Because of Camp

I was inspired by an email I just received from Peter Surgenor, the keynote for our upcoming ACA Annual Meeting. His email ended with: "Ask me about my 'Because of Camp' story". Not only did this make me want to know Peter's camp story, but it made me want to tell my own.

As a child, I came to camp a shy, self-conscious girl who went to a school full of cliques and mean girls...I always felt like I had to measure up...and yet, I never did. I was shy, I didn't have the brand-name clothes, my parents didn't drive a cute car and worst of all, despite all my protests, day after day, I came to school with a lunch packed with wheat bread sandwiches and Granny Goose chips - and to be clear, these were not the pre-packaged chips - my chips were stuffed in a plastic bag. Just not cool.

Yet, camp was different. I left camp realizing that there was more in the world than the walls of my school or the boundaries of my small farm town. Even more, I made friends with people who liked me for me - the wheat bread, the shyness…it didn't matter. And of course, this acceptance instantly made me feel less shy and less self-conscious. I went home with new eyes.

I came back to camp for a number of years in middle school - and these experiences built the resilience that I needed for high school. High school had a whole new dynamic - there was a huge division of race at our school, major religious intolerance and to top it off - those good 'ol typical high school problems: alcohol, drugs & pregnancy.

This heap of problems at my school (and, ultimately, in my town) created an incredible amount of anxiety in me - I couldn't stand bigotry - and it was in my face all the time in high school. To ignore it was to accept it.

I had to step up or step out...be the first to say "this isn't ok", or step into the shadows and let my small, close-minded town be what it was going to be. I decided, at whatever cost, to be myself - and the person I was couldn't stand by and accept intolerance: so I stepped up. My sophomore year in high school was full of verbal fights, accusations and goading. It was a year of standing alone - but, I was on my own two feet and that felt better to me than the alternative.

Then, to my surprise, people started to come around.


I can't take credit for changing my home town, because it didn't completely change and probably still hasn't changed entirely. But, I changed, and because of this, I could live in the world as my true self, even in a small close-minded town - I could stand up for what I felt was right, be friends with whomever I wanted and believe what I wanted to believe - and I was even accepted for it by that small close-minded town, which is a miracle in and of itself.

Camp did this. Camp showed me the world and the people in the world outside my small farm town. Camp showed me acceptance and this acceptance gave me strength. I can confidently say that Because of Camp, I am happier, stronger and more confident - both as a young person and now as an adult.

---

~Lupine Reppert
Director of Education & Membership
American Camp Association, Southern CA/HI
(f) Camper, Camp Christelation
(f) Counselor, Building Bridges for Peace
(f) Counselor & Director, Tumbleweed Day Camp

What's your story? Tell your camp community on this blog
or be ready to share at the upcoming Annual Meeting!