Camp Kern

This is a musing of Mike Costlow’s (the new summer camp director), so we should take it as nothing more than thoughts, some half-formed.  :)

I see many camps struggle with the most basic question ever posed in camping, “Why should I/my group/my kids/my friends go to Camp XYZ?”  It’s something we get asked as camping professionals rather often, and it seems as if it should be an easy question.  Until you try to answer it.  

Here are some of the answers I’ve heard and given:

 

1. You will learn how to shoot a bow and arrow.
2. You will make friends.
3. You will be outside and in the sun, not in front of a computer.
4. You will do things you’ve never tried before.
5. You will learn to swim.
6. You will be challenged.
7. You will experience people you would never interact with otherwise.
8. You will learn how to rock climb.
9. You will come away with an appreciation for the little things in life.
10. You will interact with other people face-to-face, personally, with the intention of getting to know one another better.
11. You will play tag in 14 different variations.
12. You will eat food you’d never eat anywhere else.  And love it.
13. You will sing songs about bees, butterflies, moose, elephants, Princess Pat and hippos.
14. You will learn how to kick a soccer ball.
15. You will stand in a circle around a fire holding a candle, and may cry while you do it.
16. You may get a sunburn,
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    ant bite, grass stain, mosquito bite, scraped toe, or bruised ego.  They’ll make you stronger.

17. You will scream like a 2 year old girl as you go down the zip line.  Even when you’re 14.
18. You will be told to put on a hat, bugspray, shoes, sunscreen, and lip balm.  And you may listen.
19. You will meet people called Cougar, Flash, Big Will, Scooter, Kat, Equis, and Tay Tay.  And they’ll be cool.
20. You will learn how to paint a rock.  And name it.  And show it to your friends.  And keep it as a pet.  

These are all good answers, but there are so many!  How do you tell someone who has never been here, has never seen the animals in the woods, never woken up to no traffic noise, never walked to a shower house in a rain shower, never ridden a horse, never gone more than 3 hours without watching some kind of a screen?  What is the most important part of camp?  

I look at my childhood of growing up at camp, and I realize that there was no one thing for me.  Camp changed me in so many small ways, made me stronger, more empathetic, confident, giving, slowed my pace, focused me, and brought me life-long friends all at the same time.  All of those things don’t fit onto tri-fold flyers, or into elevator conversations, on t-shirts, or even into 16 page brochures.  I had to go to camp to realize I needed it.  

And I needed different things than the camper sleeping on the bunk below me.

Why do you need camp?