This young entrepreneur built a babysitting business into a wildly popular family-run summer camp
Mark Heger and his mom, Marcia Heger, prepare to launch a summer water sports camp held at Cedar Creek Lake. Photo by Can Türkyilmaz
Mark Heger is not a professional wakeboarder, but wakeboarding is his profession, he explains gleefully. The 26-year-old Lakewood resident started waterskiing at age 5, wakeboarding at 10 and turned it all into a summer camp business by 15.
As kids, Mark and his older sister Lauren babysat for extra money. “We figured we could make more money with more kids,” he says, so they began mass-sitting, starting with “mom’s-week-outs” at their parents’ White Rock area home.
Once the sit-ees were a bit older, the Hegers moved the party to the family’s Cedar Creek Lake house.
“The first summer at the lake house we had 22 or 23 campers. These days we get about 200 kids.”
Mark says summer camp is an important hallmark of childhood.
“I am a firm believer in summer camp. Kids remember their time at camp their whole lives — the stories, the songs, the activities — and I love sharing that with people.”
He especially loves teaching them how to stand on skis, and twist, turn and flip on the water, he says. Kids and parents rave about the family-run camp. One mom told Heger her daughter claimed to be “lake sick” upon returning from the week-long camp.
“I think that’s like homesick, meaning she wished she was still there,” he says.
The Heger Water Camp Facebook photo album showcases kids of varying ages jet- and water-skiing, flying and flipping over the water, wakeboarding and smiling. A whole lot of smiling.
The Hegers’ lake house hosts 18 students at a time, with two-camper bunk rooms and four-camper bathrooms, plus a pool table, ping pong and other activities for down time or rainy days. Heger’s mom, Marcia, serves as camp mom. She supervises safety, cooking and communicating with parents about how the week is going.
“She’s the ever-present Mother Goose,” Heger says.
The worst time of year is when it’s not summer, Heger says, explaining that he doesn’t particularly care for administrative tasks. Off-season isn’t all dull paperwork, though. He teaches lessons year round, even in the winter for those hardcore water athletes. Plus, he adds, “The summer makes the administrative work worthwhile.”
In 2004, Heger was a finalist for the Texas Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Award for his vision in creating the camp.
“I feel like I have learned almost all my life lessons from doing camp,” Heger says. “Starting a business when I was 12 and watching it grow into something that I could never have imagined has been the most incredible journey ever. Camp has taught me moral lessons like patience, kindness and persistence. It has taught me practical business lessons like entrepreneurship, building and maintaining relationships, and treating your employees well. It revealed to me what my true passions are. I consider myself incredibly blessed to have been able to turn a passion into a career.”
Heger water camp sessions start in June, but space is limited and they are filling fast. Learn all you want to know and register for camp or classes at hegercamp.com.
