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02/27/2017 11:00 PMKath Davies, camp director at Camp Hazen YMCA in Chester, has been chosen as one of two United States delegates to attend the Eastern Platform Camp Conference sponsored by the YMCA of Europe. The conference is designed to help Eastern European countries develop overnight camping programs for YMCA facilities in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova, countries without a strong tradition of either overnight camping facilities or non-profit, non-government funded organizations.
The emphasis on developing a camp structure, Davies said, reflects YMCA studies that show of all the programs the Y offers, including swimming and child care, camping has the biggest impact on the kind of character development that the organization advocates.
The conference will take place in Belarus at the Ponemontsy YMCA Youth Center, located near the city of Lida. Davies will be concentrating her own efforts on the Ponemontsy facility. It does not yet have the kind of regular overnight summer camps that are a hallmark of YMCA operations in the United States, but has hosted weeklong pilot programs for teens.
“I’ve started to think about [the conference] because camp has not been a part of their culture. It will be a time to share ideas and to learn,” Davies said.
Davies’s selection to attend the European conference grew from her participation in an international YMCA camping conference, involving 27 countries held at the Frost Valley YMCA in Claryville, New York. Denise Learned, the CEO and executive director of Camp Hazen, chaired that meeting.
“She is a bit of a big deal in the camping world,” Davies said.
Davies, born in Great Britain, came to Camp Hazen in l999 as a counselor on an 18-month training visa, one of the international staff regularly recruited by Hazen. In fact, she said today some 35 percent of the staff is international, representing as many as 20 different countries. Davies never went home—at least not permanently.
“I was 20-something when I came. Now I am pushing 40,” she said.
In England, Davies had earned a college degree in physical education, and a nickname. Her first name is Katherine, but a high school physical education teacher started writing just Kath on the board.
“And it’s been Kath ever since,” Davies said.
Since coming to Camp Hazen, Davies has become increasingly involved in managerial work. She has taken YMCA-led courses in administration and fiscal management. Now she oversees a $2 million budget and, in addition to general oversight of camping programs, is in charge of areas like food service and maintenance.
“I found out that I liked the administrative work,” she said.
Food service, she said, has become much more about healthy eating over the last decade, with Hazen offering a salad bar at meals. All meals also have vegetarian, and lactose- and gluten-free options.
Cabins and villages at Hazen have been extensively modernized over the years, but some things at camp remain deliberately old-fashioned. Davies explained that Camp Hazen is “unplugged.” That means no cell phone, no tablets, no computers.
“Parents tell us they don’t want their kids to have cell phones. They want them to play outdoors,” Kath said.
Campers do occasionally try to sneak electronic equipment in.
“But then they have to charge it and we find it,” Davies added.
Davies is one of the 15 staff members who live at Camp Hazen year-round. In the summer, the camp roster includes some 100 counselors and 20 support staff.
“It’s a way of life. I don’t know what a regular life would be like,” she said. “In the summer, there’s no stopping. It’s just 24/7 totally all out, but I am totally content.”
Although it is three years away, Camp Hazen has already started to plan for its centennial in 2020, looking to host gatherings of former Hazen campers and staff not only in the United States but in Australia and England as well.