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Keewaydin, the Vermont camp at the heart of your
memoir is much in the news. There's an op-ed piece,
"Becoming a Man by August," that appeared
a few weeks ago in The Boston Globe
by psychologist Michael Thompson. Your memories of Keewaydin
that sparked your recent book Camp
are obviously touching a chord.
I've had an unbelievable reaction. A number of people
have stopped me on the street or written e-mails telling
me about their camp experiences. Everything from Y camp
to day camp to traditional overnight camps with multi-generational
experiences like we had. People are literally coming
out of the woodwork to contact me about camp. |
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There are enormous numbers of people, strong family people,
strong environmental people, and people like the writer John McPhee, who had
a marvelous experience at Keewaydin. It was a place where the seeds of their
interests were planted, the special environment, simply the things they liked
about camp had a big influence.
One very important aspect of this book is your philanthropy.
[ed. note: proceeds from Camp support The Eisner Foundation]
In Camp you tell
the story of the direct impact on the lives of two young men your foundation
scholarships supported to attend Keewaydin. Why was the camp experience once
you felt compelled to share?
Most of our philanthropies are in California. We support a number of camps,
Y camps, and many different sorts of camps. Because of my historic knowledge
of Keewaydin and their desire for a more diverse camp community, we have sent
kids to Vermont. There are obviously larger projects such as building facilities,
but I write in the book how these young men underwent amazing changes over that
summer, the growth that occurred as they began to make friends and try new activities.
Your creative team has given children and families a universe of imaginative
characters. Would you speak just a moment about the importance of the imaginative
life for children and how camps play a role.
I'm not sure the imaginative life is isolated to children.
I never thought about camp as a conduit for the imaginative
life. It is real life. You really go into the woods. You really
hike eight miles. You really fight the head wind in a thunderstorm.
You really have to cook dinner, pitch a tent, and get the
firewood. It's simply an active life. But I do think the more
active a life, the more you sow the seeds for storytelling,
for imagination, for experiences you can call on later.
When you return to Keewaydin and watch the latest generation of campers, what
is your biggest concern for these young people?
I'm not sure I have any more concern than I had for my own
children or my parents had for me. When I am at camp, I see
that the children are really into it, the Keewaydin experience.
They leave their cell phones and their computer games at home.
They are interested in harking back to an era where you had
to be more self-reliant. I believe that this is a positive
element.
What are your first memories of camp aside from your introduction to boxing
which you relate in the book?
I remember arriving at camp for the first time, all the other
boys. Looking forward to parents' weekend. I went to camp
for eight weeks. I even remember the restaurant in Middlebury,
Vermont, where my parents took me when they visited.
I was at Keewaydin on and off for maybe thirteen or fourteen years, four or
five as a camper and then four or five as a staff man. So, I was there for quite
a while. The amazing thing is you are only there for eight weeks or so at a stretch,
and you remember more about those weeks often than the twenty-six or thirty-eight
weeks of school that follow.
Why is that? Why is camp so memorable?
School can be a very positive experience. But at school in
the current environment not all teachers and administrators
recognize that kids are wired differently and learn differently.
Some schools understand this; some don't. And with that said,
the noncamp world is a competitive world, and you are judged
on scores and intellectual ability. At camp, all that is involved,
too, but if you can't swim well, you can play tennis, if you
don't play tennis well, you can be involved in nature activities.
If you are not good with looking at butterflies, then you
can hike. At camp you are accepted for who you are, not only
accepted but honored.
Your own children attended camp. What changes did you note in them after they
returned?
Well, I think my own kids are great. I don't know about changes;
it's just the evolution of their growing up. I had two who
loved camp and one who was homesick. I had one that loved
the nature trips, another who loved baseball. I have three
kids—all from different planets (laughing)—same
parents, but different planets.
They all reacted differently but all of them loved camp in their own way.
This summer, one of my sons and his fiancée brought eleven kids from California
to Vermont to camp. My middle son went for the weekend just to be there. So they
are still going back. My youngest son took the first kids there in late June.
Their cousins and friends joined them.
It was great.
You wrote about the beauty of "planned freedom"
that camp offers in your book; could you explain a bit more?
Planned freedom is one of the great things about Keewaydin
and all camps. There are those times at camp without structure,
between activities, when kids just have to invent what they
will do. Coming from urban environments in particular with
everything so highly organized, where kids are so thoroughly
programmed, it's great to be able to allow kids the freedom
to make decisions about what they will do. The key is to get
kids into the natural world, to give them some understanding
of what this is like.
What role do those memories of camp and your return visits play in your life
now?
If you are an active adult you are always out of your comfort
zone whether you are in business or politics, playing tennis
or canoeing, but those foundations at camp help you to stay
focused and move in the right direction. It's a world that
you take with you wherever you go.
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