Rae Holliday

Years as a Camper: 1985-1990

Years as a Staff Member: CILT (1991), CIT (1992), Staff (1993-1995 & always in Cabin 1) 

Did you hold any positions? Butterfly Unit Leader (formerly the Crayons) and Ropes Course Director

Current Profession and Title: 

I have made my career in communincations and public relations for 27 years.

Can you provide a brief overview of your job responsibilities? 

In my current role I oversee my organization's communications strategy, brand strategy, content development, media relations and thought leadership. 

Do you have any career advice for members of our Camp community?

Camp teaches us how to be the best versions of ourselves. And then, during our time as counselors, those lessons shape how we show up for each other. This is one of Camp’s most special gifts. Remember it, use it and strive to show up that way for your colleagues.

What do you believe have been some of your greatest personal and professional accomplishments? Is there a goal toward which you are currently working?

Greatest personal accomplishment: In May of 2023, I welcomed my first child, a delightful baby girl named Mary Ellison, who brings so much joy to our lives through her babbling, giggling, wiggling and snuggles. We look forward to her bringing more joy to our lives when she finally starts regularly sleeping through the night.

Greatest professional accomplishment: In 2013 I earned national and international accolades, including a Silver Anvil Award (considered the PR industry’s highest level of achievement), for spearheading the LIVESTRONG Foundation’s crisis communications response and rebound following Lance Armstrong’s resignation as chairman in the wake of the scandal surrounding his cycling career and exclusive world-wide interview with Oprah Winfrey. I believe that the swift and decisive action our two-person communications team took then to pivot the Foundation’s messaging and launch an awareness campaign about our cancer support services is, in part, a reason why LIVESTRONG remains open today.

Current goal: This January, I returned to my alma mater, NC State, to begin graduate school to get my Master of Management in Marketing Analytics through a part-time, online program designed for working professionals. It’s been a lot of work, but I’m excited about upskilling my marketing expertise, expanding my career qualifications and opportunities, and the steps it could help me take towards also earning an MBA.

What is a lesson or skill that you have taken from camp and used in your personal or professional life?

A few years ago I was working with an executive coach and resume writer who asked me how I honed my crisis communications skills and what my first crisis experience had been. I’d never been asked that before and took a moment to think about it.
And then it dawned on me: it was at Camp when I was the lifeguard on duty during general swim. As it ended, one counselor – hoping to cool off after being on the dock in the hot sun – took a run-of-the-mill bounce off the low dive and hit the water in a way that caused him to badly break his leg. As the first responder in that situation, it was my responsibility to lead the rescue. Thankfully, the injured counselor made a full recovery.
While I didn’t know it at the time, it was an experience that would shape the trajectory of my career. After telling that story to the executive coach, she suggested I make it the introduction for my LinkedIn profile.

How do the values or skills you learned at Camp show up in your everyday work and/or personal life?
 

Outside of my own parents, my Camp Kanata experience is the most foundational and influential experience of my life (even some 29 years after my last summer there).

The three values/skills I learned at Camp that show up in my daily life are:
 

• Self-confidence: I gained self-confidence through participating in ropes course activities at a particularly impressionable age in my early teens.
• Teamwork: I gained an appreciation for teamwork at Camp (or more specifically also through ropes course and some amazing games of Capture the Flag) and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishing a hard-earned goal, especially when you’ve used each person’s unique skillset to do so.
•  Making and maintaining lifelong friendships: I consider this one of my superpowers (my other two are folding clothes and parallel parking).
   

Is there a person or a situation that had a huge influence on you while you were at Camp? How and why did they/it impact you?

While most people think of the Three Amigos as Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short, I think of them as Heather (Adams), Lee (Nichols) and me. Our trio of friends began when we were campers in the ‘80s, continued through our staff trainee and staff years in the ‘90s, and now nearly three decades beyond our camp years (but we still return to volunteer at check-in most summers). Our friendship is best summed up on a fridge magnet Heather gave me that says, “Friends become our chosen family.”

What advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t be afraid of the trust fall. You will overcome your fear and even grow to like it. By conquering the trust fall, you will gain the confidence that you can do hard things and learn important lessons about trusting others and yourself.

What three words best describe you?

Devoted| Thoughtful| Dreamer

What is your favorite camp memory?

I’m not up to the challenge of pinpointing one specific favorite memory, so here are some of my fondest recollections of the simple moments of joy Camp has brought me:
 

•  I looked forward to returning to Camp every summer so much that in high school I kept track of how many days until Camp in a 365-day countdown in my day planner.
• Driving down Camp Kanata Road and making the special turn into the driveway for the first time each summer
• Running to Camp Store with wild abandon
• Dining hall fun like singing for mail and screaming unit chants
• The energy on check-in day and hearing over the loudspeaker, “Cabin 1, you have a camper. Cabin 1, you have a camper.”
• The cherished friendships I built over the years, many of which have now endured three decades and counting.