers circle Alfons, the OW’s Assistant Supervisor, and laugh at inside jokes. Another group that has clearly become close through their long days at camp, hug and write sentimental goodbye notes in red marker on each other’s PSDC shirts to commemorate their last week in camp together.
The warm reception from his old home at PSDC is just one of the reasons why Richie hoped to return. After a few minutes, my interview is interrupted by two young campers who are anxious to speak with Richie. They want to get his take on the newest King Kong movie.
Despite wearing a staff t-shirt, the campers give me curious looks. They know right away that I’m not one of their counselors. Finally one of them pipes up.
“I’m Carla. I work in the office,” I explain. “I’m here to listen in on Richie’s storytelling.”
“Oh man, I love Storytelling,” the camper states matter-of-factly and then jumps up to go join the now very animated conversation with Richie.
It’s especially fitting that Richie is back for our 25th anniversary. “My first real job was at Park Slope Day Camp,” he tells me with a hint of pride. He began working as a counselor at 17-years-old and has been involved with PSDC for a third of his life. Speaking of Ronny, Owner/Director of PSDC, Richie says, “he was like a father figure to me, a real friend, and after all these years it’s good to be back.”
Throughout his 17 years at the day camp, broken up by active duty in the National Guard, he moved from counselor to Karate Specialist and Storyteller.
“One! Two! Three! Eyes on me,” Alfons shouts. “Everyone who wants to go to Storytelling line up.”
A group of boys and girls run toward him.
I follow Richie into the Windsor Terrace site. As we pass through the cafeteria where Lego campers are busy demonstrating their engineering chops, and into the designated spot for Storytelling, he explains his method. “I know all about the movies and books that they’re interested in and then I incorporate it into my storytelling.”
I help him drag a wooden table to the center of the room. He places two chairs in front of it and then sits down.
“Want to see the images I use?”
He shows me six ink sketches of caped warriors. The campers file in, excited. Without any prompting, they grab chairs and form a semi-circle around Richie.
He stands and shows the campers the drawings. They’re instructed to choose the character they’d like to be. They lean forward in their seats, eager to pick their favorite. Richie gives each kid a 20-sided dice. He doesn’t waste any time. He only has an hour and a half to plunge the campers back into the world he’s created for them.
“You guys were coming down this chamber,” he points to the top left of the map he’s holding up. “And it looks like you passed something…here.”
In today’s story, the group is looking up at an ominous chamber door, deciding whether or not to go in. Suddenly one camper offers to use his power of clairvoyance to check out the potential danger. They all take a vote on whether they should go ahead with the plan. The group allows it.
Richie beckons the clairvoyant camper over to him to look at a picture. The camper turns and describes what he sees to the group in great detail.
For the next hour the campers journey through the multi-level chamber, encountering three-headed dogs and electing friends to use their special powers to accomplish obstacles.
“I’m training the kids to use their imagination,” Richie had told me earlier. “To spark their creativity.”
Although he’s up against iPads, Playstations, and TV screens, I’m heartened to see that the campers are just as enraptured by Richie’s words as the kid I saw playing Geometry Dash on the subway to work that morning.
Yet, as I watch the campers high-five each other over spells they cast, cheer each other through frightening obstacles, and offer tactical advice, I see kids understanding how friendship works.
Through Storytelling, they’ve experienced the best kind of friend - one who listens, respects, and encourages and supports others to step out of their comfort zones.
