All right, campers.
After lunch, guys, we’re going to meet over down by the
flagpole, and we’re going to get this party started, am I right?
There’s no rules at Camp No Counselors, but we do have two
encouragements... Put down your cell phone a little bit
more than you do, and the second one is to not start any
conversations with, “What do you do for a living?”
My name's Adam Tichauer and I’m the founder and
Head Camper of Camp No Counselors, which is a
summer camp for grown-ups.
Our conversations in the office are like, “No, no you can’t do
that in the slip-and-slide tomorrow because last time
when that happened they got too drunk.”
And this is, like, our business that we’re talking about.
People can be whoever they want at summer camp, so those people
who work such long hours and have such serious, important
jobs really get to be the opposite of that when
they’re here. There's not a care in the world and I think the
coolest part is that no one knows that that’s their
day-to-day job here and so they can be vulnerable.
And as adults, it’s important to prioritize play.
And it’s amazing to see adults regress back into being kids
and just being silly and playing again, even if they have a beer
in their hand.
Now we’re going to go check in on some of the sports,
make sure everyone's playing fair but also having fun
and being safe.
Usually, the campers get a rise out of playing with me
and I love to play the different sports with them and the arts
and crafts activities, as well.
We have dodgeball, which is always a battle with adults
not only on the court but because everyone throws at
their shoulder ‘cause they haven’t thrown a ball in years.
The bruises that come out of that game are great.
We’ve got the ropes course. And some of the sports are
very heavily athletic and some are very artsy like
our, you know, friendship bracelets and tie-dyeing.
One of the other camp favorites is kickball.
There’s a lot more and more adult kickball leagues coming up
so people like to show their skills on the field.
That’s for the real athletes. Everyone runs so hard and is
exhausted for the rest of the day. But the lucky thing is...
Jump into the lake or the pool, grab a rosé,
and you’re good for the rest of the day.
I think the one unifying thing is that everyone here works
really hard. Everyone is focused and driven and career-oriented.
We obviously have to do a lot of planning and preparing for each
weekend leading up to camp, so me and the staff spend a lot of
time and we overplan to make sure that the campers don’t know
that all of this magic that’s occurring has actually been
planned by us.
A lot of adults are going through relationship issues or
work-life balance things or family issues, and to see them
really focus in and forget about the seriousness of whatever is
going back at home is everything.
It’s really fun to see relationships spawning out
of the weekend and we just even had our first marriage from
two campers who met three years ago at one of our camps.
I was working a ton like everyone in New York City does.
You know, networking events in the evenings, weekends at the
office, and I hadn't seen my best friends in a few months,
which was crazy to me. And I created the first camp
selfishly, for myself and my friends to enjoy the experience
that I remember as a kid. And sure enough, I enjoyed it so
much that I wanted to do it again, and six months later we
did it again and at that point I knew that there was something
special, something more than it just being a weekend getaway.
It was something that was lacking, that people really
needed that escape. And that’s why I decided to go full-time,
make it a business, and now we’ve done over 44 camps
since then in the past three-and-a-half years.
On a very regular basis we kind of pinch ourselves that this is
our reality, that we get to create memories and friendships
on a weekly basis for so many people. And, obviously, that
means the world to me.
It’s an amazing feeling to have an idea and see that idea
become a reality.
Camp No Counselors is not just a party, it’s not just kids camp
with adults there, and it’s not just a disconnection from
technology, and it’s not just an escape from work. It’s all of
these things, and I’ve now been able to convert that into my
full-time job, and that’s why I have the best job ever.
Adam! Adam! Adam! Adam! Adam! Adam! Adam! Adam!
I’m going to go grab a beer.