Parks & Recreation Internship / Operations Assistant

Parks & Rec Internship / Operations Assistant 

– Camp Cobbossee for Boys –

Monmouth, Maine

THE JOB

Cobbossee is a 4-week, 2-session sleepaway summer camp in Maine. The dates for this position run from June 9th to August 10th, 2026. We run a premium, seasonal experience for 220 campers per session with 165 staff on site. For more information on what summer camping actually is, see the very bottom of this document!

We are looking for talented male OR female Operations Assistants to work in our Operations department under the supervision of the Operations Director. This role is responsible for providing a varied range of logistical support and on-camp arrangements to ensure Cobbossee special events and operations run smoothly through our busy summer schedule. This is a fantastic experience for those studying Parks & Recreation mixing an interpersonal, dynamic social role in the community with hard skills training in administration and operations.

This can mean anything from setting up a projector and movie screen in the dining hall for a movie night, picking up 10 gallon bags of popcorn for 4th July or calling bus companies for replacement trip pickups. The Operations Director delegates daily tasks to fulfill all of the engagements of the scheduled event calendar of the camp. We promise you variety in your day to day role combining one-off camp-wide events with other daily tasks and duties.

The Operations Director will train interns directly through an onboarding process at the beginning of summer. Formal feedback and review will happen weekly throughout the summer to help you to develop your professional skills in this ‘behind the scenes’ role in how to run a summer camp. 

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

Start up operations for staff and campers including; lockers, staff shirts, driver training, posting the program calendar and staff social events calendar

Phone and email communications with suppliers and vendors for Cobbossee

Transport logistics and vehicle inspections

Special events planning, preparation, ordering and implementation

Staff travel and attending ‘brother-sister’ lunches with Camp Kippewa

Staff social events planning and implementation

Evening transport logistics for staff time off and camper trips

ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND TRAITS

Personal initiative (this position will often problem solve alone or on a small team)

Excellent follow through and organization on a personal and systems level

Ability to work very hard (some operations days run surprisingly long)

Creativity with a range of programs including, Google Docs, Sheets, Canva.

Ability to socialize and communicate with the entire community of adults, peers and campers

Ability to work successfully with a wide variety of people and personalities. Our staff come from all over the world and states!

Preferred; a clean Driving Licence (21+) and comfortability driving large vans or interest in learning how to do so

THE BENEFITS

Close mentorship and supervision in this role will provide a challenging work experience that will yield excellent professional skills for your future employment positions in any seasonal program.

The Operations Assistant will see the entire behind the scenes of Cobbossee’s program as well as help to run full camp special events. 

Further, days off and nights out are spent with other adventurous folks like you. Our counselors make lifelong friends at Cobbossee. Many return year-to-year.

The food is famously good at Cobbossee. Our head chef, Foluke, is extremely talented, creating delicious food for everyone at Cobbossee. We also provide great vegan and vegetarian options.

Outside of your working shift we want you to get as much as you can out of the camp experience. In your free time you can use our weights room, hang out in our air-conditioned staff lounge, swim in the lake, climb in our trees or join in any of our sports or activity sessions alongside the camper and staff community. 

OTHER BENEFITS

We can configure your employment this summer as an internship, or just a really great summer job. We make sure that your experience is converted into internship credit. If you are in any administration or business-related field (Parks & Recreation, Tourism, Communication, Administration, Business Studies, International Studies) this experience can be one of the best paid internships you can find.

THE BOTTOM LINE

“Summer jobs” are often seen as throwaway jobs. Not here. This job is going to challenge you. You are going to give of yourself, have an absolute blast, develop strong friendships with your peers, and really make a difference in young people’s lives. 

You should come work at Cobbossee because we are one of the best. We develop staff like we develop campers. You will change for the better. It will truly be the summer of your life.

For anyone not familiar with the huge world of sleepaway camp,  it works as follows:

All over the northeast each summer, families send their boys and girls up to New England to spend a couple of weeks to the entire summer at a sleepaway camp. Sometimes people who are not from the east coast see this as a strange choice, maybe even a mean choice! “Don’t they like their kids?” the question goes. Of course they do. They love their children and it’s hard for them to be away from them for the time they are at camp. But parents sacrifice time with their kids in the summer because summer camp is really good for young children. Camp (especially longer-term camps of four-to-eight weeks) teaches children independence, self-reliance, and confidence through the teaching of new skills, improving at sports, and living away from home. It isn’t always easy. But it is worth it! It is rewarding, challenging, and transformative work to care and provide summer camp  for campers.