Every Camp Millionaire we hold has the same group of kids in it. We have marveled about this for years. We chuckle about it during and after camp as we notice how, over and over again, the same personalities show up.

Since we just had one of our weekend Camp Millionaire programs two weeks ago, the kids and their parents are fresh in my mind, and heart, and I just thought you might get a kick out of it. We’re constantly reminded how easily stereotypes are set up in each of our brains and how important it is to let each child stand on his or her own.

The Usual Camp Millionaire Characters

We have the adorable little ten-year old girls whose role it is to be cuter than any instructor can resist. These young ladies make us smile from deep within, say the darnedest things and often surprise us at how amazingly smart they already are. We had at least three of these girls in the last camp and they were charming as usual.

Then we have the one young man, usually another ten-year old, with the most gorgeous eye lashes! OMG, there is one in every camp. You can’t help but imagine the girls flocking over him as he turns sixteen. And not only that, he’s smart, gracious, full of manners and just pure delight.

The Money Cow Game

Now comes the young man who has more potential in his little fingers than most of us have in our whole bodies…but he hasn’t learned how to focus or control that energy yet. He’s what we usually call the natural-born leader.

When put into a group competition or challenge, he steps to the plate immediately and leads the group to victory, or in the last camp’s case, second place:-). The point is, he’s a leader through and through and we know with the right direction, mentoring and education, he will grow up and make a huge difference in the world for all of us.

Then there are the 13 and 14 year-olds who desperately want to be older, but aren’t. We find them having a great time despite their attitudes when they come into camp. Since we have ages 10-14 in most of our two-day programs, there are always a couple of tall 14 year-olds who feel awkward until they start having fun and realize it’s not such a bad thing to be there at all.

Then there are the 13 and 14 year-olds who thoroughly enjoy themselves but talk their parents into letting them skip Day Two. This breaks our hearts and happens every time.

As you can guess, going to a ‘money camp’ isn’t most kids’ idea of a good way to spend the weekend…until they actually attend, of course. When kids decide they’d rather do something else the next day, many parents give in…too easily. The problem is that their parents 1) don’t realize they actually did have a great time that first day and are manipulating them, and 2) don’t realize that by skipping out on Day Two, the kids miss the most critical financial principles and habits we teach. Principles and habits their children won’t learn in school and rarely learn at home.

There are a lot of other learning opportunities these kids miss out on as well…like looking for value in everything they do, seeing something through to the end and, one of the biggies to me personally, is learning that parents often know when something is ‘best’ for their children even if means that their child might not be ‘happy’ with the decision. (We have seen so many parents who allow their kids to dictate what is best.)

In this past camp, we had two young teens who were too old for the camp but whose families wanted them to attend to get the information. We let those two kids come as ‘counselors in training’ and we gave them the responsibility of being leaders in our ‘cabins’ (the groups we put kids into during the program).

Both teens decided together not to return for Day Two even though they had given their word to our Head Volunteer at the end of Day One. Not only did we have to completely reconfigure the cabin structure and break up the kids who had already formed a connection, but the next morning, but their parents couldn’t fathom that there was an impact. They couldn’t hear that their kids had let their groups down, impacted the camp dynamic, and were out of integrity with our staff. What feels most pathetic to me is that the kids didn’t get a valuable lesson in making commitments and keeping agreements or, at least, taking responsibility for not keeping their word. (For many of you, you already know that wussie parents are a pet peeve of mine because, well, you know, because wussie parents create more wussie young adults and we need strength and integrity to turn this country around!)

OK, I got that out. Thanks for letting me vent! Let’s move on to the rest of the characters who show up. Finally, you have the rest of the kids…common, every day great kids…funny, playful, mature, immature, secure, insecure, class clown, quiet but taking it all in, 10 going on 30, and, oh yeah, the one who doesn’t want to be there so badly, he (it’s always a he) will do anything to get out of there.

But we don’t let him. We continually enroll him in what’s in it for him and eventually we notice he’s smiling and learning and, by the end of the camp, you’d never know he had been so resistant to coming! This is usually the kid we’re most proud of because he’s the one who could have so easily gotten lost in the shuffle.

Camp Millionaire July 2011

So there you have it. Camp Millionaire in a nutshell. Take all these characters, add The Money Game, tons of activities, some contests, lots of moola and music, snacks and laughter and what do you end up with?

Kids who – if they remember even a smidgen of the information and actually use it in their lives – will grow into financially savvy adults!

But what really makes our hearts sing is when those kids come back the second, third and in Richard’s case, a fourth time. This is when we start seeing the information stick and when we know that ‘this one’s going to make it.”