MEET THE CAMP KENNEBEC TEAM 

Rob has been with camp for over 2 decades, starting off as a counsellor, then becoming senior staff in charge of our youngest campers and their staff.  And before he knew it, he became a camp director, part of the senior leadership and then an owner!  Rob has a background in psychology and education and worked as a teacher prior to joining Camp Kennebec full time.  But he’ll tell you that he never expected to meet his wife, Dee at Camp too.  Each summer, you can find, Rob, Dee, their two boys Harrison & Bennett, and their dog Ollie up at Camp too.  Rob is the first one to initiate pranks and ice cream sundae after-hour raids with our campers, who love being “in” on the joke.  In the off-season, Rob manages hiring for all of our domestic and international staff, and along with Sarah, develops and leads our 14-day senior staff and 8-day cabin staff in-depth, pre-camp training programs.

Sarah joined the Camp Kennebec Director team in 2022, after working with camp for nine years, starting as a counsellor, then senior staff, then as the lead for the Camper Support Team and now a key member of the Senior Leadership team.  With a background in behavioural science and education, Sarah worked with adults and youth who have special needs in Canadian and Caribbean school systems.  At Camp, Sarah is more commonly known by her camp nickname “Swag”, a nickname she adopted during her first summer at camp to differentiate herself from the three other Sarahs on staff.  Fun fact, Sarah grew up and lives for half the year in St. Lucia, but these days her favourite place to spend the summer is under the Kennebec sun in beautiful Arden, Ontario! 

Jay has been connected to Camp for over five decades.  He started here as a camper, and over a ten-year span was a counsellor, head of horseback riding and senior staff member.  With his long-standing friendships with Camp’s founder Steve Hannon and Brian Garnier, he maintained a tight connection with Camp, despite leaving  Kennebec for the business world.  For the past decade, Jay and The Aber Group — his ad agency — have worked on camp’s marketing.  He also handles camp’s accounting and business affairs.  Apart from his responsibilities on the senior leadership team, Jay spends as much time as he can up at Camp, including nearly 6 weeks every summer.  He  helps run our horse-back riding program and you can find him most days leading trail rides, playing games on horse-back, and cheering  campers on so they are relaxed and confident.  Many of our campers consider Jay to be like a ‘camp uncle’ — a favourite adult who always has a joke, can be known to break a rule once in a while, and has a kind word for every one of our campers.

Brian started at Camp Kennebec nearly six decades ago as the head of canoeing and tripping. He quickly fell in love with the place and the natural beauty of Camp’s 1,000 acres of protected forest and 4 lakes.  He is a master carpenter, and along with his staff, is responsible for all camp systems and buildings. Brian is a favourite among campers as he patiently takes on camper “helpers” to assist him in building decks, fixing stairs and all other kinds of maintenance and building projects — even when all the extra “help” slows him down. He’s also the person who can fix just about anything, so he’s a very popular guy all summer.  He’s known for his elaborate pranks, and passion for keeping the Kennebec spirit strong.

Holly has a long history working in the hospitality and recreation industry.  She joined the Camp senior management team on a full-time basis in 2022 and has been working at Camp since 2017.  Along with Brian, Holly makes sure that Camp’s physical operations run properly and assists in many other areas around camp.  Among her many responsibilities are the kitchen and dining hall, laundry and activities like wood working and fishing.  Holly loves to make everyone in the Kennebec community smile; you can often hear her laughing with campers, telling jokes, cheering campers on, dressing up in a full-size dinosaur or other hilarious costumes or wearing one of her many outrageous hats.

Cole’s journey with Camp Kennebec is a unique one and began years before he started working at camp, as his sister has attended Kennebec for several years before he started as a counsellor in 2018. Since Cole initially started at camp, he has worked in cabins as a counsellor, a Head of House supervisor, March Break programs and on our maintenance team in the off-season. After the summer of 2024, Cole joined Brian and Holly on our full-time maintenance team; working year-round to update and prepare camp for the summers. During the summer Cole is known to be playing any sport around camp or challenging campers in a basketball game!