We are POC and our rising 5th grade son will be going to Camp Arrowhead in Lewes, Delaware. It'll be his first time going to sleepaway camp and he'll be going solo. It reminds me of a great sleepaway camp that I used to attend in long Island, Camp DeWolfe. You didn't mention if you were open to religious camps. This is an Episcopal camp. I think it's priced similar to Camp Letts. We wanted a religious based camp, even though this is probably more light on the religion side, as I still recall fondly chapel and the songs we sang at my sleepaway camp growing up. |
Oops, I meant Camp Cayuga, not Calleva, which isn't a sleepaway camp but a day camp with some overnight offerings. |
Same. It’s not something we did growing up and I don’t feel great about not seeing my kid for weeks at a time. |
No recommendation, just commiseration.
I'm white and worked at a very established girls' sleep away camp in Maine. I had always imagined sending my DD there, but she is mixed race and the first time she attended a prospective camper session, she had a total freakout when we got home. What I remembered as "diverse" during my time was not. It was really a handful of girls from families of color- literally 2-3 girls- plus a larger group of Asian girls who in hindsight were the last of the big generation of Chinese adoptees. My DD called out the prospective camper slide show and videos the second we got in the car and said "none of those girls look like me and they keep showing the other 3 girls over and over again." But it wasn't just the optics- as an adult and parent it was easier to pick up on the fact that you could be a diverse camper there yet still not belong, which I didn't understand when I was a much young adult and counselor. The belonging thing is an impossible hurdle when you have generations that have been going there and extensive rules and traditions and inside jokes that are passed down that are hard to penetrate. It broke my heart that my DD wouldn't have the sleep away camp experience I'd hoped she'd have, but it made me feel even worse to think that I'd been part of a place that could so easily make my DD feel like she didn't belong before she even got there. |
Girl Scout sleepaway for girls tends to be more diverse, because it’s more affordable and accessible to the masses. My AA DD has done it every year for 6 years. |
Incarnation in CT https://incarnationcamp.org/
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Camp Letts (has day camp and sleep away camp) is very diverse. My kids (white) have always done sleep away, and there are many black children in attendance - at pick up, they hug everyone goodbye, and I promise you, they are hugging everyone and keeping in touch with friends of all colors on SM |
Check out RVR camp. It is a Christian camp, but our family is not very religious and DC did not feel awkward or out of place there. |
I truly think sleep away camp is a white people thing. I'm Indian, we don't do sleep away. |