SUMMER CAMP BEYOND BELIEF

AMANDA K. METSKAS AND AUGUST E. BRUNSMAN IV

Summer camp. Ahh, the thought brings back memories: swimming in the lake, toasting marshmallows, riding horses, meeting new friends, singing songs around the campfire. Many of us recall fondly our summer camp experiences as kids. For most of us, those camps probably had some religious component, as minor as prayers before meals and “Kumbaya” around the campfire, or as involved as daily chapel and Bible study. If only parents could give their kids all of the positive benefits of summer camp—and there are many—without the accompanying religious messages. While in some parts of the country, particularly the Northeast and West Coast, parents may find comprehensive summer camps that fit this bill, in many other parts of the country, options like this may be practically nonexistent. It was with this in mind that Camp Quest, the first residential summer camp in the United States for children from nonreligious families, was founded in 1996.1

Sending kids off to summer camp is an American tradition stretching back over 140 years.2 According to a study commissioned by the American Camping Association and conducted by Philliber Research Associates, the camp experience makes kids more comfortable trying new things, increases their ability to make new friends, allows them to develop independence and maturity, and increases their self-esteem.3 “For many children, sleep-away camp is the first time they have been away from home for any appreciable amount of time. The weeks at camp become a chance to grow up—at least a little,” reports Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker.4

Despite these benefits, the nature of summer camp in America is changing, with an increasing number of specialty camps devoted to helping kids develop skills in an activity they are already interested in, such as soccer or horseback riding. As one Washington Post columnist complained, “Whatever happened to camp camp?”5 Summer camps are also dealing with increased pressure from parents to be in touch with their kids while they are at camp, including parents who hide cell phones in their camper’s suitcases, hoping counselors won’t find the banned electronic devices.6 Both of these developments potentially threaten the benefits that a traditional comprehensive summer camp provides kids—independence, self-esteem, and a chance to try new things.

At Camp Quest, children experience all sorts of activities common to traditional summer camps—horseback riding, swimming, arts and crafts, canoeing, ropes courses, singing songs by the campfire—all in an environment free from the pervasive religious messages in the rest of American society. But Camp Quest isn’t just a traditional summer camp minus God. In addition to typical activities, campers there learn about famous freethinkers from around the world. These include people they may have heard of, like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the deist authors of the U.S. Constitution, and people they may be less familiar with, like A. Philip Randolph, an African American civil rights leader who organized the March on Washington at which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Kids learn that there are many people like their families, people who are skeptical of religious belief and have done great things. It gives them people to look up to and lets them know that they and their families are not alone.

Camp Quest also focuses on critical thinking, scientific reasoning, and ethics. Campers are given challenges where they work together as a cabin to design and perform a skit that answers a question given to them on the opening night. Past questions include, “Did some being design our planet and us? Wouldn’t it take an intelligence of some sort or other to put together something as complicated as living things? Many say there are no other possible good explanations for how we got here. Is that true? What do you think, and why?” and “Let’s say that you could start everything all over again. Imagine that you suddenly have no rules or laws of any kind. Imagine that you have no countries and no religions—but that you do have many different races and many different languages. Please make up 10 rules that everyone on the planet Earth would have to obey at all times. These must be rules everyone will agree with, and they must be rules that will make life better for everyone all the time.” While the questions may be serious and lead to serious discussion in the cabins, the skits that result are often hilarious and entertain the entire camp at the closing campfire.

Other Camp Quest programs involve discussions with campers about what they tell their friends about their beliefs and how they handle situations like saying the Pledge of Allegiance at school. Counselors leading these discussions serve only as moderators, giving the kids a chance to talk about things they have experienced and strategies they have used. Following on the motto used at Camp Quest Classic in Ohio one year, “Reason and Compassion in Action,” campers worked on ways they could get involved in improving their communities.

Camp Quest is careful not to indoctrinate campers, letting them come to their own conclusions in a supportive environment. In answer to a question on her camp evaluation form about what she learned at Camp Quest, one camper wrote, “I learned that it is okay not to believe in god.” Note that she didn’t say she learned there is no god; she learned that it is okay not to believe. That is probably the most important thing Camp Quest offers: an environment where kids can be kids and have fun without compromising their beliefs and without controversy. They build lasting friendships with fellow campers from all over the country. When they go back home, they are a little more comfortable with who they are, a little more confident in their abilities, and a little more willing to branch out.

imageIn answer to a question on her camp evaluation form about what she learned at Camp Quest, one camper wrote, ‘I learned that it is okay not to believe in god.’ Note that she didn’t say she learned there is no god; she learned that it is okay not to believe.image

Camp Quest has expanded substantially in the number of campers it serves and in the variety of sessions offered. It has grown from one Ohio location in 1996 to 17 locations in 2016—in the states of Arizona, Virginia, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, and California, as well as two camps in the United Kingdom, one at Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, and one in Norway. Each of the camps is independently operated, but all follow the same mission. All offer some of the same activities, but each also has its own feel and flavor.

Camp Quest is run entirely by volunteers who devote a week to being on camp staff and other time throughout the year developing programs and performing administrative and support roles. The organization also strives to be affordable for every child by raising money to provide full or partial camperships so that no camper is turned down for financial reasons. Camp Quest is open to any child from the age of eight to seventeen. For more information, please go to www.camp-quest.org. Links to all of the Camp Quests are available there.

AMANDA K. METSKAS received her MA in political science from Ohio State University in 2005. She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 2002 with honors in international relations. Amanda coauthored Raising Freethinkers (2009) and is the executive director of Camp Quest.

AUGUST E. BRUNSMAN IV has been executive director of the Secular Student Alliance since 2001. In 1997, he founded Students for Free-thought at Ohio State University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from there in 2001 with a major in psychology and minors in mathematics and cognitive science. August has volunteered in a number of roles for Camp Quest Classic since 1999.

August and Amanda married in 2005 and live together in Columbus, Ohio.

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