Camp Counselors at Sugar Bay: 25 Years with Zoë Ellender
By Zoë Ellender, Founder and Director of Sugar Bay Camp
One of the things I most look forward to at Sugar Bay is meeting the young people who come to our camp counselor training. At a recent training camp, we had one of the best groups we’ve ever had. I think I say that every time, but I get so excited by the people I’m privileged to meet and share my life with.
Sugar Bay turned 25 in August 2026. It has had me looking back at how we started our children’s holiday camp in Zinkwazi Beach, on KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast, and at one thing I completely underestimated in our original business plan.
Before we opened, my husband and I spent 14 months researching American summer camps, working out whether we could do this and putting together a business plan. I worked incredibly hard on it, and I’m still proud that all three banks we approached approved it.
I had thought carefully about the facilities. I wanted comfortable mattresses and properly made beds, roomy cabins with en-suite bathrooms and hot water. I wanted the best surfboards and mountain bikes we could find. If we were going to build a camp, I wanted to do it properly.
That meant a substantial loan and a great deal of pressure. So you can imagine how interested I was in what our first campers would say at the end of their week.
We asked them about their favourite activities, which counselors they had enjoyed spending time with and what they had learnt. We’ve continued asking for that feedback ever since.
The favourites that first week were breakdancing and poi. I didn’t even know what poi was.
One of our earliest counselors, Hoover, had brought his own equipment and was teaching the children to spin poi using sandbags on cords. The children were also learning breakdancing from a counselor who had spent years practising it.
After all that investment in equipment, they were talking about activities that had cost me practically nothing to introduce.
I remember trying to turn the breakdancing into a lesson plan so that other counselors could teach it. I watched the steps and tried to write them down. Then I realised how much practice sat behind what looked so effortless. I couldn’t put years of someone’s experience into a set of instructions and expect the same result.
That was the beginning of what we now call our specialised classes.
When new counselors arrive, we ask what they have spent hours learning or doing. It might be guitar, spoken-word poetry, gymnastics or drama. Sometimes there is a talent we would never have thought to put on an activity list.
The children respond to that enthusiasm. They still love surfing, kayaking and skateboarding, of course. But put someone who has spent years performing on stage in charge of a drama class, and you’ll see children flock to it.
I remember a mother from Johannesburg calling because her daughter had spent her week dancing. She had sent her to Sugar Bay hoping she would learn to surf and enjoy the sea. Her daughter could dance at home, she said. Why hadn’t we made her go to the beach?
I understood her disappointment. She had pictured a particular holiday for her child.
When we looked into it, we found that the dance instructor that week had been exceptional. She was this little dynamo, full of energy, and the children loved her. She later went on to run her own successful dance troupe. Her class was where this child wanted to be.
Free choice is an important part of Sugar Bay. We give children opportunities to discover what interests them, and sometimes their choices surprise us. On another visit, that girl might have chosen surfing. That week, she had found someone whose love of dance made her want to keep coming back to class.
Over the years, I’ve seen how much those relationships matter beyond the activities themselves.
Children are quite perceptive. They expect their parents to tell them they’ve done well. Encouragement from a young adult they admire can mean something different, especially when it is specific: a counselor noticing how confidently they climbed, or recognising something they have worked hard to master. You can see a child grow in confidence when they realise someone has paid attention.
As a mother, I know how divided our attention can be. We’re working, thinking about supper, feeding the dogs and driving children from one place to another. At camp, spending time with the children and supporting them is central to a counselor’s role.
For a child who is unsure of themselves, has experienced bullying or is struggling to find where they fit, that attention can mean a great deal. Watching those children begin to open up is one of the parts of camp I find most rewarding.
The counselors form lasting friendships with one another, too. Everyone has a camp nickname, and I’ve always felt that it gives them room to bring out a playful part of themselves.
Twenty-five years later, former counselors still return for reunions and still call one another by those names. Some have married people they met at camp. Around the time of our recent training camp, the daughter of two former counselors came to Sugar Bay herself.
Some of those relationships began before the camp was even built. Young people heard what we were trying to do and wanted to help. Several stayed on, learnt practical skills and later went on to run construction or landscaping businesses of their own.
They have taught me plenty along the way. I’m a perfectionist, and standing up and singing without worrying about what anyone thinks does not come naturally to me. Yet I’m surrounded by young people who can throw themselves into a moment and enjoy it. I’m still trying to learn that from them.
I often say that when I grow up, I hope I’ll be as cool as a counselor. Somehow, they’ve managed to stay about 20 for the last 25 years, while I keep getting older.
Our recent trainees gave me plenty to admire. They were quick and full of ideas. They even beat me twice at our game of name tag, which is almost unheard of.
Some had been Sugar Bay campers and wanted to give other children an experience that had meant so much to them. Others had worked at American summer camps and brought ideas I was eager to hear. Several had tried other jobs, sometimes very successfully, but wanted work they found more meaningful.
Listening to them talk about why they wanted to work with children gave me so much hope for South Africa. There is plenty of pessimism about our country and its young people. I wish more people could have met that group. I’m looking forward to seeing what they bring to camp.
Parents can book online here: https://www.sugarbay.co.za/book-a-holiday
View all 2026 Sugar Bay camp dates here: https://www.sugarbay.co.za/2026-school-holiday-camp-dates
Read more from the Sugar Bay Camp Blog: https://www.sugarbay.co.za/sugar-bay-camp-blog
For booking help, contact the Sugar Bay team:
Call: 032 485 3778
WhatsApp: 082 525 9503
Email: holidays@sugarbay.co.za
