Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Tucker.
Hi Nick, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story? How much time you got? Over the last few years I have been refining my life story to make it easily digestible as I’ve been doing more speaking engagements. So, hopefully I can answer your question without rambling on and on.
Like so many others who aren’t native to LA, at 25 I moved here with nothing more than a Subaru and a dream. I didn’t want to be an actor or a singer. I wanted to be an inspirational speaker. I had grown up in New England. Watched my mother suffer from addiction and AIDS. Experienced the death of both of my biological parents between 18 and 21. Feeling lost after college, I decided I’d walk from Maine to California with my best friend. I had a story to tell and I thought LA might be a good place to figure it out.
Welp, I needed to survive, right!? I got a part-time job at a great non-profit called Big Sunday–loved David, the director, and all my co-workers. To supplement that income, I also used my experience working with kids to break into the manny business. My first family had ten kids, all between the ages of four and six. It was chaotic, dizzying, and the most fun. I mean, I loved it! I grew up in a family of eight, and function well in that type of chaos. I also kind of need it to keep my attention, as I’m not the sit at a desk for eight hours a day type. Anyway, while working full-time between the two jobs, I’m plugging away at my memoir. I figure it’d be a good launching pad for a speaking career. Within weeks of one another, the family I’m working for moves away, I finish the first draft of my memoir, and I step down from Big Sunday to be an on-call manny and to focus on editing and ultimately completing my memoir. Guess what! Being an on-call manny doesn’t pay the bills and I wasn’t pleased with what I had written so I scrapped it and started over.
At this point, It’s 2015 and I’d been in LA just over two years. I’m working very part-time for a new family in Larchmont Village and I agreed to TA for a charter school in Mar Vista as a favor to one of the founding parents. Basically, I’m good with kids and the school needed someone to fill in as a TA until they could hire someone. I agreed to fill in for a couple of weeks. A month in a half later, the principal is still telling me that they will be hiring someone soon. Now, I’ve been in a classroom for weeks and I have gotten to know the kids and they are used to me. I decide finishing out the year couldn’t hurt. I didn’t love being confined to a classroom, but I loved those kids and the whole school community. They made me laugh. They made me want to pull my hair out. They made me not want to leave. But, when the end of the school year was approaching I knew I would not be returning the following academic year.
I was talking with the lead teacher in our second grade classroom (I know I’m mentioning the grade a little late in the story here), trying to brainstorm ways to stay connected with the community. One of the ideas thrown around was a summer program. It sounded doable enough, so I thought why not. At lunch one afternoon, I asked my second graders what I should call it. One of the boys said, “Camp Nick!” That summer, I did three weeks with no real long-term aspirations. That was back in 2016. I’m now only a couple of months away from starting my 10th summer. It’s evolved over the years, but a few things have remained constant: we play hard. We are somewhere new each day of the week. And we have fun. How much longer will Camp Nick be around? I’d say until kids no longer want to come anymore. Or my speaking career takes off!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth would definitely not be the word I’d use. It’s been a learning journey for sure. Camp was growing every year with a huge boom the summer of 2021. I think a lot of the larger camps were still closed due to Covid and that benefited my business immensely. There’s definitely been a slow down since. Many of my core campers have aged out. I’ve been running on word of mouth for about a decade, but that has proved less viable as time goes on. Camp Nick has always been just me. With the exception of a few counselors over the years, I do everything. I do all the administrative work, social media, programming, kid wrangling, game setup, communication… everything! When it comes to marketing, I suck. I definitely struggle in that area. What I’m good at is coming up with new games, developing a summer program, connecting with the kids, and giving parents peace of mind. This will be a decisive summer for Camp Nick.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Camp Nick is a summer camp that runs Monday through Friday from 9am to 3pm. This summer I’ll be running six total sessions. It’s less than in years past, but I now have two small children who I love spending time with. But when camp is on, we are hitting the park, the beach, scootering to Japantown, taking the Metro downtown, biking the Santa Monica bike path, and more. I keep the kids active and engaged while having fun. I am Camp Nick. Summer after summer the kids know that I will be there with new and old adventures and games. I am proud that I have been able to be a constant in so many kids’ lives and that many look forward to camp every summer. I must be doing something right.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
When you find out, let me know. I could use some help in this area.
Pricing:
- $395/week
- $90/drop-in day rate
- Financial Aid Available
Contact Info:
- Website: https://campnick.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/campnickla
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campnick
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/camp-nick-santa-monica?osq=campnick
- Other: https://nickrtucker.com
