The 10 Best Ways Summer Camps Haven’t Changed

Oct 17th, 2024

Let's Go Back In Time

Hop in Doc Brown’s Delorean Time Machine with me for a moment (you’re sitting shotgun).

The Flux capacitor is humming in the background, and a console of possible dates sit right there on the dashboard.

Type in a date, let’s say July 15th and then you pick the year. But make sure it’s between 20 and 60 years ago (let’s avoid the dinosaurs, please).

We are going on a quick time travel trip to visit some summer camps of the past. Maybe you have a special one in mind. If not, I’ll just pick one at random.

The Delorean hits 88 miles per hour and we’re off. Off to visit camps from time gone. To visit summers of yesteryear.

Except a funny thing happens when we get there. We realize things aren’t all that different.

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Yeah, the clothing styles could use an update. The hair choices are a total mess. The camp pickup truck? Well, hmm, that looks like it might be the same, actually.

What do we notice has changed? Not that much. We’ll have to consult with Doc Brown and Marty McFly to see if the time machine is functioning correctly.

A Real Summer Camp Trip

Ten years ago, I spent two years visiting 200+ summer camps in 47 States. Took the trip in a Honda Civic (no Delorean option, sadly), touring every different style of camp basically everywhere the US had to offer.

In the years since, I’ve visited, worked with, or trained in 200+ more.

It turns out that while we had the right idea for the Delorean time travel trip at the outset, we didn’t really need it.

Because summer camps are time capsules in and of themselves.

Over many, many decades, camps have remained relatively untouched by the rest of the world. It’s the best possible scenario.

Sure, the way you appease parents, think about mental health or log on to CampMinder or CampBrain has changed.

Your job has changed, but camp? Camp is mostly the same.

So, let’s take a little look back to see why camps are just the kind of time capsules the world needs.

The 10 Best Ways Camps Haven’t Changed

Fun is the secret sauce: As it should be everywhere, except we know that isn’t the case. A throughline for most summer camps is that it only works if the kids and staff are having fun. If not? It all crumbles. Working off this camp baseline as the measure of success is what makes it almost future-proof.

Camps are safe spaces. And I mean safe in almost every possible sense of the word: emotionally, physically, mentally, naturally, socially, and energetically. It all works, and that’s why kids often feel a great sense of comfort staying for extended periods of time.

Simpler is often better. Camps are complex systems of activity and emotions, but they are also incredibly simple. They are built on the basics: Walk across camp with a group, do some activities, sing around a campfire, hold hands with a friend, sleep in a sleeping bag. These are very simple things that hold incredible weight at camps.

Feet are the main transportation. Speaking of walking, it’s so underrated that the kind of connection happens at camps simply because kids and staff walk to get places. Conversations with others, listening to the the world around you, being a little uncomfortable (yes, this is ok) all happen when slowing down and just simply walking somewhere.

Being outside rocks. Oh, and speaking of walking and being outside, where else in the world, for kids and adults is the outdoors a default setting? I can’t name many. That’s fine, the indoors are also cool. I love my indoors. But all the cliches about the “fresh air” do apply here.

The staff love it as much as the kids. The cycle of camp hiring usually means your best campers become your staff. It’s what keeps the culture of camp alive and is one of the main reasons camps don’t change much. The alumni are the timekeepers and have huge incentives for a new generation of kids to have the same experience they had.

The food isn’t amazing. And that’s okay. It doesn’t all have to be great, and if your camp’s grub is Michelin-rated, then I’m not talking to you. But while the meals might be just okay, the style of eating (all as a group, helping serve and clean) matters in how we interact with those in our community.

Smiles are the currency. If there’s one metric to determine if a camp is working, it’s this: Go around and count the smiles. You could drop me in a random camp from 50 years ago, and I could figure out in 5 minutes just how much the kids liked it. I would just go around and count how many ear-to-ear grins or full-out laughing kids I saw.

Independence and community are key: Being self-sufficient and being in a group doesn’t seem to intermingle, and in the outside world, sometimes they don’t. But at camp, kids are given both with more intentionality than in most other places. They can trust themselves while also trusting and respecting those around them. This often leads to their best versions.

The friendships last: Does this one even need an explanation? If you’re reading this, you can almost assuredly list friends you still have from camp.

People hate leaving: For all of the reasons above. The simplicity, connections and smiles are what keep kids and then staff coming back year after year. It’s the whole goal.

Sure, camps change with the times, but mostly, the times change around camps. Camping professionals know this more than anyone.

And if you are focused on these pieces, your camp will be successful. Sometimes the basics are the best building blocks.

No need for a time machine, after all. We can go back in time each and every summer.

What Did I Miss?

What did you see on your time travel trip to camps of yesteryear? I’d love to hear about it.

Reply back with “Time Travel” and tell me about your camp experience.

Until next time, where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

You got this!

Jack