Staff of 2019: Camp Directors, Assistant Directors and Head of Departments

Tuesday, June 4th, 2019

Camp Birch Hill is a family owned and operated business which is what makes it such a magical place and why it is our home away from home. Each year staff are carefully chosen to join the family at their beautiful 106 acre piece of paradise in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. We are beyond excited to introduce our 2019 camp directors, assistant directors and head of departments here on our blog. Stay tuned because next week we will be revealing who our returning counselors are and who our new counselors will be. YAHOO!

DIRECTORS:

Mike and Chrissy Carter

Chrissy’s family has owned Birch Hill since 1993. Chrissy brings experience as a camper, counselor and director. She maintains a solid and thoughtful understanding of the Birch Hill camp community and is always available to listen and help! 

Mike and Chrissy were married at Birch Hill- four years ago this August. Mike has been devoted and hardworking, adding to the success of Birch Hill. We feel so fortunate to have him partner with the Morell family to make the summers safe and enjoyable for all. Mike’s background as a professional musician makes life more magical at camp! 

In the off-season, you will find Chrissy and Mike attending camp fairs, meeting with families, creating new programs, and overseeing facility upgrades and more. Together they provide a professional, caring and kind camp environment. 

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS: 

Galen Higgins

Day Director and Older Boys HOD

My name is Galen Higgins, Assistant Director at Camp Birch Hill. I’m 23 years old, and from Tunbridge, VT. In the off-season I work as a carpenter; I enjoy playing/writing music, reading, and spending time outdoors. I’ve recently converted a van into an RV, and plan to spend the next off-season traveling across the country. This will be my fifth year working at camp, and as always, I’m honored and excited to be joining the Birch Hill family for another fun summer.

Patrick Wilson 

Day Director and Younger Boys HOD

Hi everyone! My name is Patrick Wilson and I’ll be an assistant director this summer at Camp Birch Hill. I’m a 25 year old from Chester, Vermont who loves being outside and meeting new people! The summer is always my favorite time of year and I love getting to spend it over at camp! My favorite activities are high ropes course (especially the zip line!), low ropes course and soccer. I’m looking forward to meeting all of the new campers along with seeing some of my old friends!

Hannah Dolan

Day Director and Older Girls HOD 

Hello! I can’t wait to return to camp for my fourth summer. During the year, I teach English to 6th graders in New York City (and they teach me slang words and Fortnite dances). Some of my favorite things to do are: rock climbing, dancing both onstage and by myself, reading new books, and biking to neighborhoods I’ve never been to. My spirit animal is the otter and I am secretly amazing at limbo. This summer, I look forward to making new friends and eating as many of Rich’s pancakes as possible.

Grace Berry

Day Director and Younger Girls HOD

Hi, I’m Grace and I’ve been working at camp since 2015! I’m super excited to be coming back to camp for my 4th summer and see some familiar faces as well as make new friends! I’m from England and grew up in a little town called Shrewsbury, it’s super old and has a castle! This year in the off-season I’ve finished studying, moved to London and now I’m working on a project with non-profits campaigning for better housing and tackling homelessness, which is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I’ve of course been travelling and adventuring as much as possible, so far this year I’ve spent time visiting Western Europe and toured the Alps on skis. The mountains are my favourite place in the world, after camp of course. I’m so excited to come back this summer to see some crazy twin day outfits, cheer on my team in capture the flag and finally nail a back flip off the water tramp!

PROGRAM AREA DIRECTORS:

Emmy McDonnell

Waterfront Director

My name is Emmy McDonnell, I’m the Waterfront Director here at Camp Birch Hill and I can’t wait to start the summer. A few things about me: I study music and business at the University of Vermont, I love to play, write, and listen to music, and I love traveling. A few adventures I set out on this year include hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro, backpacking through the Pacific Islands, and before I head up to camp this year I’ll be trekking through the Himalayas. Camp holds a special place in my heart as I was a camper for four years before becoming a counselor in 2017. I can’t wait to meet all the new campers and see some familiar faces this summer. Yahoo!

Mikayla Haines

Horseback Riding Director

Hello! My name is Mikayla and this will be my first year at camp. I grew up in New Hampshire but have spent my last four years in Kentucky. I am a recent graduate of Asbury University, where I received my BA in Equine Management, Psychology, and Special Education. I am thrilled to be back in New Hampshire, spending my summer at camp as the equine director! I have been involved with horses since the age of four; over the years I have taken lessons, taught lessons, helped birth foals, train horses, competed at beginner novice level eventing, and much more. I am in the process of becoming certified to be a therapeutic horseback riding instructor. I am a proud horse mom to my sweet girl, Duchess, and we both love jumping more than anything else. I am passionate about working with children and youth in any setting. A few facts about myself would be that my favorite animal is a pig, I love ice cream, and I own a cat named Taco. If I could describe myself in three words it would be hard-working, passionate, and caring. I have always dreamed of working at a camp, and I am looking forward to an awesome summer!

Julianna Burke

Performing Arts HOD

Owen Woodcock 

Adventure HOD

My name is Owen Woodcock and I am a climate justice activist with the Sunrise Movement in Boston. I study environmental sciences at Boston University. I grew up going to Camp Birch Hill and I am very excited to be back this summer to make even more wonderful memories! My favorite evening programs are Egyptian Water Polo and Batman vs. Superman. In my free time I like to swim, bike, and go out dancing. I am happy to challenge anybody in riddles or on the ropes course and I can’t wait to see you all this summer!

Matt D’Anieri

BH Cup Master and Yahoo Times Reporter

I’m Matt. I’m a man of simple pleasures. One of my deepest passions is throwing rocks at things. There are few things that I enjoy more than this activity, but one of them is throwing rocks at things in the company of good people, while also maintaining a safe environment, in which no party involved misdirects or abuses the power of the rock for harm or destruction. One place I can always count on for these optimal conditions is Camp Birch Hill. For this reason, there is a total of zero things that I enjoy more than Camp Birch Hill. It’s got rocks, it’s got targets suitable to safely throw those rocks at (forests and lakes), and, most importantly, it’s got amazing people to throw rocks with. Seriously, everyone here is always so welcoming and inclusive of others into all rock throwing activities and communities. Almost instantly, everyone seems to find their niche where they are a superstar! Some people are really good at aiming at trees, some have terrific boulder accuracy, and others can skip rocks all the way across Marchs Pond! I’ve tried so many activities here that I didn’t have the courage to try elsewhere. When I first came to camp I had only dabbled in skipping, but the Birch Hill spirit opened my mind to short-range precision pebble throwing and a whole new world of opportunities for endless fun!

If you have gotten this far and maybe are concerned that you are going to a specialty camp for rock-throwing, don’t worry. That was just a very drawn-out analogy of why I love camp. The infectious attitude of trying everything even if you didn’t know it existed before you came here, along with actually getting to choose all your classes from such a diverse range of activities, is why I came to love CBH as an eleven-year-old. After a decade of personal growth and friendships here, I have a million other reasons. But I will spare you those details (and let you find your own reasons to love camp this summer!) and share a few things about myself:

I love all the sports. This summer you can catch me teaching the classic sportball games and inventing new ones during personal choice period! I am most competitive in cross country and track and field, which takes up most of my extracurricular time at school. I am also just super competitive in general, which is why at camp I also serve as the [OFFICIAL] Birch Hill Cup Master.

I enjoy writing and telling stories, especially about camp. Can you tell? I help write and report for the Yahoo Times during the sessions, which gets published after every B/H/S Day cycle! Get ready for some silly puns and extravagant Camper of The Day announcements from Sophia Rogers and yours truly.

I’m a die-hard donut fan. Last weekend, I biked 55 miles through the night to get to a really good donut shop. Yes, the donuts were worth it. In fact, I have another donut appointment at 5 AM tomorrow morning, so I’m going to wrap up this bio with a booming, powerful, liberating, YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Can’t wait for this summer!