Why EPIC is Truly EPIC
By Laurie Rinke Langworthy, LCSW, EPIC Founder and Inaugural EPIC Chair
Owner/Director, Camp Echo Lake, Founder/Director, Camp Inspire
It was the early 2000’s and I had been working year-round for Camp Echo Lake for a few years. I remember going to camp industry conferences and meetings and feeling like all the “big guys” in the industry knew each other and it was hard to make connections outside my camp. Luckily, I was connected to, then Director of Camp Walt Whitman, Jancy Dorfman, who agreed with my assessment even as a camp director herself. Jancy and I wanted to do something about it. We decided, with the incredible support of the ACA, NY & NJ to create a program for Emerging Professionals in Camp, and EPIC was born. I became the first EPIC Chair and Jancy became the first EPIC Director Liaison. We built a committee of diverse, motivated, creative, and fun EPICs. We ran educational conference days for EPICs, EPIC Cares community service events, EPIC Happy Hours, and all these events had networking with EPICs and established camp directors woven in. It was a vibrant, professionally beneficial, and personally fulfilling movement! I was lucky enough to truly connect with other EPICs (at all stages of their careers) and with camp directors (at all stages of their careers), and grow professionally and personally because of EPIC.
Being part of EPIC was also a ton of fun with incredible people! While EPIC (even down to the shooting star logo I remember creating) will always feel a bit like “my baby,” after a few years it was clear that EPIC was growing and so, in large part to EPIC, was my career in camp. ACA National asked me to help them create a National EPIC and help other sections form EPICs themselves. Eventually, I passed on the EPIC Chair position to someone who had grown from being part of the EPIC committee too.
Looking back on EPIC, as a current Owner/Director of CEL, I can say that EPIC played a major role in the educational, networking, and social opportunities I had that got me to where I am today. All the EPICs on our first EPIC Board are now Directors at for-profit camps, Executive Directors at not-for-profit camps, and/or successful leaders in industries outside of camp. EPIC allowed me to determine if I wanted to make camp my career and helped me find the skills, tools, connections, and people to do that with. There is nothing more valuable in the early years of my camp career than my creation of and involvement in EPIC. As a current Owner/Director, I push the EPICs on my team to be active participants in EPIC because it helps them grow and connect in the camp industry and bring that growth (and happiness) back to our team.
Whether you are an EPIC – at any stage of your career – or a VOCE (Veterans of the Camp Experience) and work with EPICs, the EPIC program is wildly beneficial to individuals, camps, and the camp industry. If you are looking to grow, learn, connect, network, and have fun, don’t walk, run to the nearest EPIC event, and encourage others to join and support as well. I am forever grateful to EPIC and will always make myself available to be supportive and helpful to EPIC events and individuals. Be EPIC. You won’t be sorry, it’s EPIC.