|
by Lisa Jean Hoefner
What does an organization do at camp when a main part of its mission
is to serve a constituency that is aging? What can camp leaders do to
respond to the growing issue in the U.S. of who has access to nature
so essential to every person's development? How do we assist people
in developing healthy relationships with those who matter most in their
lives?
These and similar questions have been buzzing around the meetings of
the program division of the Camp and Retreat Ministry Team of the Oregon-Idaho
Conference of the United Methodist Church for several years.
The answer: expand our family camping opportunities. Today, at our six
campsites throughout the two states of Idaho and Oregon we offer as many
as twenty-five different sessions each year for families of all kinds
and descriptions. It is the largest growing segment of our total camping
program.
Specialized Events
Though family weekend retreats and traditional family camps at several
sites still are a mainstay of the family camp picture, the real growth
has come in more specialized events. These include: GrandCamps (for grandparents
and grandchildren); Mom and Me/Dad and Me weekends (for parent or aunt/uncle
or other significant adult mentor and child); Shakespeare Camps (for
families with an interest in theater to take advantage of our proximity
to a noted regional theater); All Invited Family Weekend (for GLBTQ [Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, or Questioning] families and allies);
Family Work Weekends (opportunities to do volunteer service together
both at camp and in surrounding communities and a great way to teach
compassion); Creation Vacation Camps (a supported family vacation for
low-income families — see the article in the May/June 2002 Camping
Magazine); and Strength for the Journey Family Camp (for families in
which one or more member is living with HIV+/AIDS).
Our newest effort to reach families is called Spiritlife Family Vacation
Camp, especially designed for families who are vacationing in the popular
tourist location of northeastern Oregon's Wallowa Mountains. We
have devoted our whole site there (Wallowa Lake, Joseph, Oregon) to adult
and family ministries, including building new facilities to accommodate
this vision.
What Have We Learned
What have we learned? Lots! Here are some of our best practices, helpful
hints, and considerations for your camp's family programs:
In order to reach children today, one must reach the family.
Several years ago we noticed that many children and youth (especially
those with working parents and a full year of excellent childcare and
enrichment program involvement already), when given the choice of going
to camp on their own or staying home to be with the parent(s) for a week
of vacation, will choose to stay with the parent(s). The experience and
aftermath of September 11 has only exacerbated the tendency in many American
families to be together or skip an opportunity altogether. Family vacation
camps are helping us reach more children than our previous full summer
schedule of children-only camps.
To serve families appropriately,
you must think through your policies ahead of time.
Will a parent be permitted to use a canoe early in the morning on the
lake without the lifeguard being present if they have strong boating
skills? Are families able to leave the site during the event, or is it
clearly expressed that everyone is to remain in camp? Or, is there someone
you must tell when it's appropriate to the setting that you will
be offsite for some of the camp time?
Must adults "go in the ‘In door'" and "out
the ‘Out door'" in the dining hall and sing a silly
song if they forget to do it right, or is this just not appropriate when
dealing with adults instead of an all-child group? Or, is it time to
completely rethink that old tradition anyway! If you can anticipate some
of the questions that you might face before starting to invite families
to participate, you'll be in the best position to welcome everyone
and keep everyone safe and satisfied.
Be creative . . . .
And once you have a model that works, think of how to replicate it to
serve others. Keep that creativity going not only in thinking through
how to use your space and how to modify cabins and other facilities to
be more family-friendly, but in terms of types of families you want to
include.
Our mission to assist and encourage local churches to reach out with
open minds, open hearts, and open doors to all their neighbors has driven
our work with many special populations. Currently several county agencies
on aging are asking us to work with them to modify our GrandCamp design
to meet the needs of grandparents who are raising grandchildren. Since
the need for respite for the grandparents and special support for the
children in these situations (which are often born of grief of one kind
or another) are so great, we will blend elements from our Creation Vacation
model together with our GrandCamp model to serve this growing need. Each
family unit will have a "Family Friend" (an adult volunteer)
available to them during their time at camp — to assist in whatever
ways necessary that permit the family to have the best possible shared
experience through all that camp can offer them.
Solve problems together.
One early complaint of GrandCamps was only slightly humorous to all involved.
Grandparents wanted a nap in the afternoon; some grandkids did not! Solution:
earn a bead to wear on your name tag for napping just as you earn one
for archery, boating, helping in the dining hall, and hiking. The power
of a bead is amazing! But more importantly, the process built in a way
to acknowledge needs to balance rest and activity in every day, the value
of spending quiet time alone and together, and the joy of discovery that
happens when reading a story, or better yet, telling stories, across
generations.
Think through the schedule.
Think through the schedule of your typical day, and modify it for families.
A later breakfast time than your usual might be appreciated. An earlier
campfire time, followed by a break to put young children to bed, and then
followed by late-night options for teens work really well. A "Dad's
Story Time," a half hour when moms could gather for tea/coffee and
conversation in the dining room while dads (or grandpas or other male role
models) read the bedtime stories was a wonderful modification to the usual
"quiet cabin time before lights out" in one setting. It gave all the
children in attendance a great experience with nurturing male role models,
especially beneficial to those who do not have that interaction on a
regular basis back home. The dads loved it, too!
Build a "village."
Build a "village" or a neighborhood together. Camps are today's
safe neighborhoods for children. Even more so in a family camp setting—everyone
tends to look after everyone else's children at some point, enjoying
new companions for play or just hanging out together. There is much that
you can do to facilitate this in the most positive ways possible. Make
sure there is a time for parents to think through with each other early
in the camp orientation what is preferred or most appropriate when interacting
with other people's children.
Does everyone want any adult to intervene if an issue of someone's
safety is in question? (Usually a "yes.") When, or is it ever
appropriate, to discipline a child in a situation other than an immediate
safety situation? That may be more complicated, and best to talk about
beforehand. Is it O.K. for children to roam as long as they are with a
buddy, or only when an adult is within ear or eye range—or just what
will be your best policy given your site? How can we utilize the best in
our camp's group-building facilitation possibilities to the benefit
of the individual families and the "village" of families as
a whole?
Review your facilities.
Review your facilities and plan for families in future building and remodeling
projects. Whenever possible and appropriate to the setting, we are putting
bathrooms in the sleeping accommodations with an eye to future usefulness
of our campsites for adults and families in years to come. Cribs and
highchairs and age-level appropriate lifejackets and outdoor toys and
play structures are now in our improvement budgets. Most of these things
are not at traditional camps in sufficient numbers now. How about a mini-refrigerator
and microwave in a few units so that bottles that are needed in the middle
of the night can be prepared without having to walk over to the large
camp dining hall? It can be really different to try to accommodate the
needs of families in an existing children's camp facility. If you can't
do it well, make sure to invite only families with school-age children
for your events. Much better to narrow the field of those to be included
than to say you're open to everyone, but in reality you're really only
prepared for some.
The challenges can be many, but the joy of reaching more and more people
through family camping may be just right for the mission of your camp.
If so, start talking with others in your communities who care about families.
You are sure to find some partners with whom to make a start. Camp can
give families a world of good!
Originally published in the 2006 July/August
issue of Camping Magazine. |
