Melissa Has Joined the Full-Time Team

This year after summer our Assistant Junior Camp Director, Melissa Slansky joined our full-time team to work with Hayley and focus on refining and improving every aspect of the Junior Camp Program. In addition, Melissa programs all the off-season events for our camp families. She also books and runs our incredible birthday parties and promotes camp with our Shibley Street Team at fairs and festivals. During summer she is an experienced and knowledgeable resource for our Junior Camp Group Leaders.

This is how she got here:

Shibley Shibley! Camp is one of my fondest childhood memories. As a result, I wanted my own children to have their own camp memories. In 2019, I was offered the opportunity to become a group leader at Shibley. I quickly accepted without hesitation or knowledge of what the job would entail. As a mother of four children, I figured overseeing campers and counselors would be simple and natural for me.

As a child, I enjoyed my summers at day camp and sleepaway camp. I’ve worked at camps since I was a teenager and joined the team at Shibley in 2019 as a Group Leader. I was welcomed onto the leadership team as Assistant Junior Camp Director for Summer 2023. My responsibilities in this role include helping returning and new group leaders transition between activities in a timely manner, problem solving with campers and staff, promoting our Green Values, providing performance feedback to staff and communicating with our camp families. I am available to support our staff at any time. Seriously, I don’t sleep.

I believe that my success as a leader  is due to the open communication that I’ve had with the leadership team, staff, and camp families. After this past summer, I joined the team full-time and took on the additional role of Off-Season Program Coordinator.  It is so much fun to plan events for our camp families and book parties of all sorts for families, staff and the local community.

Prior to joining the Shibley family, I earned a master’s in Social Work and social dedicated my time to working with children. I also met my husband at camp and we have four children of our own. I feel most rewarded when a child discovers something new that they love. “Seeing that joy of discovery and adventure in a child’s eyes is my greatest passion. I love getting to know each child and meeting their individual needs to make their summers at camp a wonderful success!”

Transitioning from group leader to the leadership team has been incredibly rewarding. I love sharing my love for camp with my Shibley family. Every year we get better at what we do. Shibley is family. I am proud to be a part of this family and to play an integral role in the experience we provide for our camp families and staff.  As someone who truly lives 10 for 2, I am super excited to give our campers and staff the best summer ever in Summer 2024!