Enter The 2022 Golden Lens Contest

Enter the 2022 J. Wendell and Ruth T. Howe  Golden Lens Awards Photography Contest

You Could Win

  • A $150 cash prize + $500 ACA professional development gift card* for first place
  • A commemorative plaque
  • Acknowledgement in Camping Magazine
  • Recognition at the ACA National Conference

*The gift card can be used for ACA’s Online Learning Center, virtual events, webinars, and/or in-person events — including but not limited to ACA’s National Conference.

Camping Magazine

Learn the skills you need to succeed. Camping Magazine is your primary source for the most recent trends in the camp industry-the latest research in the field of youth development-critical management tools and innovative programming ideas. Camping Magazine is the official publication of the American Camp Association, under the authorization of the National Board of Directors.

Camping Magazine Editorial Index

Here you will find an archive listing of the current and recent years of Camping Magazine Editorial Indexes. 

Crafting Healthy Conceptions of Masculinity: What the Summer Camp Experience Can Provide for Boys

I was sitting in our chapel benches surrounded by towering pines as I listened to our leadership director, Dave Irwin, give his Sunday chapel talk in late July of 2016 at YMCA Camp Belknap, a traditional, nonprofit, overnight summer camp for boys.

A Through Line: Caring, Compassion, and Conflict Resolution

July’s Camp Kindness Day showcased the role that organized camping plays in promoting character traits that ultimately transcend June, July, and August, amplifying that what young people can learn during the summer — in so many ways — prepares them to grow into “socially minded, community-oriented” citizens (ACA, 2019a).

MESH Essential Eligibility Criteria: Creating a Recipe for Camper Success

For generations, the family was known throughout the area as masters of making the most amazing fudge. Taking days to prepare, fudge making was an event — and those lucky enough to receive some would savor it as long as they could. The fudge recipe was a heavily guarded family secret, traditionally passed down to just one relative in the next generation. The grandmother had been the last maker. When it was time to pass the torch, she brought the next family member in line to her kitchen for instruction and ceremoniously gave them the recipe.

Campocalypse: Seven Predictions about Summer Youth Programs

Forget camp as you know it, because the world is changing faster than camp professionals are holding their ground. Forget camp’s unique combination of community living away from home in a beautiful natural setting with a recreational premise. Forget its proven power to accelerate youth development. This 160-year-old concept has a bleak future if current trends continue unchecked. In the coming decades, I predict these seven revolutions.

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