Jump to content

Summer camp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Daniel Case (talk | contribs) at 12:48, 9 October 2006 (a little cleanup; rm unnecessary cats (camps are everywhere, not just the Catskills); rm link spam). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Summer camp, principally (though not exclusively) a North American phenomenon, is a common destination for children and teenagers during the summer months. Children and adolescents who attend camp ("campers") participate in a variety of activities, many which wouldn't be possible or practical during the school year. Although the traditional image of summer camp is of a woodsy place with hiking, canoeing, and campfires, today's summer camps offer a wide variety of specialized activities. For example, there are camps for the performing arts, rock music, computers, children with special needs, and weight loss. Religious summer camps, especially those run by Jewish organizations like URJ and by Evangelical Christian organizations, are also very popular.

Summer camp is the continuation of a tradition since the mid-1800s. Frederick W. Gunn founded the first camp in 1861. Gunn and his wife Abigail operated a home school for boys in Washington, Connecticut, and took the school on a two-week hiking trip. The Gunns operated the Gunnery Camp for twelve more years. Camp Dudley was founded in 1885 and is currently the oldest continually running boys camp in America.

In most camps, the adult supervisors are called counselors. Counselors are responsible for guiding the campers during activities and ensuring the safety of the campers. In many camps, counselors are assigned to smaller groups of campers, called "bunks", "huts", or "cabins", which participate in activities as a group. Counselors often share living accommodations with their bunk. Most counselors are in their late teens or early twenties, as it's an ideal job for high school or college students on summer break. Although counselor jobs don't usually pay well (oftentimes minimum wage or less), counselors receive free room and board. Many take the job primarily for its enjoyable experience.

Summer camp is also known as "sleepaway camp" (American usage) when campers spend their nights at camp. At some camps, all campers stay overnight, and at some camps ("day camps") the campers go home each night. Some other camps allow both day and overnight campers. Summer camp is often the first time that children spend an extended period of time away from home. Missing home is a frequent problem, but with a caring counselor most campers adjust fairly quickly.

In the US, youth organizations, like the Boy Scouts, 4-H, and YMCA, are known for having lots of Summer Camps and integrating summer camps with their own organization. According to recent statistics from American Camp Association (ACA), those three organizations operated more than 440 ACA-accredited camps in the US (which is about 20% of all ACA-accredited camps in the US).

In Canada, especially in Ontario, summer camps are very popular. Similar to American camps about 70% of Canadian camps tend to be affiliated with organizations, the rest of Canadian camps would be private.

Summer camp fairs are held throughout the United States and Canada (although mainly Ontario), usually during the winter months. Parents and kids can meet camp directors and collect information about summer camps. Admission to these fairs is typically free.

In the USSR, the first summer camps were created shortly after its establishment and were called Young Pioneer camps during the country's existence. Their number grew throughout the history of the Soviet Union and they numbered more than forty thousand in 1973, with 9,300,000 children attending them during their vacation every year. After the breakup of the USSR, the number of Young Pioneer camps greatly declined. However, many of the major camps still exist.

They are also very common in France, where they are called colonie de vacances or more more recently centre de vacances. According to the French administration [1], more than 25% of French children attend this kind of "collective holiday" each year. This country is often said to have a hightly structured practice. For example, the BAFA (Brevet d'Aptitude aux Fonctions d'Animateur de Centres de Vacances et Loisirs) qualification is required for camp counselors.

Educational camps

Some summer camps, such as CTY, are focused primarily on education or on educational-related activities, such as debate, history, or journalism. These camps are often run by colleges or universities, and are usually for children in Junior or Senior High. Educational summer camps are different than summer schools as the summer camps often are not offered for school credit, and often have a significant focus on non-academic activities.

Art camps

Other camps have become summer training grounds for a variety of arts. Three famous examples are Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp (founded 1942), Camp Med-O-Lark and Stagedoor Manor.

Sports camps

Summer camps can be found that offer intensive instruction in almost any sport imaginable, or that offer quality instruction and competition in a wide range of sports. Camps are split into groups of day camps and overnight camps.

Day camps are a good alternative to daycare, and are generally focused at younger children. They are also less expensive, because they don't entail as many meals or as much supervised time each day as overnight camps. Sports-focused day camps are ideal for younger athletes whose enthusiasm for a particular sport seems endless, or for high-energy kids who just want to run around and play as much as possible.

Overnight sports camps fall into two groups. The more traditional of these offer boys and girls the chance to learn and play many sports. Sessions are typically 3 or 4 weeks long, and some campers attend both sessions. While many strong athletes attend these camps, a traditional sports camp program also serves the needs of less proficient athletes by having all campers compete on teams picked by ability - so all kids get a chance to contribute to their team's success in their daily competitions. Some of these camps (examples - Susquehannock in PA founded in 1905, Keewaydin Dunmore in VT founded 1910) have been operating for around 100 years, and generally focus, through the medium of team sports, on the development of the whole child - not just how they are as an athlete but also how they are as a person, a bunkmate, a teammate, and a friend.

A number of traditional sports camps are focused on Jewish youth, and many of these are based in New York State's Catskill Mountains region, particularly Sullivan County, which was home to many coed, Jewish sleepaway camps for most of the 20th century, including Ma-Ho-Ge, Kennybrook, Tagola, Kutsher's Camp Anawana, Kutsher's Sport's Acadmeny, Brookwood, Diana Dalmaqua, Lakota, Ranger, Chipinaw, Lakonda, Camp Kewanee, and Olympus. The Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania, particularly Wayne County, was another concentrated area of these sleepaway camps. Most people who went to these camps remember Inter-camp games, raids, Color War, and re-creations of some of the best Broadway shows.

Many sports camps are of the second type, which focuses almost exclusively on one particular sport. These camps generally do a good job (some a great job) of helping each camper acquire skills in that sport that help them gain confidence and improve their chances of making the team when they return to school. Indeed, some campers are helped to be nationally competitive by way of this kind of intensive summer training. These camps generally run week-long sessions, and some campers may attend more than one even though the curriculum repeats each week. Some single-sport camps offer longer sessions (for example, J Robinson Intensive Camps have a wrestling intensive program that last up to 28 days). Many of the instructors at these camps are coaches of local teams - and thus many athletes get valuable extra time with the coach they play for during the school year (or the coach they hope to play for during the upcoming school year).

Both multi-sport and single-sport camps tend to be run by experienced teachers and coaches (who typically have summers off from their school responsibilities). Cabin staff, instructors, and counselors are typically college athletes. The best sports camps succeed at challenging aspiring athletes both mentally and physically. This is possible in part because many of the counselors attended as campers, and thus there is a vibrant "camp culture" that welcomes new campers into an extended camp family and establishes the high standards that incoming campers are encouraged to achieve.

The best sports camps do much more than just improve a camper's soccer, tennis, lacrosse, or wrestling skills - they help each child become a more skillful athlete, a more gracious competitor, a more committed team player, and a more confident person.

See also

Associations

Directories

  • KidsCamps.com is the Internet'ss most comprehensive directory of summer camps, winter camps, and spring break camps, including traditional overnight camps, day camps, teen tours, study abroad programs, and a variety of specialized camps and programs for children and teenagers of all ages
  • Allen's Guide to Summer Camps provides a directory of summer camps throughout the world with detailed descriptions and photos.
  • CampPage A directory of summer camps in the United States and Canada.
  • Summer Camps & Summer Programs - MySummerCamps.com provides a comprehensive directory of summer camps for kids & teens.
  • Summer Day Camps online directory of day camps throughout Canada and the US.
  • Summer Camp Directory for New York State Colleges Directory of Summer Camps and Summer Programs held on College Campuses throughout New York State - SummerOnCampus.com.

Resources

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Summer_camp&oldid=80406481"