Camp and character | Our Kids Member Report

Glen Herbert
Editor/Writer, Our Kids Media
January, 2021

I’ve been prepping the content for the annual Camp and Program Guide, and while we say this every year, it’s true every year: this is our best issue yet. This might sound a bit jarring given the stresses of the past year. But there are always silver linings, which is something camp people maybe know better than most. 2020 also brought into increased focus all the things that camps and programs can do, and will do, in children’s lives. The cover story is about those things—values like resiliency, generosity, creativity, compassionate leadership—that youth programs are uniquely good at developing.

One great story that we came across this year was that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s experience as a camper and a counsellor, and it’s one that we’ll be including in the editorial section. At the time of her passing, friends recalled the lasting impact that camp had in her life, and she herself credited it as the source of her independence and her sense of duty. One friend, Ronnie Silver, recalled that, “So much of the Justice was instilled at camp. It was always taught to us that there is nothing girls couldn't do. Camp empowered us, and for someone extremely bright and curious, that was important."

Apparently, even into her later years Ginsburg could still sing the camp song, and she often did. It was important because it was where she developed her sense of self and her duty to others in an immersive setting; she became humane through experiencing a humane environment; she formed connections to others in a setting that was specifically designed for that purpose. It was where she became the version of herself that the world, through her life and work, would come to know.

That’s a story that we’ll continue to tell—how camps and programs are key to development—though perhaps it’s more important this year than ever before. Parents, more than ever, are going to be looking for outlets for their children, places for them to find all those things that Ginsburg did. As ever, we’ll be helping them find them.