Greetings from the Camp Director

Shawn Moriarty – Director

Howdy Folks!

First I want to welcome you to YMCA Camp Santa Maria! I have had the distinct pleasure and fortune of  going to summer camps since I was 6 years old. Since then I have only spent one summer away from  camping, and that was because I was teaching English in Sendai, Japan. I started my life long journey in camping  by going  to a local  day camp in Connecticut  until I was old enough to go away to overnight camp at  the age of 9. Then I spent  4 summers going to a 4-H camp  where I became so inspired by the staff that I began to consider  making camp the focal point of my life. At the age of 14, I  began working as a  junior counselor at  the same  day camp I had gone to as a  child. I worked there for 11 years as a staff member, spending every summer  there through high school, college, and for three years after graduation. After college, when I wasn’t at camp during the summers, I was building and running ropes course programs in New England and training others to work at camps. It was during those years that I decided that camp was going to be where I wanted to spend my life.

In 1994 I began my career with the YMCA at Camp Jewell in Connecticut as the year-round Teambuilding Director and summer Trips Director. I moved from Camp Jewell to YMCA of the Ozarks in Potosi Missouri in the winter of 1999. At the YMCA of the Ozarks I was a family Program Director for a year, then spent 4 years as the Leadership and Teambuilding Director and spent my last 4 years there as the Director of YMCA Camp Lakewood. In 2007 I moved to the bay area of California to help out YMCA Camp Jones Gulch with their ropes course and environmental education programs.

In addition to my career in camping, I have spent 23 years working in the fields of experiential and outdoor education with groups ranging in age from middle schoolers to corporate professionals. While spending all this time working at camps, I also got my undergraduate degree in Asian American Relations from the University of Connecticut and my Masters degree in Environmental Education from Prescott College in Arizona. In my non-camp time I love to run, rock climb, go hiking, teach survival skills, read, blog about kids in nature and teambuilding, and explore the outdoors.

I am excited to continue the strong youth development and programming traditions at Camp Santa Maria. After years of coming to Colorado for conferences and to explore the Rocky Mountains, I am excited to be living here and getting to provide your child with an opportunity to experience the wonders of overnight summer camp. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about camp or just to chat. I will warn you that I can talk about camp all day long!

You can email me directly at shawn.moriarty@ymcabv.org