GULF SHORES, Ala. — You might call it a camp within a camp.

Recreation Manager Nicole Ard was looking for a way to add some help to the city’s Dolphin Day Camp for kids this summer. In doing so, she turned to other kids.

“This spring we all got together to try to come up with a dynamic way to have a little extra help with our kids, but find a program for children who are not quite old enough to have a job yet, but not old enough to be in day camp,” she said. “So you’re looking at 13- to 15-year-olds children that need something to do throughout the summer. We thought we’d try a junior counselor program.”

The spots would have to be earned, giving the junior counselors some real-word experience along the way.

“What we did was talk to the schools and filled out applications which look very much like job applications,” Ard said. “We took it very seriously. They must be conscientious, compassionate, responsible, nurturing, caring and hard-working, things you might not associated with young adults but these guys have that. They were committed to the care, safety and happiness of our campers.”

A job interview was also part of the process.

“We took applications and they had to have references just like a job,” Ard said. “These guys actually got to sit in a full-blown panel job interview. This was the first time most of them had gotten to sit in a setting like that where they were interviewed by a group of counselors. That’s how we determined who would be our junior counselors this summer.”

Ard and other staffers including the counselors were pleased with the outcome and having the extra help.

“We weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do, but these young men and women have worked, volunteered their time this summer to help watch these kids,” she said. “They’ve become just as important to these kids as the counselors. They’ve become an equal part of our program.”

The junior counselors came to Monday’s Gulf Shores City Council meeting and each received a certificate for their work this summer.

“The counselors and I would really like to recognize these young men and women for all of their hard work and appreciation of their volunteerism, their time and their dedication to this program,” Ard told the council.

Each of the members, one wasn’t present, received a certificate from Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Doughty.