CIT

The summer of 2009 CITs posing with their CIT plaque

A CIT, or counselor in training, lives in a cabin in Lower Camp or sometimes Upper Camp to assist the main counselor in that cabin. During the summer CITs learn how to be counselors at Birch Rock. The leadership skills that they started to acquire as Senior Campers are developed by working closely with campers in the cabin and in activities.

The team work skill is really driven home in the CIT program as the camp gives the CITs a lot of tasks around camp like washing dishes and sweeping the driveway. Working hard as a team better prepares them to move into the staff ranks and move past any teasing that may have happened during their camper summers growing up together.

Years ago, CITs were not assigned to individual cabins. They instead stayed in Pete's Palace. Pete's is still where the CIT plaques, which are made by the CITs, are put up every year. CITs can not earn badges but from time to time a CIT will swim his Whale if he was unable to during his Senior Camper year. A CIT's Whale time is put up on a plaque in Pete's.

The CIT Director

The 2008 CIT Plaques with CIT Director Ryan Massey's name

The CIT Director is responsible for the training and mentoring of the CITs. He is, in a sense, the counselor to the CITs.

CIT Plaques

Plaques are put up in Pete's Palace every year with the names of the CITs who attended camp that summer, along with the name of that summer's CIT Director. This tradition has carried on since 1982, the year Pete's was built. The responsibility for carving the CIT plaque belongs to the CITs that summer.