Call(s) waiting - Summer camps place cell phones, electronics on hold
By Linda Bock, Telegram & Gazette Staff
Talk about survival.
Children and teens on their way to camp this summer have to survive without being able to text-message friends, call home, listen to iPods, check out the latest YouTube video or play a few rounds of their favorite game on their PlayStation portable.
Most sleep-away campers are encouraged to pack bathing suits, shorts, T-shirts, pillow, towels, sneakers, sweatshirt, sunscreen, bug spray and jeans. They are encouraged not to pack their personal stereos, cell phones, hand-held video games or laptops.
Douglas Boy Scout Troop 134 leader Dennis Montanari said about 20 boys in his troop attend Camp Wanocksett in Dublin, N.H., where the camp policy is no cell phones.
"Even adults are encouraged not to use their cell phones, and if they do, we are urged to use them discreetly," Mr. Montanari said. He said electronics are discouraged, but they do allow personal listening devices. "If I hear them at night and it's very quiet - then I take them away."
A longtime Boy Scout troop leader, Mr. Montanari said there is so much to do at summer camp - swimming, sailboating, canoeing, water skiing, shotgun shooting, campfires at night - that the boys do not miss their personal electronic devices, computers or watching television.
"They get used to it very fast," Mr. Montanari said. "Camp Wanocksett does not want cell phones at camp, because if they're calling home, it promotes homesickness, and they miss out on nature."
Joey Gifford, 13, a member of Troop 134, went to his fourth year of summer camps the second week of July.
"I don't mind leaving my cell phone at home," Joey said. "I love the wilderness."
Another Boy Scout in Troop 134, Jeffrey E. Talbot, 13, headed to his third year of summer camp this summer. He said he has had a cell phone for a couple of years, an iPod and a handheld PlayStation portable.
"I don't bring them because I just don't want them stolen or broken," Jeffrey said. Their buddy, Johnny Wright, 15, finished his freshman year and said he was happy to have a chance to just hang out with his friends. "I'm happy to have a break."
Ann M. McCarron oversees sports camps for 6- to 15-year-olds all summer at Assumption College in Worcester, and she said that even at day camp, counselors want the cell phones left at home.
"We want the kids to get the most out of camp, and it doesn't help to have the distraction of cell phones ringing or teens text messaging," Ms. McCarron said.
Ms. McCarron said some campers try to sneak cell phones in, and more and more parents want their children to have cell phones with them for emergency contact.
"But kids texting and a ball coming at them could be a potential injury, or liability," Ms. McCarron said. She said teens have made text messaging an art, but the electronic technology comes at a cost.
"Technology is great, but we're losing our communication skills," Ms. McCarron said. "At camp, kids actually have to interact with each other … the kids actually have to talk to each other."
Sometimes it is the mothers, accustomed to constant access with their offspring through modern technology, who find it challenging to be disconnected from their children while they are at camp.
Just because campers have to rough it without their personal electronics does not always mean total withdrawal from the wired world. Some camps have set up e-mail service, and others allow laptops for older campers.
E. Allan Walker, interim executive director of Worcester County 4-H Center Camp Marshall in Spencer, said campers are discouraged from bringing electronic devices to camp, but the camp maintains "Bunk 1 Notes," an e-mail service that allows parents to send e-mails to their children. Every morning, counselors print out the e-mails and distribute them to the campers at breakfast.
Camp Marshall has day campers and sleepover campers ages 8 to 16. Besides traditional camp, Camp Marshall also offers a Massachusetts State 4-H horse camp.
"Kids don't really have the opportunity to be on cell phones. We keep them busy from morning to night at summer camp," Mr. Walker said. "A lot of kids have their horses at camp, so there's horseback riding, and then we have swimming, archery, arts and crafts, nature, farm projects, garden projects."
Moira D. Kelly, executive director of the Exploration Summer programs at St. Mark's in Southboro and various other locations in New England, said children and teens from almost every state and 51 countries will stay for a few weeks at a time. The rules for allowing electronic devices are a bit different for each age group. The junior program, Grades 4-7, is at St. Mark's in Southboro and children are not allowed to bring cell phones, iPods or personal electronics. The eighth- and ninth-graders in Exploration programs are not allowed to bring cell phones, but are allowed to log onto computers in the lab to check e-mails.
"You have to imagine what it looks like to the other kids if some kids are on cell phones talking to friends back home," Ms. Kelly said. "When a kid is on a cell phone instead of making friends at camp, it sends a message that they're more interested in other kids than the ones they're with. And sometimes text messaging is mindless … These kids have a great opportunity to meet so many interesting kids from so many different places."
Seniors in the program are allowed to bring their cell phones and laptops. Ms. Kelly said the children and teens who attend the Exploration programs are fully aware of the policies.
"They're incredulous at first," Ms. Kelly said. "There are two sides to this: Will the child be OK without the cell phones and other devices, and will the parents be OK without constant contact with their kids? We tell parents that it's far more difficult for you than for your kids.
"We're not anti-technology," Ms. Kelly said. "We just want kids to really take advantage of the unique opportunities summers away present - a great chance to really get to know them and to get to know other kids." |
