Campers Lash Out, Force Conservative Counselor To Resign
A 20-year-old supporter of President Donald Trump resigned from her position as a counselor at a summer camp known as “Commie Camp,” she told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview.
Gabriella Mamet said she resigned as a counselor at Camp Kinderland in Tolland, Massachusetts, after nearly a month of Trump-bashing, Black Lives Matter chants and hostility from campers.
Progressive film director Katie Halper coined Kinderland “Commie Camp” in a 2013 documentary.
“They didn’t really mention how political of a camp it was in the phone interview or anything,” Mamet told TheDCNF. “I went on their website and I thought it was pretty much a normal camp and when I got there during orientation it was kind of surprising at how political it was.”
The 20-year-old worked at the camp from the June 28 orientation until she quit July 22. Camp Kinderland assigned her to 14- and 15-year-old campers. Her campers allegedly wanted to know the Trump supporter’s views on political issues, but Mamet was not comfortable sharing them.
Camp Kinderland is a “multicultural summer camp and community that honors our progressive secular Jewish roots through our commitment to economic, racial, and social justice,” according to its mission statement.
“Kinderland’s summer programming and year around activities integrate progressive values with arts, recreation, and activism in a compassionate and caring environment.”
Campers were “attacking me for my political views and just saying that they would feel threatened with me as their counselor,” Mamet said. “They were saying that they felt threatened by me as a counselor and not knowing my views on gun control … they said to my face all Trump supporters are bad people. They’re racist, homophobic and we don’t want them at our camp.”
She said the staff had a meeting following a July 20 article in TheDCNF showcasing the nearly 50 Antifa flags campers had designed. Mamet said staff members were instructed not to use social media at the meeting.
Aside from Antifa flag-making, Mamet said campers participated in an event called “Peace Olympics.”
There are “five teams and every team gets an issue and my particular team was Black Lives Matter,” she said. “We would have to make chants about Black Lives Matter and chants in favor of that particular thing. … Some of the chants they made were attacking Trump. ‘No more Trump, no more Pence. We don’t need a bigger fence.’”
Campers “were justifying the police officers being shot (in Ferguson),” Mamet, whose father is a police officer, explained to TheDCNF. “They were basically saying that it was okay for the police officers to be shot because people were so angry.”
Mamet was supposed to switch bunks on the day she resigned, due to what she felt was hostility from her campers.
“The program director came and talked to the campers about why I was moving and I wanted it to be clear that I was moving because the way they were treating me. But the program director told the campers it was just because I was needed somewhere else,” Mamet said. “They weren’t doing anything to hold (the campers) accountable because they were obviously just trying to keep their money.”
Camp Kinderland did not respond to a request for comment.
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