In this very space, I whined not long ago about the unfairness of summer camp, that kids get to go while adults stay home.
My kids, I complained, count the stars in the mountain sky, play games, learn the names of wildflowers and sing silly camp songs. They meet new friends, pick up after themselves and blaze a little trail out in the world.
My mother, bless her, underwrites camp for both kids. She and I believe that experiences, rather than possessions, make the best gifts.
In 2004, Sara’s first time away from home, a mama bear and two cubs scratched at the window of her cabin at night. While most of her bunkies slept, she watched bear wranglers from the Colorado Division of Wildlife take them back into the woods. Last year, a windstorm blew up on her first night of camp. More than 60 miles away, I couldn’t sleep. I prayed a variation of the Mariner’s Prayer: Dear Lord, be good to her. The wind is so big, and my daughter is so small.
Two days later, we got a postcard (original spelling preserved): “Dear Mom and Dad, our tents calapsed. I get to ride my hores tomorow. I don’t know the names. Love, Sara.” One daughter, rolling with the punches, is all of a sudden bigger than she looks.
The best part for me is retrieving my happy, grubby kid at the end of the week, full of stories and toting a collection of interesting rocks and art objects. Last year Sara told us about the tents and the horses, sang us “Black Socks” (“They never get dirty, the longer you wear them, the blacker they get”) and then passed out cold in the back seat of the Subaru. I love this, honestly I do.
It makes me jealous all the same.
Change is in the air
This confession to 750,000 Sunday Denver Post readers led to my learning about a two-day sleepaway camp for women. Called the Camp Experience, it convenes at Copper Mountain Resort July 19-21, and it sounds like a blast.
“We want grown women to go to camp and have their next life-changing, attitude-
changing, perspective-changing experience,” says event organizer Betsy Wiersma.
The event will bring together 200 women from all walks of life, including clients of two nonprofits, Partners in Housing from Colorado Springs and Warren Village in Denver, which will benefit from a number of camp activities. It combines a full slate of personal growth workshops, fitness, spa services and chairlift hikes: Ride up the mountain, have quiet time at the top, hike down.
Best of all, from Wiersma’s perspective: no wind. No bears. No latrines. Wiersma moved to metro Denver four years ago from Indianapolis. Her transformation to a full-
fledged Coloradan is not quite complete. “I like nature,” she says. “Just don’t get it on me.”
Instead of tents, campers will sleep in comfort in the East Village of Copper Mountain Resort, with clean sheets, hot showers and flush toilets. Instead of bug juice, sponsor Coors is bringing the Frozen Zima machine. Activities include golf, fly fishing workshops with Char Bloom, yoga, Pilates and crafts workshops. A two-day slate of keynote presentations, breakouts and workshops focus on leadership, life planning and personal growth.
The offering is meant to rev participants up and chill them out simultaneously.
Wiersma got the idea from an annual, men-only camp in Indiana. “I thought, what could we do with an amazing group of women? You know, we meet a girlfriend and say, ‘Oh, you’d just love my other friend,’ but you never have the opportunity to get together.” People are bringing work teams, their moms and their college roommates.
One of the presenters is Laurie Kahn, author of “Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love.” Kahn, whose own bug juice and lanyard years were spent at Camp Kear-Sarge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, writes about all-girl summer camps, starting with the first one that opened in Maine in 1902, and the empowering impact they had on city girls who got to be sporty, or to fish, or wear shorts for the first time.
“We’ve got a big vision for saving the world through summer camp,” Wiersma says.
But there’s also a nightly dessert buffet, and plenty of opportunities to hang out with new and old girlfriends for tale-telling and toenail painting. Jana Stansfield, a Nashville singer/songwriter and one of the presenters, admits to a “vast repertoire of silly camp songs” learned from working at muscular dystrophy camp in Texas.
She introduced me to “The Shark Song,” and I taught her “Black Socks.” It’s true: There’s nothing a group of determined women can’t do.
Lisa Everitt is a freelance writer who lives in Arvada. E-mail her at lisa@well.com.
The details
Camp Experience
(campexperience.com) starts the evening of July 19 and runs through July 21. The $895 cost covers all meals and events, including 25 speakers and nine workshops; one “Excellent Adventure,” morning fitness activities, crafts, a workbook and a gift bag. Pampering activities such as massage, reflexology and reiki cost $25 per session, to benefit Partners in Housing and Warren Village. Lodging is extra and ranges from $105 per night for a studio to $268 for a three-bedroom condo that sleeps eight. Visit the website to register or contact Betsy@CampExperience.com or 720-200-0271.
