More.

When camp is more than fun, friendship and adventure…

A few recent interactions with clients has reminded me of a simple fact: camp is so much more than it is sometimes advertised to be.

Recently I attended the YMCA Camp Marketing and Financial Development Symposium. Greg and I were asked to present the Facilities Needs implications of the results of our YMCA Resident Camps Capital Improvement Study as keynote speakers.

The study, which was completed over several months earlier this year, surveyed roughly 25% of all YMCA resident camps. The survey questions addressed each camp’s current and future capital needs, as well as their current and future camp expansions and improvement projects. Additionally, the fundraising capacity of camps was examined by Lighthouse Counsel, a third-party consultant. Other parts of the study looked at individual camps’ best practices in terms of management and sustainability, as well as determining if market gaps exist nationally for the Y. In addition to conducting the web-based survey, Domokur Architects made eight site visits to select YMCA resident camps throughout the country to get a firsthand look at the camps’ conditions.

While we were at the Symposium, we attended a particularly powerful session lead by Jorge Perez, the VP of Youth Development, Family Enrichment and Social Responsibility at YMCA of the USA. Jorge’s opening analogy especially stuck with me. Let me see if I can recreate it for you...

Imagine that you are back in kindergarten. You are learning about how things grow, and as a project, your class is planting seeds in little seed-starting cups. You add soil, place it on the classroom’s window sill, water it daily, and eventually you have a small sprouting seedling. So, as a kindergartner, what did you learn? You learned that in order to grow, you need three things: the cup, water, and sunlight.

Now let’s apply this analogy to camp. The cup is your camp, and the water and the sunlight are your camp’s investments into youth development. Jorge commented that often camps are only focused on “the cup”: “look at my cup,” "we just built a new cup,” “this cup will be the best.” While it is easy to get lost in this line of reasoning, we all know that camp is about so much more than just “the cup." The cup will not make the seed grow without a strong investment in youth development.

This is something we continue to express through our camp design. Because, while “the cup” is important, it is really about what the cup creates… a second home, a place to learn and grow, the overall experience of summer camp – that is most important.

My next encounter was during a planning discussion with a client. The director expressed her concern that the camp was only being represented as a place for fun. While fun is definitely a main ingredient, camp is so much more. The majority of Camp Directors would agree that the fun is intentional. Activity progressions, programming, and camper-to-counselor ratios are all structured. It has be said many times: the camp environment offers something that can’t be matched. And that is no accident! Successful programs are intentionally invested in youth development, not just fun! As reported in ACA camping magazine…

“Camp directors often design the summer camp experience with intended camper outcomes in mind. Campers often experience positive changes as a result of attending summer camp.”¹

Just as successful camp programming requires intentional directives on the part of the camp staff, successful camp planning and architecture must also focus on the investment in youth development with each design.

¹Henderson, Karla A., Ph.D, Paul E. Marsh, M.S., Deborah Bialeschki, Ph.D, Margery M. Scanlin, Ed.D, Leslie S. Whitaker, Christopher Thurber, Ph.D, and Mark Burkhardt. "Research: Intentional Youth Development." Research: Intentional Youth Development. American Camp Association, Sept.-Oct. 2006. Web. 08 Jan. 2015.