ATLANTA — The metro Atlanta YMCA is among the organizations scrambling to find summer employees as parents prepare to send their children off to summer camp.
Day camp has already begun at some of the YMCA’s nineteen metro locations. The remainder will begin camp next week while organizers search for 200 people willing to fill summer jobs.
“Traditionally, we're looking at hiring about 800 over the summer,” said the YMCA’s Becky Shipley. “So, to have 200 openings right now is a little concerning.”
Twenty-one-year-old Trinity Lynn is among the people who will spend the summer as a counselor at the McCleskey East Cobb Family YMCA. This will be her third summer as a counselor. Her first was in 2020 amid COVID-19 restrictions.
“We have gone from really small numbers of campers to a really large number of campers,” she said. “It's really exciting to have everyone back this summer and learn all the traditional camp things but I didn't get to do my first summer.”
The YMCA is looking for lifeguards, junior lifeguards, swim instructors, day camp counselors, lead counselors, day camp site directors, and day camp bus drivers. Shipley says the Y is offering $300 bonuses for employees who agree to stay the entire summer.
“We've also increased all of our starting pay rates and opened up some jobs to people who are as young as 15 years old,” she said. “We just want to be as competitive and as attractive as an employer as possible.”
It’s not just YMCA camps that are challenged when it comes to finding summer help. On their Facebook page, the operators of Camp Fire Camp Toccoa announced they’ve canceled this summer’s overnight camp, explaining that “national staffing shortages have hit close to home.”
“We’re really grateful for everyone who's applied,” Lynn added.
Some camps across the country use the help of the American Camp Association to fill vacant jobs. The ACA website lists more than 18-hundred camp jobs available nationwide.
The organization says it’s actually a better situation than it was last year.