A Search For The Best

There is nothing more important to us than the safety, care, well-being, and happiness of our campers. Before each summer begins, our leadership team searches for new hires that embody the spirit of our camp. On average, we receive approximately 4,000+ applicants to be part of our team! It is only by finding the very best applicants in the state and then training them to be the best they can be, that we can provide our campers with a positive, caring, and happy environment. Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how we find our next great team member.

Part 1: The Application

Candidates can contact us by applying on our website or via a call to our camp office. They will begin their job search by filling out an application, including all previous camp experience as both a camper and a staff member. Teachers and coaches will also include all current and past experience in the fields of education and athletics, while other applicants such as culinary team members, lifeguards, and counselors will provide relevant work experience to support their application.

Part 2: Resume Review & References

I will then personally review each application. Only the most experienced candidates who fit all of our necessary criteria, are asked come to our grounds for an in-person interview.  Approximately 25 percent of all applicants make it this far. The candidates who we are most interested must then go out and secure two professional letters of recommendation and bring them to their interview. We prefer letters of recommendation from former supervisors or directors employed in an educational or summer camp environment. In addition, we require a third reference, which is a telephone reference. This is the most important of the three references because it allows us to ask the questions we feel are most important in helping us find the next great team member. The phone reference must always be the reference that knows the most about, and has worked the closest with the candidate.

Part 3: The Interview

The next step in the hiring process is the formal interview, which I as the camp director personally conduct on our property in Millstone. Each interview begins the moment the candidate walks through the door of the main office. Personality, enthusiasm, and a friendly smile are key factors when considering a new team member. As each interview begins, a series of questions about the following are asked:

• Applicant’s character.
• Their experience.
• Their judgment.

Eye contact, the strength of their answers, and an overall eagerness to truly be a part of the Frogbridge family are important factors considered throughout the interview.

Part 4: A Background Check

For candidates that do well in the interview portion of the hiring process, a background check will be the next step.  For team members that are current teachers, the added benefit is that they have already been fingerprinted and drug tested by their current schools. Transportation Team Members will also need to provide the following:

• Proof of random drug testing.
• An up to date CDL license with no previous points or violations.
• Finger printing from their current companies.
• Proof of three years professional experience in child transportation.

Part 5: Welcome to Frogbridge!

Once a mutual agreement is made for a candidate to become a team member, all applicants are then required to attend all of our mandatory pre-camp training sessions in the spring. At these sessions, all team members are taught everything they must know and understand in order to be well prepared and be successful. All of our team members must have energy, enthusiasm, and the strong desire to make a difference in the life of a child. Our camp team is comprised primarily of licensed teachers, experienced coaches and adult professionals, along with collegiate counselors, most of which are majoring in the field of education. Interested in joining the Frogbridge Family this summer? Click here to view our current openings along with guidance on how to fill out an application!

As one of New Jersey’s premier summer day camps, we’re extremely lucky to have some of our campers come back to their Frogbridge Family as team members. We feel that those who know what Frogbridge is all about can share our philosophy and share what they love about camp for years to come. We’d like to introduce you to Victoria Nelli, who went from joining us for senior camp in the summer before seventh grade to a team member today. Victoria spreads the excitement of camp to every one of her campers, and we’re excited to highlight her experiences with Frogbridge below.

Meet Victoria

“It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team.” That quote from The Opposite of Loneliness mirrors the exact feelings I have towards Frogbridge Day Camp. For the past eleven years of my life, I have been lucky enough to call Frogbridge my home for the summer. It’s a place where I know I can always go, a feeling that only people who have gone to Frogbridge can understand, it’s home.

The First Day of Seventh Grade

On the first day of seventh grade I sat at a lunch table, waiting to see which of my friends were in the same lunch as I, hoping I would see a familiar face, when suddenly I saw a handful of my friends come sprinting into the cafeteria. I smiled ear to ear because I knew the main talk of the table that day would be about what we did over the summer. I couldn’t wait to talk about my summer because it was, at that point, the best summer I had ever had, it was my first summer at Frogbridge. It was finally my turn to talk and gush all about my summer ventures. That’s when I began to go on and on about everything and anything I could remember from that fantastic first summer at the bridge. I told them about my team members, Sara and Jesse, who were incredible and I still remember fondly.

My Favorite Frogbridge Memory

My group, SG1, which were closer than ever, and my favorite part of the summer, Color War. I told them about the inside jokes we shared and the activities we did. That’s when I realized, they didn’t understand what I was talking about because they weren’t a part of it. They didn’t experience the pure joy I did when my team (the green pirates) won color war, they didn’t experience my team member getting pushed into the pool by one of the boy’s team members, and they didn’t experience hilarious and surprising fun that we had during our first rainy day. They weren’t there, but after I was done filling their heads with all of these over the top stories that didn’t even come close to doing justice to the summer I had, they were mad that they weren’t.

From Camper to Team Member

Working in the CIT program at Frogbridge taught me a lot of things, but mainly it showed me how much I love working with children. I’m currently applying to grad schools and have decided to ultimately become a communication teacher, a profession I doubt I would have thought of if I hadn’t spent so many of my summers surrounded by children, and people who genuinely loved working with them. Now a team member, I’ve learned what it’s like to watch after a group of children and to be a leader and role model for them. IT’s a position I don’t take lightly and something I’ve been very grateful for. Seeing my campers throughout the year at Frogtober Fest and seeing them come back summer after summer is wonderful. Keeping in touch with them and seeing them grow up is something I’ve always been very grateful for. It’s something I grew up doing, seeing my team member’s year after year and growing up at the camp, now, as a team member, I’m getting to do the same thing my team members did.

Frogbridge Memories Last

Frogbridge has always been something that I felt very personal about. I talk about it to people the way some talk about their children or about their favorite sports teams, I’m proud of it, and I’m proud to be a part of it. For more than half my life it’s served as a summer home and a place where you can be away from it for ten months, but then as soon as summer rolls around, pick up right where you left off. I’ve watched kids grow from tadpoles to senior campers, I’ve watched junior campers that I watched as a CIT turn into incredible team members. I’ve watched Frogbridge turn into what it is today, and it’s been one of the greatest privileges of my life to be able to say that I was apart of it. For the majority of my life, Frogbridge has been more than just a camp to me, and more than just a place I spend my summers. It’s been my family, my friends, and a place where I am my most happiness. Frogbridge has given me many things over the years. It had given me lifelong friends, a career path, but mostly, it’s given me a lifelong home.

A simple visit is all it will take to understand there’s no place in the world quite like Frogbridge. Our facility is unrivaled and our activities are second to none. But what truly sets our Monmouth County summer camp apart from the rest are the team members we are lucky to have here with us. Among the most important of those team members are the ten who countless days and hours of extra time to help make Frogbridge the success it is today. While everyone at Frogbridge gives 110 percent, two of our team members stand out in my mind as people that have truly made Frogbridge the place it is today. They are Laura and Melissa, the focus of today’s Frogbridge spotlight. Laura is our amazing office manager and Melissa, is best known as “my right hand.” These women never rest, eating, sleeping, and breathing Frogbridge every day of their lives. We couldn’t imagine where we would be without them! Lets get to know a little bit more about each of them and how they came to Frogbridge.

Laura’s Story

I first started at Frogbridge when I was hired for a Tadpole position before it even opened. Seeing how the camp has developed and grown since day one has truly been amazing. Although I’ve worked at “The Bridge” since it opened, my role for the past 10+ years has been office manager. Both of my children, Josh (24) and Jesse (20) were fortunate not only to be campers, but also team members. Their wonderful memories of Frogbridge will last a lifetime and I couldn’t imagine them not having the experience they had here at Frogbridge. When I am not working, I enjoy spending time with my boys and family and have a love for chocolate and my favorite TV show of all time is Seinfeld. I’ve traveled to many places and islands, but my favorite place has to be is Germany where most of my family lives. My parents met in Germany during World War II. My father is from the Philippines and my mother is from Germany. I am the second youngest of four girls and grew up in Staten Island. I received a degree in Computers from the College of Staten Island and later worked for a trading firm off Wall Street as a Systems Administrator. As my children were growing up, I volunteered for many years in the school system as a class mom and as a part of the PTA.

Melissa’s Story

When I started working at Frogbridge, I never imagined that it would be a place I would call home, for not only myself, but for my family as well. If someone had told me when I graduated UMBC that I would be working at a camp on a daily basis, I probably would not have believed them. I always went to camp as a kid, and when I was old enough to work, I started as an assistant counselor and worked my way up the hierarchy. Camp is a huge part of my life, and people have said to me that I live in a Frogbridge bubble. This upcoming summer will be my 9th summer at Frogbridge, and what’s amazing is that every year is totally different. The great part about working in the office all year long is that when all of the campers go back to reality on the last day of camp and go back to school within the following weeks, I stay at camp. The first thing I do when I arrive the Monday after camp ends is start the countdown clock and stare at it each day to see how much time I have to get everything ready for the next summer. From staff contracts, to planning travel calendars, to setting up special events, the camp program, newsletters, t-shirts and everything in between, I work closely with JR all winter getting everything ready for the summer. Summer is my favorite time of year! I love the beach, the warm weather and taking my daughters Jayden (7) and Addison (5) to the Jersey Shore. (They too are campers, and are growing up Frogbridge!) We love the summer so much that during the winter when it’s freezing here, we often visit Florida for vacation. So what do I do when it’s winter? I love TV, shopping, and I love to eat! Everyone has a favorite TV show and mine is Grey’s Anatomy. Shopping can be done anywhere, and now that all the stores are online it’s great! Now, you ask about food? I snack all day on cookies, chocolate and chips. When it comes to restaurants I love trying new places, even though I order the same foods wherever I go. Although I have things that keep me occupied during the winter months, summertime at Frogbridge is truly the best. Nothing can replace the incredible friends that I have met, the amazing memories and having enough Frogbridge apparel to last a lifetime. Always remember, “Live 10 months for 2!” As you can see I’m very lucky to have such incredible people working by my side everyday of my life. If you haven’t gotten the chance to meet them, feel free to stop by the office at any time, they’d love to say hello and maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get to know them as well as I have. Check back soon for our next Frogbridge Spotlight!

To help our blog readers get to know our leadership team better, I’ll be featuring a few. In this month’s Frogbridge Staff Spotlight, you’ll get to know Susie (Miss Sue), our cooking instructor. Susie, a long time Kindergarten teacher in Ocean County, has been with our day camp for eight summers. When she’s not teaching or spending time with her family, she enjoys painting and writing. Susie doubles as a Frogbridge face painter sometimes! Fun fact: She’s actually written three children’s books and is in the process of publishing one. When I asked her what she likes most about Frogbridge, without hesitation she replied: the children. She also said she loves being our cooking instructor because she gets to introduce campers to new things and they look forward to it.

“Cooking is a favorite elective. The campers love it. It allows them to be creative with food. I introduce them to new things and they look forward to it,” Susie noted.

What do campers learn how to make from Susie? For starters, there are churros that have continuously been a camper favorite. Plus, being Italian, teaching campers how to make Strombolis (Italian hot pockets) comes naturally to her. Then there’s apple pie, pigs in a blanket, parfait with fruit, taco pizza, and rainy day s’mores, just to name a few. When I asked Susie what her most memorable experience has been as a team member at Frogbridge, she elaborated on the time she returned after being sick:

“I was off for a month due to illness and returned as a surprise guest judge for Mr. and Mrs. Frogbridge. The warm welcome I got when I returned is something I’ll never forget. I think it was the most memorable experience I ever had in my life. Everyone was yelling and screaming (due to being surprised) and were just so welcoming to have me back. They reminded me of an America’s Got Talent audience.”

I asked Susie to note what she would tell parents who are thinking about sending their children to this Monmouth County Day Camp. I am overwhelmed by her response:

“Why wouldn’t you send your children to Frogbridge? I sent my child there and I wouldn’t just send her anywhere. Frogbridge is the “Disney World” of camps. I was privileged to have the opportunity to send my daughter there and I have recommended many of my students. Our team members are very professional. Safety is always no. 1. Everything is very clean. There’s no tolerance for negligence. As a parent, you want all these things in day camp.”

In closing, Susie asked that I leave you with this quote:

“God’s greatest gift to us is children.” She feels privileged to work with the children at Frogbridge and she’s excited to be entering her 9th summer.