MB camps buck North American trend

The caller at the end of the line was from a major Christian camping association in the U.S. “I’m contacting directors of camps with a budget of more than a million dollars,” he said. “Would you be interested in meeting to talk about the drop in camping applications?”

It’s a continent-wide problem. Even large camps are finding they don’t have the number of kids they used to have.

Harry Edwards, camp director of Stillwood near Cultus Lake, B.C., told his caller that Stillwood is already full. “We just don’t have that problem,” he says. “In fact, none of our five MB camps in B.C. has that problem.”

Nearly 1,000 applications inundated Stillwood’s office on its first registration day for 2007. Some were hand-delivered by parents who had driven to Stillwood to make certain their child could get in. Edwards pressed every camp staffer into office duty to handle the volume.

Even B.C.’s recently acquired facility, Camp Likely in the Cariboo, had almost half its applications a month before programs began. The story is similar at Gardom Lake, the Pines, and Camp Bob on Vancouver Island. All are full or close to it. Arthur Loewen, chair of the board of camp ministries, says, “Our 2007 registrations have been running ahead of other years.”

Ontario’s Camp Crossroads tells the same story. Although registration for kids’ programs is down slightly, the number of families coming to camp has grown dramatically. In fact, registration for Crossroads’ three weeks of family programming has never been higher, says director Joyce Schimpky. Another development is in peewee camps for 6–8 year olds.

Camp Likely’s Quesnel Lake. Photos: Arthur Loewen

Attrition challenges

However, the scramble to keep up with demand is not echoed in most camp offices in Canada or the U.S. Dwindling camper population is the result of many factors, Edwards says.

One reason seems to be fear – a mistrust of church people or adults who work with children. Parents don’t want to leave their children in overnight settings.

“The increases we’ve seen in day camp activity over the past few years are indicative of that.” The mistrust is especially evident among parents who harbour generalized misgivings about churches. Parents, exposed to media reports of past ills, are afraid for their kids’ safety.

Family size is another reason fewer children attend camp. There are simply fewer kids in North America today than in the past. Joyce Schimpky says camp populations tend to parallel the churches’. Many churches are struggling with dwindling Sunday school numbers.

Lifestyle is also a factor. Family time is scarce, so parents concentrate on holidaying with their children. And most directors say camping in “the great outdoors” no longer seems to be the family priority it was for earlier generations.

Economics cannot be ignored in any analysis of camping. Costs are rising, fuelled by a changing economy. In most families, both parents now work, which means fewer adult volunteers. The effort to find counsellors is frustrated by staggeringly high costs of post-secondary education, forcing many students to hang on to paying jobs through the summer. The few larger families, who formerly would have sent their offspring to camp, can no longer afford the higher costs.

Expansion challenges

Weekend volunteers help plant a 40-foot pole, one of six supports for a new climbing wall at Camp Likely.

Aware they’re bucking the trend, camp ministry boards are struggling to keep up with a high demand for traditional kids’ camp programs. Every B.C. MB camp has expanded, or is urgently adding to its facilities. And every camp in the province is raising funds to support capital works, new facilities, and special programs.

Regardless of the programs they run, all successful Canadian camps share a strong base of local support, stable leadership, and credibility.

The B.C. MB camps emphasize the “two P and two F” formula in their operating policy: people, programs, food, and facilities. Arthur Loewen says, “We aim for excellence in all four areas, and our focus on Christ and spiritual formation underpins everything we do. We’re emphasizing the right things.”

Caring about kids

That emphasis brings extraordinary results.

At Stillwood in 2005, half the campers – 1001 young people – made a commitment to Jesus. It was a similar story in 2006. Gardom Lake estimates 200 commitments out of a campership of 900. “When you have up to a third of your kids making serious commitments to walk with Jesus and follow him, that’s really something,” says Loewen.

Darrell Janzen, director of Simonhouse MB Bible Camp in Manitoba, says having the right staff is crucial. “We intentionally use everything as a tool for evangelism and growth,” he says. “Our greatest asset is having the right staff team that truly shows love in all that we do and points lives to Jesus.”

For all the changes in North American society and despite the shift in many factors effecting camping, the stories Christian camp ministries can tell, says Loewen, are stories of transformed lives. That’s the passion of each camp director, staff member, donor, board member, and volunteer who tangibly supports the vision. So far, it’s a soul-winning combination.

—Barrie McMaster