Podcast

Lisa Munter
Welcome everyone. I am so excited to have with me today my new friend. Her name is Laura Kriegel. She is the co- founder and executive director of Camp Stomping Ground. Welcome to being with Looped In with Knitt.

Laura Kriegel
Hi, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for this conversation.

Lisa Munter
Yeah, me too. It's really interesting because we've met along the way. We haven't had a lot of interactions, but I met you through my father- in- law, who was involved in helping support Camp Stomping Ground get in and off its feet. And so everything that I've heard about you and the few interactions that we've had, I've been super impressed by you as a person and your motivation and passion to get Camp Stomping Ground off and running and bringing awareness to them.

Laura Kriegel
Thank you. I feel the same. I landed in this community, the Saratoga space, but Middle Grove more specifically, and grew up in Rochester and so am a transplant to this space. But John Munter and just the entire Munter family and all the folks in the community have been so welcoming. I feel really lucky to have landed here.

Lisa Munter
And I love that you are not too far away from where I live, and really excited to check out all the new space that you've created along with your team of people throughout the last few years. With that, because when you hear of Camp Stomping Ground, some people might be like, " What kind of camp is this?" Tell us what you do and the mission.

Laura Kriegel
I started camp in 2015 and the idea originally was how do we give kids a space where we can show them that they belong and that their voice matters in a big way? I grew up going to a summer camp. I traveled around after college and visited, honestly, 250 different summer camps on this journey to find a summer camp that I wanted to work at. And I spent about two years on the road looking at different summer camp programs, youth development spaces, and along the way collected best practices for what it is that makes summer camp unique and special. And at some point somebody was like, " Listen, are you going to start your own summer camp or what? What are you collecting all this information for?" And it dawned on us, " Maybe we could do that. What would it look like to actually do that?" We rented a site outside of Binghamton for five years where we got the ball rolling, found a group of people who connected with our mission. Our mission at Stomping Ground is to inspire the next generation of radically empathetic decision makers. We give kids a lot of choice, a lot of ability to make decisions, and then when we butt heads with each other or when we find conflict or discord with each other, we use restorative practices to build community and restore the community and make a stronger community together. And that's the whole point about camp.

Lisa Munter
Wow. It almost sounds like adults could benefit from that camp, as well.

Laura Kriegel
A lot of times we get the feedback that kids come home from camp and teach their parents and their siblings and their caregivers in whatever way, some of the things that they learn at camp, and it has that ripple effect.

Lisa Munter
I bet. Why is making connections so important to what you do?

Laura Kriegel
Connections is everything. Everything that we do is built on relationships. The idea of everything from the relationships that we build with our camper families to the relationships that we have with our staff, everything is based on trust, and trust is the foundation of a solid relationship. Also, the people who have believed in us and believed in the mission of Stomping Ground from the very beginning, their connection, their relationship to us, and their belief in what we're doing is the only reason Stomping Ground has had any success. Relationships, the way you're talking about it, it's the namesake of Knitt. When you pull together a community, when you pull together a group of like- minded people, everybody's different connections and everybody's different relationships with each other, benefit each other in a way that creates a stronger community. And that's what Stomping Ground has been for the last several years. And as we sink more into this community in the Saratoga area, finding new relationships is critical.

Lisa Munter
Yes. I couldn't agree with you more. When you talk about the campers that are able to experience your camp, where are they coming from? Where do you find them? And I'm assuming that a lot of them come from multiple different communities. How does Camp Stomping Ground make connections within multiple communities?

Laura Kriegel
Such a fun question. We serve kids from all over the world, actually, but the majority of our kids come from New York State, somewhere within the New York State area. But we do have a smattering of kids who've moved out of state and an hour across the country, but still come back each summer or have even moved out of the country and then come back each summer, as well. We serve some portion of kids from New York City. We serve a bunch of kids from Rochester, which is where I'm originally from. And then increasingly, we serve more and more kids from the local community just around in the capital region. And the way that we originally formed those connections is that initial connection to a different community or to a specific family, is that space where we can build trust with them. We have an individual phone call with every family, caregiver, or partnership before they come to camp in the summer. Just getting to know the kid and their family and what their expectations are for the program and what they can expect from us. That way, when they step onto camp in the summer, they've already got their camp shirt, they've already got a connection to someone on staff, they've watched a few videos about us. They have a little bit more of a starting point to step further into the relationship because camp moves fast. We've only got two weeks together, and so we do a lot of work ahead of time to start building that relationship early on.

Lisa Munter
Oh, I love that. I love that. What would you say would be the biggest challenge when it comes to making and finding new connections?

Laura Kriegel
Time. I think that it's so difficult to, as an executive director or as somebody working full- time for camp, find enough time to really build relationships in the way that we need to. With all of that intention and all of the insight and thinking ahead and then following up with people and also do all of the operational program stuff. It's impossible. I know it's a well- meaning question, but when folks ask, " You're a summer camp director, what do you do the rest of the year?" It blows my mind because we have seven people on our year- round team right now. Two of them are part- time, but we work tirelessly to make all of the marketing decisions, all of the fundraising decisions, all of the relationship- building decisions with our families, all of the staffing decisions. It takes all year long and it takes so, so much time. Time is the thing that is in short supply, most of the time.

Lisa Munter
And without having to hire other people, what else do you feel could help with dealing with some of those challenges? Personally speaking, I know with starting a new business, there's many different hats. And you always get, " How can I help? How can I help?" Besides having to hire somebody and paying them, what is something else that you feel would be helpful in dealing with some of those challenges?

Laura Kriegel
We are about to run a ribbon- cutting ceremony for a big campaign that we completed, renovating a farmhouse on camp property, and we're looking for people to sponsor the event or give a raffle basket or whatever. And I logged onto Knitt just before this and noticed a few people who we'd knitted with. And so it just makes it easier to say, " That person. I can already see the things that they're typically interested in or the things that motivate them within the community, the things that they want to be connected to." And so it gives me an automatic inroad to email and say, " Hey, I found you on Knitt and I noticed this on your profile. We're running this event. Do you have any interest in helping us?" The scariest part about making new connections can be that like, " Am I going to get shut down? Am I going to get turned away?" And it's terrifying because I only have so much time to be able to invest in it. And if I'm going to try something, it can be really demoralizing to get turned away over and over again. But Knitt makes it a little easier because I can see, they've already initiated something with me. They gave me the background information on, they're already interested in supporting youth programming, so now I've got my in it. It just makes it less scary and it decreases the amount of time or research that I have to do to figure out if it might be a good connection.

Lisa Munter
Yeah, absolutely. It always helps, those warm lead connections, in life. It's just like, " Oh my gosh, I have somebody I need to introduce you to." And that person might be more apt to meet with you because they were told by somebody that they care about and they know and saying, " Okay, if they're saying that I should meet this person, then I'll give them a few minutes of my time." Versus that cold call.

Laura Kriegel
Exactly. For me as a funder, to have somebody else introduce me to them is so much easier of an ask. So what Knitt does, because Knitt has a connection with so many businesses and so many people in the community, I felt comfortable saying, " I found you on Knitt." Now they know what Knitt is, that was my warm lead. Yeah, like you're saying, it's a time saver.

Lisa Munter
Thank you for saying that. Speaking of that, in what ways can people help you and connect with you? How can they connect with you?

Laura Kriegel
We've got a few ways that I can think of. One, we're always looking for kids that might benefit from our programming. Send us kids. We save spots for local families, we save spots for kids on scholarship. And so we are always looking for kids that might want to join our community, join our programming. Whether that be a connection to a local agency or a local support system for kids or a connection to an individual family. We're always looking for new folks to join us. If you've got a kid who you think might benefit from camp, send them our way. The other way you can help us is coming on site and just helping us take care of this beautiful space. We have several volunteer days and opportunities throughout the year. Come see the space and learn about what we're doing and learn about the people that are making it happen. And then once we start to again, make more connections with the community, I think people in the back of their mind when they meet somebody else then are like, " Let me connect you with So- and- so at Camp Stomping Ground." In building our network and in building our relationships out, just coming to camp, let me give you a tour, that would be super useful.

Lisa Munter
I love that. And there's nothing like impact, then, when you actually get a chance to go and see what you are about. It's one thing to go on your website and read about your mission and what you do, but when you actually get to step foot on the grounds, you feel it and you're more compelled to not only whip out a checkbook, but to also be like, " I would love to volunteer." Or if you own a business or you're an employee of in a business, be like, " We need to go back and volunteer and help out in some way."

Laura Kriegel
The other way I can think of, Lisa, if I can add one more. A lot of our programming is about loose parts play. And so we take a lot of in- kind donations from folks, either business folks or just regular community members. One of the areas of loose parts that we have at camp is our maker space. People who have lots of extra arts and craft supplies or there's a local carpet store that just donated lots of different kinds of carpet squares that I'm sure the kids will turn into a million different art projects and things like that. It's a way of recycling also, but the kids crave different... The more stuff we put in their environment, the more creative they can be. And so that's the loose parts play bit. We have lots of different areas, arts and crafts is just one of them, where there's lots of loose parts. Giving camp stuff that might not be useful to you anymore, we can definitely use.

Lisa Munter
That's wonderful. People can connect with you either through your website, which we will obviously include, and then are you on social media?

Laura Kriegel
Yep, we're on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. All those spaces.

Lisa Munter
Great. What is something that you would want a new donor to know about Camp Stomping Ground that maybe they wouldn't know by looking at your website?

Laura Kriegel
I love that question, too. One of the things that we are starting to get more involved in, and this will likely show up on the website over the next year or so, is we're starting to work with local school districts and communities during the rest of the year to help folks implement restorative practices into their spaces. One of the things that I do during the rest of the year is I run a six- week training course for camp directors and have had the opportunity to teach over a hundred different camps at this point, how to implement restorative practices and that conflict resolution system into their programs, which has been very fun. It's the thing that we've really honed in on at Stomping Ground. And people are interested in it and want to learn how to do it in their space, so I feel privileged to be able to share that with folks. And now we're starting to figure out how to share that with the school communities and other spaces that are looking for community circles. That's a thing that's on the horizon.

Lisa Munter
Oh my gosh. Being a former teacher, I love the fact that you're able to tap into the educational school system and being able to have them be some kind of a collaboration partner with you. It just makes so much sense. That's super exciting. Congratulations for that.

Laura Kriegel
Thanks.

Lisa Munter
It's so cool how it just continues to build and build. It's a long journey and it's a lot of work, but then when you're able to find those pockets or those sandboxes of people who want to see what you're doing and be a part of it, it's really rewarding, for sure.

Laura Kriegel
Yeah, when you're open to the connections, the connections often come your way.

Lisa Munter
Yes, definitely. Obviously people, when they give to an organization, it's about the mission. And sometimes I feel that there's a disconnect between the mission and the people who are behind the mission. And sometimes that personal connection, sometimes people give because of the people who are part of that mission because they're so inspired by them. In closing, I always like to ask, what is one thing that people would generally be surprised to find out about you? What is a fun fact about Laura Kriegel?

Laura Kriegel
That's a great question. And that the ability to connect with the person behind it makes a lot of sense. It's a nice way to phrase that. Something that maybe is surprising about me now is that before getting into the youth development world and that space, I have a background in arts. I went to school for painting and drawing for undergrad. And at the time, I even remember thinking, " Boy, I'm not sure this is a really practical decision." And I think my parents were also like, " What are you really going to do with this?" I think that was one of the reasons why after graduating college, I was like, " Oh boy. A little lost right now. What am I going to do?" But now I look back on it and I'm really grateful for that piece of my education. I'm really grateful for the ability to think about problems in a visual way and think about them in a uniquely different way. So much of what we do is spreading ideas. So much of what we do is connecting with other people. So much of what we do is building on an idea. How do we give it legs and make it move? And the fact that I have an arts background, it helps to be able to edit things on the computer and do things visually. But more than that, it's the ability to think just a little bit differently about a problem, to come at it from a slightly different angle, and see a solution that other people might not be able to see. So I'm grateful for my BFA now that I'm...

Lisa Munter
That's wonderful. Thank you again for taking the time to meet with me. It's always a pleasure to talk with you. I'm looking forward to being part of the ribbon cutting in a couple weeks, and thank you so much.

Laura Kriegel
Awesome. Thank you, Lisa.