Wednesday
Jul052006
Off to Northern Vermont to Train Camp Counselors at Coutts-Moriarty
July 5, 2006 at 1:44 PM
I won't be making and blog entries for the rest of this week.
I'm off to Coutts-Moriarty Summer Camp for Children in Derby, Vermont for the rest of the week. During my 2002 sabbatical from Morgan Stanley London, I volunteered as the camp Resident Director. I worked managing the counselors (mostly 16-20 year olds), dealing with parents, breaking up fights, teaching the leadership program, running sick kids to the doctor, being the fill-in nurse, giving emotional support to the camp director, reading contracts and about a hundred other jobs that were scary as hell to someone who had worked the previous eleven years in an investment bank. That summer at Coutts-Moriarty changed my life and gave me something I can never repay - a sense of humanity.
Every year since then I have supported the camp financially as well as worked during training week and usually one other week. The joys of focusing on the interests of someone other than myself and corporate greed at Coutts was the beginning of me deciding to leave the corporate world. I suppose to my bosses at Morgan and later Lehman it was the beginning of the end of my career.
I would encourage anyone who feels inclined, to support the non-profit camp's scholarship program. $300 sends a local Vermont child to camp who would otherwise not be able to enjoy the personal growth and fun that can occur at a camp like Coutts-Moriarty. I find seeing the way camp changes kids a great philanthropy value. Don't expect much from the camp's website - it is a low budget operation.
I'm off to Coutts-Moriarty Summer Camp for Children in Derby, Vermont for the rest of the week. During my 2002 sabbatical from Morgan Stanley London, I volunteered as the camp Resident Director. I worked managing the counselors (mostly 16-20 year olds), dealing with parents, breaking up fights, teaching the leadership program, running sick kids to the doctor, being the fill-in nurse, giving emotional support to the camp director, reading contracts and about a hundred other jobs that were scary as hell to someone who had worked the previous eleven years in an investment bank. That summer at Coutts-Moriarty changed my life and gave me something I can never repay - a sense of humanity.
Every year since then I have supported the camp financially as well as worked during training week and usually one other week. The joys of focusing on the interests of someone other than myself and corporate greed at Coutts was the beginning of me deciding to leave the corporate world. I suppose to my bosses at Morgan and later Lehman it was the beginning of the end of my career.
I would encourage anyone who feels inclined, to support the non-profit camp's scholarship program. $300 sends a local Vermont child to camp who would otherwise not be able to enjoy the personal growth and fun that can occur at a camp like Coutts-Moriarty. I find seeing the way camp changes kids a great philanthropy value. Don't expect much from the camp's website - it is a low budget operation.
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