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by Teresa Prefontaine
The winds of change gust and swirl around the
decades moving the camp experience forward into
a future that waits for us in every creative
mind that nurtures the advent of a new camp program.
Eleanor Eell's must have contemplated the
winds of time and change as she penned one of
the broadest literary histories of camp in her
book History of Organized Camping: The First
100 Years (1861 – 1961). Much like an artist
captures a landscape on canvass with skillful
brush strokes of color, she would have used pen
and paper or the clicking of a typewriter to
tell the story of camp through her experienced
eyes and a devotion to camp that only someone
of her caliber could express. A leader and an
inspiration within the field of camp throughout
her life, she was instrumental in the Settlement
House and Social Service Agency camp movements
and a pioneer in therapeutic camping in the early
40s. She was one of the founders of the Fund
for Advancement of Camping and served as director
of the Fund in its crucial, formative years.
Eells had an equally influential role in the
American Camp Association (ACA) tirelessly working
to support programs such as ACA's 1970
Standards research and rewrite, and perhaps one
of her greatest contributions to the camp field
was her dedication to helping individuals and
camps start new programs. In 1968, she was the
first recipient of ACA's highest honor,
The Distinguished Service Award. Eells passed
away in her 94th year, but her legacy lives on
in the Eleanor Eells Awards for Program Excellence.
Many outstanding camps have earned this prominent
award since 1976. Created in her memory, this
influential honor has been bestowed annually
to exemplary camp programs.
The following pages
give you a glimpse into the wonder of camp through
the individual voices of directors as they describe
their award-winning programs with humility and
emphatic certainty that the role of camp in the
lives of children and people of all ages will
continue to evolve and strengthen as the winds
of change propel us through the decades to come.
2007 Eleanor Eells Award Winners
Ron Burton
Training Village,
New Hampshire
Imagine a world
where you only heard positive, uplifting words;
teasing and put downs or any words that might
hurt or otherwise demean someone's spirit
were not allowed. There is a place in this world
like that . . . the Ron Burton Training Village.
Its mission is to build self-esteem, racial harmony,
respect, and love for others among youth from
lowincome communities through a program of spiritual,
educational, and physical fitness in a wholesome,
caring environment.
There are four core values
of the camp: Peace, Patience, Love, and Humility.
The camp's philosophy is to inspire the
consideration of others before yourself and motivate
an understanding that faith and morals need to
be the foundation to approach life. Through athletics,
campers are inspired never to drink, smoke, or
take any kind of drugs. The importance of a respectful,
loving, and peaceful relationship with God, their
families, elders, and colleagues is underscored
to the campers with a special emphasis on loving
and respecting their parents.
Camp Coca-Cola,
Los Angeles, California
John Alm, now retired
CEO of Coca- Cola Enterprises, was touched by
the camp experience. Coming from a modest background
and somewhat amazed at his own success in the
corporate world, Alm was able to send his own
children to camp. As he watched his children
blossom from the camp experience, he realized
that the children who could benefit the most
from camp would be those children who could not
afford to go to camp or who didn't even
know it existed.
A grand idea began to form in
his mind: what if we could change the odds for
highpotential youth from risk-filled environments,
inspiring them to pursue leadership roles? In
1999, the inaugural Paint Rock Canyon Program
for youth who were at risk was founded by Alm.
Because of the success of Paint Rock, Alm purchased
a ranch in Wyoming specifically for a camp program
and brought the idea to Coca-Cola. The corporation
expanded the camp program as part of their charitable
programs to four additional cities in the U.S.
The programs became known as Camp Coca-Cola/C5
Youth Foundation.
"Alm built the program
around the camp experience, melding two experiences
together — the residential camp experience
with hands-on, out-of-classroom, experiential
education programs," explains Greg Kovacs,
executive director of Camp Coca-Cola and the
original director of the Paint Rock Canyon Program. "The
students we select for this program come from
at least sixteen middle schools in the LA Unified
School District and are known as high potential
youth from elevated-risk environments. None of
the children pay to participate in this program,
and all of them come from environments with limited
to no supports or opportunities."
Youth
are nominated for the program by teachers, counselors,
or principals in the seventh grade. The program
is a five-year, comprehensive youth leadership
curriculum that follows the student from eighth
grade to graduation. In the summers of years
one and two, youth attend a four-week comprehensive
camp experience focused on leadership development.
Year three encompasses the C5 Bridges program
where the youth plan and implement their own
back-country trip experience focused on applying
leadership skills. The program is sequential
and progressive as the youth encounter new learning
opportunities during each year of the program
that strengthen their leadership qualities. The
fourth summer involves the youth in a seven-to-ten
day college tour. The fifth summer component
is career driven and focused on a community advocacy
project that culminates the community work they
accomplished throughout the five years.
"The
program has an intensive focus on helping the
youth strive to be character driven, community
focused, challenge ready, college bound, and
committed to a better future — hence the
5Cs that the Foundation stands for," says
Kovacs. "The program has been incredibly
successful. We have a high retention rate with
78 percent of the youth completing the program;
100 percent of those that stay in the program
graduate from high school; and 98 percent have
gone on to college."
Camp Howe ECHO (Environmental
Caring and Helping Others) Program,
Goshen, Massachusetts
"My
husband and I have been taking a long hard look
at all the people and organizations that have
contributed to the lives of our two sons. Both
of our sons have autism and have been attending
summer camp at Camp Howe for many years," writes
the parent of Camp Howe campers in a letter to
the camp. "One of my sons told me a couple
of days ago that Camp Howe taught him that being 'cool' was
just being yourself. Wow! This from the little
boy no one was sure was going to talk! Now Camp
Howe didn't teach him to talk, but that's
where he found his voice!"
Camp Howe has
been in operation since 1928, but in the last
thirty-eight years the camp has been running
a full inclusion program, offering affordable
programs for all youth in the area. The camp
serves approximately one hundred campers per
week for seven weeks during the summer and focuses
on creating an environment in which all children
can learn and grow, learning to accept differences
in others. "What makes the camp unique
is that we run a full inclusion program in which
approximately 15 percent of our campers have
a disability that requires additional support.
Children with disabilities are fully integrated
into every aspect of our programs," states
Terrie Campbell, director of Camp Howe ECHO Program. "All
youth benefit when they live, laugh, and play
together. Inclusion fosters a global acceptance
of people's differences and similarities."
The
inclusive environment overcomes many barriers.
Children learn to overcome fears and believe
in their abilities. The camp builds its program
and facility around the campers and according
to Campbell, has one of the first handicap accessible
high ropes courses in Western Massachusetts.
The course allows individuals in wheelchairs
to enjoy the high ropes course. And, even those
children with no physical disabilities can participate
in the course in a wheelchair to experience first-hand
the challenges faced by individuals who are wheelchair
bound.
"Any child that attends Howe does
not have a fear of being ridiculed. It's
a community that supports every level of success,
and success for each child is different," states
Campbell.
Circle of Tapawingo,
Sweden, Maine
Sandi Lando Welch, founder and president of Circle
of Tapawingo, who was a camper at Camp Tapawingo
from 1959 to 1967, thoughtfully pens in her essay
Thoughts on Circle of Tapawingo: "In the
forty years I have been visiting, camp has not
changed much. But when I think of the friends
I made at camp, I laugh. These girls touched
my soul forty years ago . . . . Now, my camp
friends are back in my life. We are all volunteers
at Circle of Tapawingo, a nonprofit organization
that provides a free week of overnight camp to
young girls who have lost a parent to death."
Welch's
inspiration for Camp Tapawingo came from a simple
phone call to the owner of Camp Tapawingo on
September 12, 2001, when the owner said she could
not talk to her because two of her campers lost
their mothers in the World Trade Center attack. "I
hung up the phone and wrote a grant proposal.
We had the grant by December and enough volunteers
from Camp Tapawingo to start the Circle of Tapawingo
program with twenty-six volunteers and thirty-one
campers in August 2002."
This summer, Circle
of Tapawingo expects to serve one hundred campers
from ages eight to twelve in a one-week residential
camp experience. Campers come back to the camp
at age fifteen as junior volunteers, and many
eventually become full volunteers at age nineteen.
The campers benefit from this unique program
in many ways from realizing other children have
experienced loss of a parent to understanding
it's important to laugh at the same time
you feel the need to cry.
Welch sums up the week-long
camp experience with heartfelt words: "We
volunteers don't have to work to make Circle
of Tapawingo a success. We are so thankful to
be where we are that our campers catch our joy.
For one week, a group of young girls who lived
through devastating experiences smile."
UCLA UniCamp, University of California, Los
Angeles
The essence of the UCLA UniCamp program
is relationship based — camper and UCLA
student. At least 160 campers ages ten to fourteen
participate in each eight-day resident camp session.
A total of five, eight-day sessions occur each
summer. The UniCorp program serves older campers
between the ages of fourteen to eighteen. This
program provides a service-learning opportunity
for campers, enabling them to obtain leadership
experience helping in camp operations. Each year,
UniCamp inspires nearly 1,000 children from low-income
families to envision better futures as they grow
and learn along-side nearly 350 student volunteers.
Founded in 1934, UniCamp is the nation's
largest university-based camp. Every summer,
children from low-income areas in and around
Los Angeles enjoy the camp experience, living
in open air cabins, testing their skills on the
climbing tower, and singing camp songs in the
dining hall.
"The unique factor about the
UniCamp summer experience is the profound leadership
development, service learning, and experiential
learning that takes place not only for the camper
but the UCLA student as well," explains
Wally Wirick, executive director of UCLA UniCamp.
Recruitment for student volunteers begins in
the winter for the following summer program.
Each year, UCLA students undergo a rigorous eighty-hour
training program spanning four months. Student
volunteers mentor campers throughout the camp
session inspiring them to succeed in school.
"UniCamp
offers a return to simplicity in nature. No electricity,
no use of electronic devices, no distractions
from the noisy city the children come from," says
Wirick. "Nothing curtails the mentoring
relationship that develops between the camper
and the UCLA student as they work together at
camp to make a difference in each other's
lives."
2008 Eleanor Eells Award Winners
American Sign Language Department at Windsor
Mountain,
Windsor, New Hampshire
When you visit
Windsor Mountain International during an evening
campfire, you might hear and see joyful singing
. . . "I've got everything I need
right here in my hands . . . ." Some are
singing the words, some are signing the words,
but everyone is smiling and singing with their
unique voices or body language.
The mission of
this unusual program is to create a diverse community
that welcomes campers who are Deaf in a hearing
culture. It is the only integrated Deaf/hearing
summer camp program for children that is based
on the philosophy of experiential education. "The
Deaf children who join our program are a part
of the Windsor Mountain community and are supported
by Deaf role models and staff as they experience
the realities of living in a hearing world," states
Sarah Herman, director of Windsor Mountain, formerly
known as Interlocken. "Some people who
are Deaf don't integrate into the hearing
world, but inclusion is our goal at Windsor Mountain
as we recognize the strengths of each individual
and break down barriers."
"There
are limited opportunities for the hearing to
be exposed to Deaf culture. Here everyone is
learning and recognizing that the hearing and
Deaf alike can be friends and learn from each
other. Our camp offers a global opportunity as
well; at least 30 percent of our community is
international," says Herman.
This fully
integrated summer camp includes hearing and Deaf
participants ranging in age from eight to fifteen
who enjoy experiential based activities including
dance, sports, drama, art, adventure and more. "We
bring worlds together," says Herman and
thanks to generous donors, financial aid is available.
America's Camp,
The Berkshire Mountains
Three camp directors, Jay Toporoff, Danny Metzger,
and Jed Dorfman, part of Camp- Group, LLC, an
organization of multiple camps, wanted to make
a difference in the lives of the children affected
by the 9/11 tragedy. They came together with
an idea. "Let's do what we do best
for these children, we thought, during a meeting.
Let's offer a week of summer camp for them
free of charge," says Jay Toporoff. And
so, America's Camp was born. "We
knew we had to be sensitive to grief issues,
so we partnered with the Center for Grieving
Children, who provided grief support and training
for our staff. It was so unusual to work with
that many children who had experienced the same
loss at the same time."
The Twin Towers
Fund set up by Rudy Giuliani was the camp's
primary benefactor. The first summer of 2002,
the camp opened with seventy-eight campers between
the second and tenth grades, who were children
of fire fighters, police officers, and emergency
responders who lost their lives in the line of
duty.
Every year since the inaugural camp session,
the number of children participating has grown.
Now the camp serves at least 280 children. "It
is not considered a grief camp for these children,
but a place where they won't be a 9/11
kid, but just a kid," explains Toporoff.
Every year the campers create a cooperative art
project that is uniquely special to that year
of camp. One year, the campers designed their
own decorative quilt with each camper designing
their own quilt piece. Another year, they worked
together to paint a group mural. The art projects
have introspectively allowed the campers to express
their feelings of loss. According to Toporoff,
the camp's art work will be on permanent
display as part of the 9/11 museum, which will
be built at the former site of the World Trade
Center.
Camp To Belong,
Littleton, Colorado
Imagine
yourself as a child, being taken away from your
parents and separated from your siblings while
placed in a foster care home. For Lynn Price,
founder and president emeritus of Camp To Belong
Summer Camp, this was unimaginable. She found
a solution in Camp To Belong, which she established
in 1995. She created a camp that is dedicated
to reuniting brothers and sisters, offering siblings
in foster care and other out-of-home care the
opportunity to stay connected and create lifetime
memories.
The Camp To Belong Summer Camp is the
only program of its type in the country and continues
to expand from Colorado to other states, Canada,
and England. The camp provides a one-week session,
five nights and six days, of uninterrupted time
for siblings to reunite during camp activities,
including hiking, swimming, art and specialized
programs. Participating campers are between the
ages of eight and eighteen. Campers celebrate
a birthday event in which they have the opportunity
to celebrate their birthdays with their brothers
and sisters complete with a birthday cake and
a mock store in which they can shop for a birthday
gift for their sibling. "It's an
emotional rollercoaster in the first hours the
siblings are together. It's not the typical
excitement you usually see at the beginning of
camp," says Price. "The silence is
thunderous, because you don't know who
is upset with who, and they need time to get
reacquainted. It takes about twenty-four hours
until they engage and trust each other again,
and then they have a grand time reconnecting
and getting along."
According to Price,
this one-of-a-kind program has been the catalyst
for new legislation for sibling placement, visitation,
and recruitment for foster and adoptive families
for siblings.
Camp Harmony,
Beverly Hills, California
Enrique, a sophomore in college, with his mind
filled with thoughts of the future, couldn't
help but remember the past for a little while.
He decided to contact Camp Harmony again, a place
where as a child he felt such a sense of belonging.
Sending an e-mail to the camp director, he reconnected
with the camp, and those memories of boarding
with his family at a Los Angeles shelter came
alive again. As a child, camp was his safety
net for three summers. Once again, after being
away from
Camp Harmony for so many years, he
was welcomed with open arms. But, this time,
he came to work as an adult support staff member.
It was the best summer of my life, he says, because
now I can finally give back to the one place
I always felt safe and loved. Camp Harmony was
established in 1989 with extraordinary goals
in mind. Its purpose was defined as providing
children from poverty and homeless backgrounds
the opportunity to go to camp and learn from
positive teen and adult role models. "We
want to give them all the love they can take
and all the food they need," says Wendy
Klappholz, executive director of Camp Harmony. "The
program teaches children independence and the
importance of staying in school. It gives everyone
a break. The children get to go to a new and
fascinating place, and the parents get a break
from care giving for a while. The children who
come to camp experience a learning opportunity
that will stay with them for the rest of their
lives."
Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times,
Los Angeles, California
In the mountains above
Palm Springs in Southern California, children
play at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times.
They play, and for a brief span of time, they
aren't children with cancer, they are simply
children having a great time playing outdoors
come rain or shine.
Camp Ronald McDonald for
Good Times celebrated twenty-five years of operation
last August, and the camp continues to thrive,
working with over ninety different hospitals
and hundreds of doctors and nurses to identify
families in need of respite and children in need
of normalcy and "good times" despite
their diagnosis of cancer. The camp collaborates
with not only hospitals but organizations such
as Padres El Conta Cancer (Parents Against Cancer),
a Latino parent support organization for Latino
families with a child diagnosed with cancer,
and We Can, a network of parents whose children
have been diagnosed with brain tumors. "We
have been very successful in collaboration with
hospitals, organizations, and individuals, who
help us identify family needs and who help us
recruit at least fortyfive to sixty-five volunteers
per session from doctors and nurses to activity
counselors," states Brian Crater, director
of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times.
The real
bottom line for participating campers is their
diagnosis of cancer from leukemia and brain tumors
to bone tumors. As a result, the campers have
additional challenges the camp must meet. The
children are dealing with loss of mobility, cognitive
ability, self-esteem, and loss of social peer
groups that have developed since their cancer
diagnosis. The camp program offers a normalizing
child and family experience that many of the
children thought they could never experience.
Many of the campers never thought they could
participate in a sleep-away camp or ride a horse
or do archery. For nearly eighteen hundred children
ages nine to eighteen these activities become
a reality for them at Camp Ronald McDonald each
summer. The camp encompasses multiple programs
including serving siblings of children with cancer,
family camp weekends, and programs for both English
and Spanish speaking children.
"Camp is
a community building experience. These children
meet other children suffering the same challenges,
undergoing the same treatments, and benefitting
from the same bonding opportunities," says
Crater. "We could do this program as a
service in a hospital setting, but camp creates
a special community and helps these children
develop life-long friendships in an enriching
outdoor environment."
Casey Family Services,
New England/Maryland
Shaun Taudvin, life skills
specialist for Casey Family Services in Portland,
Maine, leads a group of youth through the Appalachian
Trail. But this isn't just any camp trip,
this is a work-readiness experience for youth
between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. And,
they are working hard helping to build fifty
miles of trails through Maine, building a stone
staircase with muscle and determined hearts,
and paddling the St. Croix River way while stopping
to help build new camp sites along the river
and picking up litter. Taudvin believes in the
power of hard work in the outdoors to foster
change and build unity and leadership among this
struggling group of youth, who have been in and
out of the foster care system for much of their
young lives.
During this eleven-day long, experientialbased
camp program sponsored by Casey Family Services,
youth learn white water canoeing skills, become
leaders, learn group living skills and decision
making, and work hard under adult supervision.
Casey Family Services is the direct service agency
of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Its mission
is to build better futures for disadvantaged
youth and their families and raise public awareness
about policy reform and child protection issues.
The organization also recommends and helps to
place youth who are in the foster care systems
in special camp programs in the Maine area. "I
think that placing kids in the outdoors in an
unfamiliar environment in a group setting gives
them learning opportunities not only with their
peers but with the environment, offering potential
for growth and development of positive self-concepts," explains
Taudvin. "This opportunity in the outdoors
gives these kids a safe environment to share
their stories with each other, take healthy risks,
and to say 'I am worthwhile and capable
of being a leader.'"
Casey Family
Services offers a variety of programs for youth
from pre-adoption and post-adoption services,
family preservation, family reunification, and
foster care to finding a permanent home for youth. "The
biggest goal for these kids," says Taudvin, "is
to help them find a permanent, life-long family
as soon as possible."
Originally published
in the 2008 July/August issue of Camping Magazine.
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