Meet Mike McDonell | President

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike McDonell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, what is the most important factor behind your success?
While I believe that there are a number of factors that have contributed to the success of Kidventure including the willingness to fail, I believe that the most important is that we have been true to our mission from day one. Businesses get nudged, pushed, and thrown into a lot of different directions for a variety of reasons. However, always staying true to why you began in the first place has been essential to providing us with grounding and a road map to navigate our way forward as an organization. For us that has always meant helping children grow, learn, and be great. When faced with the million of decisions that come along over the course of 26 years, you always have to place that mission at the forefront of the process. You ask yourself, “Does this decision contribute to or compromise that mission”? Having the discipline to always do so has kept Kidventure on the same path and contributed to the brand that we have today.

What should our readers know about your business?
At the end of the day, what our business is, is about relationships. And the quality and care for those relationships is what defines us all. Essential to what we do at Kidventure is imagining the outcomes of our endeavors. We have clearly defined outcomes that we envision taking place as a result of our programs. These outcomes include children who develop a greater sense of confidence and self-esteem, parents who feel supported and helped, staff who grow in their skill levels and communities that become stronger and brought together. Once we define these outcomes, we set out to create systems for bringing about these outcomes. Those involve our curriculum, the way we communicate, the campaigns we run, and the way we set an example for others. Sure, camp should be fun, it should be an adventure, and it should bring people together, but it should all be done with purpose and intent so that we can ensure that the lessons learned for everyone are taken with them for the rest of their lives. These lessons include believing in yourself, the idea that you can be and do anything, that kindness will always win over fear, that courage is in us all, and that everyone plays a part in the success of everyone else. This is what we believe camp should teach us.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I don’t want to seem overly diplomatic, but I do believe it has been the thousands of kids, parents and staff that we owe the shout out to. We’ve always believed that as an organization, we are always learning, we are always growing and never really ‘arrive’. When you take this approach you naturally learn from others around you. It’s our campers who teach us to be better, to stretch ourselves and provide more. It’s our parents who provide us with insight on their needs, that move us to do more, and our staff who continually challenge each other to improve and be more creative. The shoutouts are endless and have been essential to who we are.

Website: https://kidventure.com/houston-summer-camp/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidventurecamp/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kidventure-inc-
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kidventure
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/kidventurecamp