“Look for the 
extraordinary 
in the 
ordinary.” 
Matthew Kinsley

It’s been said that our most treasured moments aren’t always the big, important ones. The older I get, the more I realize the truth in this statement. Kathy and I took another walk in The City today. This time, we walked through the Glen Park neighborhood, then through Glen Canyon Park. During the summer months, Silver Tree Day Camp, a program for six through twelve year old kids from throughout The City, utilizes the facilities and recreation space behind the Glen Park Recreation Center. The program was in full stride when we visited the camp yesterday afternoon.

I began attending Silver Tree as a camper when I was six years old in 1960. When, at the age of thirteen, I aged-out of the camp in 1967, I secured a position at the camp as a junior counselor. My first two years as a JC were volunteer. I began getting a paycheck for my work there in the summer of 1969. It was the summer before my sophomore year of high school. 

I worked at Silver Tree in the summers of 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970. In what would have been my final summer, 1971, I had the opportunity to work in Jamaica for several weeks, so I volunteered at the camp for the last couple of weeks of August that summer. 

In my twelve years at Silver Tree, I accumulated countless memories. Fortunately, most of them were good. I was influenced by some amazing adult counselors, as well as an eclectic group of junior counselors from various high schools in San Francisco. I’m still in contact with several of them today.

Working as a JC enabled me to develop some excellent life skills: leadership, teamwork, punctuality, accountability, patience, empathy, and humility, to name a few. Under the mentorship of two amazing camp directors, Don Ybaretta and Rich Baptista, I developed a strong sense of self-confidence. I felt appreciated and respected by these men, as well as by a number of counselors with whom I worked directly. 

I’m not aware of any academic program which could have taught me such valuable life lessons and given me such a a positive sense of self.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but my work at Silver Tree Day Camp was preparing me for opportunities that would be presented to me in future years: teaching a sixth-grade religious studies class at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Daly City during my senior year of high school; supervising resident students at Bellarmine College Prep in San José; and teaching at a catholic high school in the Bahamas, a job which would lead to a 40-year career in education. As I’ve said so many times before, I didn’t have a clear career plan for myself, but God certainly did. That job at Silver Tree was instrumental in my career development.    

Visiting the camp yesterday, and having the opportunity to share so many wonderful memories of my Silver Tree experience with Kathy and with a number of current camp employees, filled me with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. The smiles on the faces of the campers and staff, and the extraordinary vibe which permeated the camp environment, assured me that all continues to be well at Silver Tree Day Camp in San Francisco.