meet our directors
Ginger and Steve Clare - Directors
Ginger and Steve's story really is a camp story. They met one summer while both working at an all-girls sleepaway camp in Massachusetts, and, after a few years of persistent, long-distance courtship, were married in 2003. After 12 summers returning to camp together, rising through the ranks to eventually become year-round Assistant Director and Program Director, it was time for a camp of their own: Camp Kippewa. They made the move to Kippewa in 2008, bringing along their newborn son Aidan. In December of 2011, the Clares welcomed their second son, Brett into the Kippy family. They now enjoy spending their summers in Maine where Aidan and Brett enjoy being Kippy's BMOC (big men on campus) and loves the attention from all their big "sisters".
Of course there's a little more to the story,
let's go back to the beginning...
Ginger grew up on Vashon Island, one of the islands in the Puget Sound, outside Seattle. Growing up near the beach
she started attending camps when she was a young child and spent her spare time swimming, boating, playing softball,
soccer and basketball, and competing on the women's crew team at University of Washington where she earned her bachelor's
degree in psychology. She went on to earn a masters in Occupational Therapy from Boston University, and worked as a
children's O.T. for a Seattle-area school district before entering the camping profession full-time.
Steve practically grew up in a waterski boat. He competed internationally in barefoot waterskiing, first learning to
ski when he was 5 years old, holding national age group championships and even the national record for a time. With
his dad as the country's junior national team coach he spent as much of his time as possible on the water. Steve earned
his bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from a university in his native New Zealand before traveling to the states to
work at camp and finding a whole new career path along with a love of New England Clam Chowder. Though a cricket player
while growing up, years in New England have turned him into an American sports fan. Much to Ginger and Aidan's
disappointment, Steve cheers for the Yankees, although he supports the Patriots football team so technically he can
still call himself a New Englander!
Now entering their 18th camp summer, between the two of them they've held just about every position you can imagine.
Their experiences range from campers to bunk counselors to lakefront directors and head counselor to staffing director
to program and assistant directors to directors who wouldn't want to be anywhere else!
