Diverse sleepaway camps?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Resurrecting an old thread bc we've struggled (and continue to struggle with) this question! Based on our limited experience the last few years:

Camp Calleva - slightly more diverse than the average sleepaway camp, which tend to skew very WASPy
Camp Friendship - kid loved it, but it seemed more typical of sleepaway camps (reminded me of Get Out (the movie)).
Camp Independent Lake - heard is slightly more diverse than average, but we haven't tried it bc it's quite pricey.

Agree with a PP that sleepaway camps are not a thing for many families of color. (My parents would never have spent money to have us sleep in modest surroundings, although that's clearly changing with my generation.) After Camp Friendship, I realized I really didn't want kid to be the only POC in his cabin and made sure that didn't happen by sending him along with a friend who's also a POC.

Oops, I meant Camp Cayuga, not Calleva, which isn't a sleepaway camp but a day camp with some overnight offerings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you looking for diversity? Is your child diverse?

From non white friends in the area I have found sleep away camp isn’t popular and these are parents who can easily afford it. The reasons I have heard are generally vague and with the only specifics being they just don’t believe in sending their kid to stay with strangers for overnights and it wasn’t something they did growing up

This is key. We are POC who can afford sleepaway camp and our kids don’t attend.

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Incarnation in CT https://incarnationcamp.org/

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I truly think sleep away camp is a white people thing. I'm Indian, we don't do sleep away.