Summer Camp Director Hopes To Make Programs Even More Welcoming

By John Voket

After several years of employing capable college students to run summer camp programs at Treadwell Park, Parks and Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian announced this week the hiring of an experienced adult site director who has an extensive background interacting with children and adults in school and recreational settings.

Newtown resident Victoria Dinielli is already on board and is reviewing most of the planned summer activities, as well as logistics involved with the efficient operation of the Treadwell summer program, one of two summer camps held locally hosting hundreds of Newtown children, and employing dozens of local youths as counselors and lifeguards.

While visiting Treadwell with Ms Dinielli Monday, Ms Kasbarian said she was pleased with the new director’s qualifications.

“We’ve been trying to build some continuity for the site director, but we’ve had college-age people filling the position over the past few summers and we’re never sure if they will be coming back to seek the job year to year,” Ms Kasbarian said. “But when we met Victoria, we felt we had a unique candidate for site director who could grow with the program going forward.”

Ms Kasbarian said the Treadwell site director is a temporary seasonal salaried position that is budgeted for 30 hours weekly while programs are formulated and carried out over the summer. Three summer camp sessions kick off July 5 and extend to August 12, according to the Parks and Recreation website.

The hiring of Ms Dinielli coincides with both Ms Kasbarian’s and the Parks and Recreation Commission’s goal of finding a director who is also either an educator, or someone familiar with working with parents and children in an education or activity setting.

“We have had a difficult time trying to recruit teachers to these positions,” Ms Kasbarian said. “We think it’s great to get someone like Victoria who has experience with teens and younger children.”

Ms Dinielli said she has extensive experience in these areas through her event planning consulting, which handles everything from children’s parties to large corporate and institutional functions.

“In all of these activities you have to be able to switch from communicating one way with parents or adults, to dealing with teens or children on another level,” Ms Dinielli said.

She pointed out one of her recent accomplishments, helping to organize and present Danbury Hospital’s Day to Make a Difference.

“I had to help raising donations, coordinating the program for the event, ordering the food, overseeing the catering, and running the related activities,” Ms Dinielli said.

Ms Kasbarian also noted that both Ms Dinielli’s children have attended Newtown Parks and Pecreation camps, so the new director is more than familiar with the range of expectations and duties she will encounter.

Ms Dinielli said she was spending her first few weeks on the job reviewing planned programs and suggesting areas where tried and true activities could be revamped to make them even more fun and exciting. On Monday, she was also checking out the Treadwell Park layout, trying to plan how she will handle programs and traffic while a new artificial field is being constructed in an area formerly available for the campers.

“I’m really looking at everything, from the way we conduct drop-offs and pick-ups, to streamlining parking, to reviewing the programs themselves,” she said. “Above all, I want to be sure we’re offering the most nurturing environment, while fostering a team approach focusing on mutual respect, cooperation, and support for each and every camper, assistant and counselor, all the way up to my position.”

Ms Dinielli said that while the summer camp experience may be familiar to many, it can be hard on first-time attendees, no matter what their age.

“A child’s first experience at camp is always an anxious one,” Ms Dinielli said. “But I want to turn that anxiety around quickly and make every one feel good about being here right off the bat.”

To accomplish that mission, Ms Dinielli said she will have to lean heavily on, and expect much from, her contingent of counselors and assistants this summer. Ms Kasbarian recalled a time when the job used to be much more about the site director.

“It used to be that the site director could stand here at the pavilion and look out over everything that was going on, all the time,” Ms Kasbarian said. “But since we’ve added the trails and the pool, it’s impossible for one person to handle it all at once.”

While she acknowledged that the job could become very stressful without explicit cooperation and teamwork on the part of assistants and counselors, Ms Dinielli said she is up for the challenge. And she expects her staff to rise to the occasion, too.

“This will be an extremely safe environment for the children,” she said. “I simply won’t tolerate it any other way. That means there will be an even greater level of expectation for our supervisors. We will have enhanced training, but we want our counselors to fully realize how important their job is to the community.”

The new site director said she is looking forward to having a lot of fun with campers who will enjoy many activities they are familiar with, but with a more meaningful twist.

“I’m really planning a lot of fun things, especially for rain days,” Ms Dinielli said. “I want to take an activity like karaoke. While it is always fun and engaging, I also want to use it to help reinforce positive life lessons as well.”

Ms Dinielli’s background involved developing and training in areas of developmental growth.  Some of her work involved setting up structured programs for children and their families to empower children, learn independence, self-esteem, and provide structure and routine within the home and school environments.

“I’ve been able to work effectively with both children and adults using the appropriate balance of compassion, patience, and organizational skills,” she said in a written memo.

An active member of the Danbury Hospital Committee for Pediatrics, The Bridgeport Rescue Mission, and St Rose Lima Church, Ms Dinielli has enjoyed many opportunities to also work with and support many families in need.