This week Winston, Mary, Nick and Heather are at the regional American Camp Association conference. Always a great time! The keynote speaker, Bob Ditter, is a well regarded child, adolescent and family therapist. His passion and expertise for camp and kids always give us much to bring back to Sonlight. We are spending our time with camping colleagues, learning about trends in camp health, legislation regarding camps, programming, staffing — always good to keep up on what’s going on.
The opening keynote from Mr. Ditter focused on character development — and how it’s a natural part of what we do at camp. The out of doors, problem solving, community building — research demonstrates the importance of all of that in building kids, and people, with grit and character. Camp stands out in our world today as a place where we do all that naturally. We know in our soul that camp is good for kids, and it’s so affirming to see the research demonstrate it. But heck, research or not, we’ve know all along that camp is a special place in our world.