Tech use increasing at camps

Staff photo by Jim Evans
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Videographer Matt Kent is one of four people taping and photographing Camp Modin daily activities, including Wednesday's tug-of-war competition. The photos and clips go on the Belgrade camp' s Web site to update parents about their children.

In the era of text messages, personal digital assistants and cell phones, many residential summer campers and their parents are struggling to sever the digital umbilical cord.

"It is harder for camps to get kids to unplug," said Mary Ellen Deschenes, consultant for the Maine Youth Camping Association. She said infrequent communication makes many modern parents nervous about sending their kids off to camp.

"Since 9/11, a lot of people don't feel safe, and it translates into how they treat their kids," she said. "We are all used to having constant communication with our children in a way that our parents never did with us. It can be very handicapping to children. Part of anybody's growth is not always having parents telling them what to do."

Running a summer camp isn't just about providing bug spray, barbecues and bonfires. In addition to hiring social workers to mediate disputes among campers, some camp directors find themselves posting daily blogs, monitoring MySpace.com to make sure their camp name is not misused, and fielding phone calls from "helicopter parents," so called because they hover over their children.

Bette Bussel, executive director of the American Camp Association of New England, said that on average, kids now start going to camp at age 11, compared to age 9 a decade ago.

"It's harder for people to let go of their children," Bussel said. "They look at what's going on in the world, and they are afraid. ... I always laugh when people talk about homesickness. The children will adapt and the staff are trained to expect that and to help them deal with that. I believe, oftentimes, it's the parents who have trouble letting go."

Pam Cobb, director of the all-girls Camp Runoia in Belgrade, said parents "hold on to their kids a little bit longer" than a generation ago, when her parents ran the camp.

"I think it's a little bit that, in American society, to be a good parent you need to know what your children are up to and provide activities for them," she said. "The idea of sending your child off for seven weeks is a valid thing to be afraid of. It's not necessarily all bad, but they're really micromanaging their kids' lives."

Web sites are part of doing business for most camps these days. Some even offer computer animation and digital photography courses in addition to traditional outdoorsy activities for campers. During the off-season, camp owners use the sites for marketing. And during the summer, parents can log on to Web sites to see their little darlings kayaking, swimming or singing silly camp songs.

On one hand, the camps' Web sites help parents feel connected to the experience for which they have, after all, paid good money. But on the other hand, does that connectedness enhance or undermine the traditional summer camp experience? Both, local camp professionals say.

Two videographers and two still photographers documented the teams vying for tug-of-war dominance at Camp Modin on Wednesday.

"We post everything we're doing all day long," said Howard Salzberg, co-owner of the Belgrade camp. "We do this because it lowers parents' anxiety levels to see that their kids are having a good time."

Yet the digital video clips and photo galleries enable some parents to -- obsess.

"Camp directors get these crazy calls from parents," Bussel said. "They say, 'My daughter doesn't look like she's smiling in that photo,' or 'my son is wearing the same shirt two days in a row.' "

The 15,000 photos posted each summer on Camp Modin's Web site placate most -- but not all -- parents, Salzberg said.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword," he said. "We have parents who say 'My kid isn't in enough pictures.' The parents are more demanding than they've ever been. It used to be that kids went off to camp for a very independent experience. Nowadays, parents try to micro-manage every aspect of their child's lives, and sometimes it's a bit of a distraction."

Each of the 200 accredited camps in Maine has its own policy on what, if any, electronics children may bring with them to camp.

Generally, cell phones and computers are either limited or banned, but iPods are permitted at certain times -- although with the advent of iPods that play movies, some report they are rethinking their iPod rules.

But directors agree the long-valued concept of kids going to camp to learn self-reliance is compromised when campers text-message their parents to ask whether they should go water-skiing, play volleyball or star in a theatrical production that day.

"Part of camp is learning to grow and become independent, to learn skills you can't learn anyplace else in a safe environment," Bussel said. "Where else in life these days do children learn to make their own decisions? The sense of independence that children learn at camp can be defeated by talking to a parent every day."

Salzberg, of Camp Modin, said kids without phones are forced to learn to get along with others in the camp community.

"We don't want the kids to have access to the outside world," Salzberg said. "When I was at Modin (as a camper), there were people I liked, and people I didn't like. We want them to work it out among themselves, not send a text message to mom, who is off on a cruise."

Deschenes said recent studies indicate that some parents are rebelling against modern child-rearing.

"In this day and age, there's definitely kind of a backlash movement among parents who think and ponder the meaning of their children's lives," she said. "People don't know how to stop moving at this fast pace. And actually these traditional camps find themselves in a very strong position, because parents are rediscovering the value and the beauty of unplugging and letting their children grow and develop in a more traditional way."

Jon Deren, director of the sports-oriented, all-male Camp Manitou in Oakland, said campers there are largely unplugged, with no Internet access and no cell phones, although staff members do take and post photos online regularly.

"There's very little down time here. Kids need to be active and they need to be outdoors. They shouldn't be worried about what's going on in the outside world," he said, later adding, "We do give them the sports scores."

Deren said the trend he's seen at Manitou is for more individual coaching in sports, so the boys are prepared to be more competitive at home during the school year. He said the camp has added sports and trips, such as a surfing excursion to Kennebunkport, to its menu.

With a seemingly limitless number of ways children can choose to spend their summers, most camps have also increased activities in order to attract more campers. Some have opted for more arts and crafts, while others offer aviation, scuba and yoga.

"The parents have the expectation that you're going to be able to cater to every child," Salzberg said. "And also, kids' expectations have changed. You have to up the ante in terms of the programs that you do. You're competing with so many other opportunities."

But, he said, kids keep returning to camp for the same reasons they did in the 1920s, when Camp Modin opened.

"In the end, the thing that brings the children back to summer camp is not the facilities, it's not the $50,000 water ski boat," said Salzberg, who met his wife at the camp. "It's the communities and it's the lifelong friendships. That's really what camp is about."

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