(2025-Aug-04) Taking my last week of vacation and then volunteering at a children's summer camp has been part of my plan since last year, when I did the same thing. Back then, I wrote a short blog post (https://datanrg.blogspot.com/2024/09/what-i-learned-volunteering-at.html) without any intention of writing one again this year. However, while helping out in the kitchen, I had a new experience that I thought was worth writing down to remember.
Usually, when you sign up to volunteer as kitchen help at a summer camp, you have some idea of who else will be working with you. But in my case, I wasn’t really concerned about the other kitchen team members. I only specifically asked to be placed during the teen campers' week, assuming that older teens would be hungrier and that more help would be needed in the kitchen.
When I arrived at the camp and walked into the kitchen, I was introduced to the entire kitchen team and our kitchen manager, a young man half my age. I usually pictured a kitchen manager as someone with years of experience, like a seasoned restaurant chef training young apprentices. (I’m laughing as I write this line! 😄)
I didn’t say anything, but instantly had to correct my initial assumption about a kitchen chef, because who cares how old or young we all are, we need to feed the children.
In my professional career, I’ve worked with several managers younger than me who had direct influence over my work assignments and provided feedback on my performance. I can honestly say I really enjoyed that experience. Out of all the benefits of having a younger manager in the workplace, one stands out as especially important: it helps temper my personal ego and connect me to a common good, whatever that common good may be
One such manager helped me understand that all things are possible and that even complex problems can be made clear by breaking them down. He also had an authentic desire to support and grow his team, often sharing books to read and offering various training opportunities.
I also saw another younger manager as a role model in business communication with customers, where clarity and conciseness are especially important in a consulting environment. I often sought his feedback on how to improve my communication with clients.
A few other younger managers helped to enhance my grasp of how a strong team can really work when a manager leads with care and understanding, without losing sight of the overall team goals or that common good I mentioned earlier. It’s not that I didn’t know this before, but when you actually see that simple “care” part of leadership in action, it really helps support teamwork in a big way.
I hope those managers will have a chance to read this blog post. I won’t name them, but their actions spoke volumes during my formative professional years and continued to influence me later throughout my IT career.
Okay, going back to the kitchen, it’s been a great learning experience for me once again. I got along well with the kitchen manager, who shared stories from his past work in restaurants and other kitchen setups similar to the camp. He shared his tricks for sharpening chef knives and showed meal prep techniques and recipes I could use when cooking for my kids.
One thing I really appreciated about this young chef was that he was always willing to explain what he was doing while assigning tasks to the rest of us in the kitchen. It felt like he always had a plan: we would often start prepping ingredients or partially cooking meals in advance. I never felt rushed in his kitchen. He was cool, in many senses of the word 😄.
This is a photo of me on the last day in the kitchen, after I cleaned the grill I had used to flip many many pancakes and cook many kilos of ground beef. By the end of the week, despite daily cleanings, the grill had turned into a pitch-black surface. That’s when they showed me how to do a deep grill cleaning to bring back its shiny silver look. That was my proudest cleaning moment, and also one where I learned something new.
Will I volunteer in the summer camp kitchen again next year? I’m not sure, but I have a good feeling about it. Will I write another blog post about it? Hmm… probably not. But what if I learn something new again? I’d say there’s a very high chance of that 😄.
Until next time, have a great rest of the summer!
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