{"id":43158,"date":"2025-08-04T16:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/43158\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T16:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:03:07","slug":"how-a-kids-summer-camp-manages-its-finances-as-a-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/43158\/","title":{"rendered":"How a kid\u2019s summer camp manages its finances as a small business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Money Talks<\/a>, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship with each other, and how those relationships inform one another.<\/p>\n

Eric Love, 47, is an artist and educator in Haverhill, Massachusetts. After spending the first half of his career working as an educator and consultant, he became the founder of LARP Adventure Program<\/a> (LAP), an after-school and summer camp program. LAP\u2019s curriculum focuses on building community and teaching creative problem-solving through live-action role-playing \u2014 a type of structured, interactive game in which players, often rooted in the worlds of science fiction or fantasy, work together to overcome a specific challenge. <\/p>\n

Elle Dunne, 22, is a recent graduate of Wellesley College who began working for LAP as a counselor and is now the marketing coordinator. LAP currently serves over 100 youth, adults, and their families with programs including classes, weekend events, and residential overnight camps up to four weeks.<\/p>\n

The following conversation is lightly condensed and edited.<\/p>\n

ERIC: I\u2019m Eric Love, and I founded LARP Adventure Program. It came into being as an LLC in 2012, but the idea existed far before that. The earliest rendition of what it is today was from about 2000 \u2014 but I wasn\u2019t exposed to live-action role-playing as a medium yet.<\/p>\n

I was using Dungeons and Dragons as a platform for education, and frustrated about trying to bring it to life. Two of my students were like, \u201cThis already exists! It\u2019s called LARPing! You should come to an event!\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, this is great!\u201d I didn\u2019t even go to another LARP; I just went to the drawing board and executed the curriculum design.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a committed journey, for sure. I have a fine arts background, a fine and performing arts BA, and a masters of education from Lesley. When I went to Lesley University, I had the LARP program already in mind and I used the masters program to polish it and make it what it is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone still had this idea that if kids pretend any type of combat, that they will become harmful people. That\u2019s not how this works, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

ELLE: I came on board last June. I ambitiously googled \u201cLARP camp Massachusetts jobs near me,\u201d because I wanted to work at a LARP camp!<\/p>\n

I joined as a counselor, and they didn\u2019t have anybody doing marketing, and I went up to them and said, \u201cI could do marketing for you guys!\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cWe don\u2019t know if we want that.\u201d And I went, \u201cNo, I\u2019m going to do marketing for you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

ERIC: We\u2019re the longest-running LARP in Massachusetts and possibly the Northeast, it\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to drop everything else I\u2019m doing and figure out how to do this.\u201d And it was too soon, right? [When I was developing the idea] everyone still had this idea that if kids pretend any type of combat, that they will become harmful people. That\u2019s not how this works, right? That\u2019s not how that happens. But people were scared. People were scared of optics. What do parents think? What do other schools think? What are the psychological implications of children playing pretend and socializing with each other? And the answer is \u2014 they become healthier humans that want to contribute to society.<\/p>\n

ELLE: I love our kids. I\u2019m going to just take a moment to brag about them. Every day, I wake up and think, \u201cWe have the best kids in the world.\u201d I\u2019m so proud of them.<\/p>\n

We have a very large population of LGBT and neurodivergent kids that we are very passionate about both protecting and creating a safe space for. LARP has always attracted a specific type of community \u2014 it\u2019s always been the people who are on the margins and the outskirts and they\u2019re using LARP to empower themselves, create something with other people, or figure out who they are. Eric has done something really amazing where he\u2019s created an environment where that can happen for kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been the people who are on the margins and the outskirts and they\u2019re using LARP to empower themselves, create something with other people, or figure out who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of every day camp, we get a bunch of kids and all they want to do is hit each other with swords. All they want to do is whale on each other and they want to be the hero. And one of the missions of LAP, which I loved \u2014 and one of the reasons I chose LAP as opposed to the three other LARP camps in New England \u2014 is that this community mind is so important. The kids have a rallying cry: \u201cFight together, die alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

So at the beginning of every day camp Eric and I come in \u2014 or whoever the teacher is \u2014 and we sit the kids down and we say, \u201cLARP is not for kids, it\u2019s for adults. We\u2019re trusting you guys to do this adult thing because we think you deserve it and you have the capacity for it. But if you guys do shenanigans, if you are cruel to each other, if you try to be the hero at somebody else\u2019s expense, no more. We\u2019re sending you to robotics camp or Minecraft camp where it\u2019s not as fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes the kids come in and they\u2019re ungovernable monsters, but through this curriculum of radical empathy and community-building and martial arts and self-mastery, they grow into these people with really strong bonds for each other. They discover who they are and they discover what it means to be a leader and they grow up and they give that back.<\/p>\n

ERIC: Affordability is a problem across the board. We could change the quality of what we\u2019re doing, but it\u2019s because of the high quality \u2014 there\u2019s not just showing up to LARP. You could be a [counselor-in-training], you could help run logistics, you could help be a part of the production team or the writing team. It has all these factors so that everyone has a place, and when the LARP comes together, everyone has something to do depending on what their skill set is and a place to shine. That takes a lot of hours. There\u2019s at least 20,000 volunteer hours a year \u2014 just unpaid, people showing up week after week. So it\u2019s not just money. The burnout is very real.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the kids that I love dearly came up to me and he\u2019s like, \u2018I can\u2019t afford to go to res camp this year,\u2019 and that just broke my heart!\u201d <\/p>\n

ELLE: We have our upcoming residential camp at the end of August. Kids are clamoring for that, but we had to hike the price from last year and shorten the length. We also have this problem where we don\u2019t have a home, so we\u2019re finding issues finding locations to host camps. One of the kids that I love dearly came up to me and he\u2019s like, \u201cI can\u2019t afford to go to res camp this year,\u201d and that just broke my heart!<\/p>\n

You want all the kids to be able to come to camp. You want them to be able to have this magical fantasy experience soaked in SEL [social-emotional learning] education that you know will make them better humans. But you also know that you can\u2019t afford land, and you don\u2019t own land, so you need to hike up the price. There seems to be a push and pull between, \u201cWhat do we owe to our community?\u201d and what we need to keep this business surviving.<\/p>\n

ERIC: We did as much as can happen for cutbacks. I\u2019m in my mother\u2019s house at 47. It\u2019s like, \u201cGo get another job.\u201d Well, then who\u2019s going to do all of the work that I\u2019m doing? It would be like a house of cards.<\/p>\n

We could just keep jacking up the price, but that\u2019s going to change the clients. The people that we care about and love are already telling us they can\u2019t afford it. We\u2019re already seeing people fall off.<\/p>\n

When I started this business, my dad was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to give you the money I would give you at whatever retirement. Here\u2019s $10,000. And I\u2019m going to give you two bits of advice: \u2018You can focus on marketing and selling a product, or you can focus on having a good product. You cannot do both.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I need to pay my bills and buy groceries, what am I going to cut out first? It\u2019s the after-school program that my kid goes to.\u201d<\/p>\n

We know we have a really good service. We know it\u2019s very special. We know it creates a safe place for people to explore who they are and create self-confidence \u2014 but we are just not a machine set up to do heavy marketing and pull people in and convince them to come in.<\/p>\n

The reality is small businesses have been dying off rapidly in the last two years. I do arts \u2014 alternative education \u2014 that gets cut out first. If I need to pay my bills and buy groceries, what am I going to cut out first? It\u2019s the after-school program that my kid goes to.<\/p>\n

ELLE: One of our kids told me, \u201cI wish I could do LARP, but my parents said I\u2019m going to a different camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

ERIC: There\u2019s camps where lots of kids are being given laptops, and iPads, and other electronic devices. Our thing has always been, even before the pandemic, \u201cGet off of the computer!\u201d It\u2019s okay, we\u2019re all gamers, we love it, but socialize with each other and get out in nature! I think that the generations that are coming up, or even the parents, don\u2019t identify with the value of what we\u2019re bringing forth. Maybe they pitch it to the kid, and they\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, but the Minecraft camp, I get to be on a laptop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only reason why I\u2019m still in it is because I know that this is my self-actualization. And the other part of it, besides that, which is self-fulfilling, is that everyone that I\u2019m around is amazing. My staff are the best people I\u2019ve ever met. The people who are volunteering are the most exceptional humans I\u2019ve ever met. That\u2019s a very special, sacred thing, and what do you say \u2014 do you leave that for money?<\/p>\n

ELLE: I hope that we have enough community that we are able to produce the work that we love for the kids that we love in the way that we love it, in a way that we\u2019re not sweating over what it\u2019s going to cost us emotionally, physically, financially. Just, that level of stability where we have the things we need in order to do the thing we know makes a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,63,99,34438,14001,198,34439,8280,187,34440],"class_list":{"0":"post-43158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-business-finance","12":"tag-child-care","13":"tag-entrepreneurship","14":"tag-even-better","15":"tag-life","16":"tag-money","17":"tag-vox-guide-to-entrepreneurship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}