Kids Need Camp Today More Than Ever Before

BY KATE LEMAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR YMCA OF GREATER BOSTON OVERNIGHT CAMPS

Why? Because camp lets kids be themselves, laugh, make friends and just be kids. Without screens and distractions, kids easily make friends because there’s always something to do and someone to do it with. Laughter is spontaneous, and bonds form quickly when groups work together to accomplish a goal, whether it’s morning cabin cleanup or building a fire on which to cook s’mores. As the marshmallows brown and catch the flames, voices join and songs ring out, each camper, counselor and staff member grateful for the place, the people and the opportunity to be a part of the accepting community of camp, truly a home away from home.

At our two camps in New Hampshire, Northwoods for Boys and Pleasant Valley for Girls, kids can escape the pandemic and virtual learning. They can retreat into the safety of nature to discover more about themselves and begin to envision the person who they might become.

Camp is a safe place because the adults in charge are dedicated to the preservation of youth in a culture that constantly prods at children to grow up too quickly and mature too fast. These caring and dedicated professionals work tirelessly to ensure that camp is an emotionally secure community where individuality is admired, differences are celebrated and all are welcomed.

The experience is further heightened by the fact that campers live in small same-age/gender groups with college-age counselors who are carefully selected for their ability to be exceptional role models. Together, they form unique family-like bonds as they work through the day-to-day business of personal care and collective efforts to manage their living space and group dynamic. Together, they clean and strive to win the best cabin award for their efforts. And they make decisions about what they will do in their activity time, learning how to negotiate, dealing with conflict and including everyone in the process. Campers begin to understand what it means to be empathetic, sympathetic and compassionate. They share anxious, celebratory and reflective moments, work through difficult situations and start to build friendships that will endure. Not surprisingly, campers begin to emulate their counselors as they realize how values, integrity and character really matter.

Many parents struggle with the temptation to stay close to their children, hovering nearby to smooth the path so that their children never encounter — or figure out how to deal with — adversity and obstacles. Camp is an ideal solution, providing a learning laboratory for real life in a safe environment. Children and teens converge in an intentionally designed community that nurtures yet challenges in athletic, creative, waterrelated, environmental and challenge activities. Even the youngest and most reticent of campers will push themselves to their personal limits. And if campers don’t succeed, they’re not embarrassed — they’re encouraged to try again and again, achieving a little more with each attempt.

Camps Northwoods and Pleasant Valley are all about chants and songs, traditions and rituals, activities and games, friendships and values — all of which connect kids with what is good in life.

Camp gives kids voices and encourages opinions.

Camp empowers kids to be their authentic selves and develops grit.

Camp teaches kids how to make friends and be a friend.

Camp develops solid life skills that will help kids mature into happy, healthy adults.

Memories are made and kids return home, even the youngest of them knowing that somehow, they have changed, that they are better for having had the experience of camp.

The camp experience is a rite of passage, but more than that, it’s a right that every child deserves, no matter their financial status. That is what we at the Boston Y provide for our kids, for the future, because our world needs it.

Camp is the antidote to the pandemic.