Building tomorrow's leaders - African-American residential camp Camp Atwater

Residential camps are truly an exception to the axiom, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all." Camp Atwater, the oldest and most prestigious African American summer camp in the country, is a quintessential example of why camps do not fit this pigeonhole description.

Camp Atwater's mission is to offer a quality residential camp experience within an Afrocentric framework for all camper participants. The camp's goal is to create an experience that will assist in the development of positive values. Campers are encouraged to develop:

leadership capacity: they all have the potential to lead;

character: respect for themselves and others;

citizenship: do not avoid responsibility for a government that belongs to them;

interpersonal communication: speak to people rather than at them, and become an excellent listener;

personal and educational confidence: they can achieve their goals and they can learn anything, with effective work effort;

environmental awareness: their quality of life is enhanced by knowing, appreciating and protecting their environment;

physical fitness: wellness is essential for overall growth; and

cultural awareness: define themselves in terms of the long story of their legacy.

Campers between the ages of six and 16 come from all parts of the United States and from various Caribbean and African countries to the camp's 70-acre mainland and 3.5-acre island on the picturesque Lake Lashaway in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Currently the only African American-owned camp that is ACA-accredited, Camp Atwater has served over 55,000 youth during its 72-year history.

Origins

Camp Atwater was founded in 1921 by Dr. William N. DeBerry, pastor of St. John's Congregation Church and founder of the Urban League of Springfield. The initial mission of Camp Atwater, then called St. John's Camp, was to provide a recreational experience for little "colored boys and girls" whose families had recently migrated to Springfield, Massachusetts, from southern states. However, because access to residential camp experiences was inhibited for African Americans during this period due to legislative and defacto racial segregation, many middle-income and affluent African Americans also sent their children to Camp Atwater.

The camp gained its name "Atwater" in 1926 when Mary Atwater donated $25,000 to Dr. DeBerry with the proviso that the camp's name be changed to the David Fisher Atwater Camp to honor her deceased father, a prominent Springfield area physician.

Operating Philosophy

The Camp Atwater residential camp program is a cultural, educational, recreational and leadership development experience. The vast majority of the camper population and staff are African Americans, so the camp has structured an Afrocentric program in an effort to facilitate an effective and comfortable experience for the entire camp family.

Atwater has programs and activities not unlike most typical residential camps, such as basketball, soccer, boating, swimming, arts and crafts, environmental education, tennis, archery, drama, and more. But Camp Atwater complements its offerings with what could be called an "experiential relevance" that makes the camp not only fun and interesting, but also developmental.

Camp Atwater makes a few broad-based assumptions about its African American camper population. First, the majority of African American children do not have significant exposure to their history. Second, the majority of African American children receive continuous negative stimuli and messages in their interaction with the larger environment that suggests: * they are inferior and they cannot learn as well as whites; * they are perpetually "at risk" of being failures; * African American males are violent and should be

feared; * whites are smart, African Americans are not; * whites represent the

only standard of human beauty; * African American history is not important and Africa

and Africans made little contribution to the world.

At times, these messages are conspicuous through the expressions of white supremacists. However, most often these messages are fairly subtle and imperceptible. But the impact on the receivers of the messages is cumulative and devastating. Some examples of these negative messages are illustrated in the following: * school tracking; * exclusive gifted and talented programs; * disproportionate numbers of African American students

placed in pupil adjustment; * disproportionate incidents of police brutality on young

African American males; * insufficient coverage of African and African American

history in school texts and curricula; * consistent negative media images (news and entertainment).

The third assumption on which Camp Atwater's program is based is that African American children (all children, for that matter) will behave in direct relationship to the expectations significant others have for them. This self-fulfilling prophecy has been proven over and over again, cross-culturally.

The Atwater experience integrates the knowledge of self and cultural awareness throughout most all camp activities. The program staff members are selected based not only on their ability to teach subject areas or manage various administrative functions, but also on their knowledge of African and African American history and on their commitment toward the development of children. Program staff are encouraged to make consistent references to significant African and African American events and personalities relating to the subject or skill areas being taught to campers.

Afrocentric Programming

The camp offers a daily structure that starts with 6:55 a.m. wake-up, inspection, breakfast, classes of choice, lunch, rest period, afternoon classes, free time and a specialty period where campers who want to receive added instruction or work on special projects may do so. Campers who choose not to take African history, drama, dance or art, where the strongest infusion of African and African American history and culture is offered, need not worry. Camp Atwater is able to expose all campers and staff to Afrocentric cultural dimensions through evening assemblies, the availability of reading material in the camp library, and the presence of five to seven students from African countries who serve as counselors or program staff.

Within the organized, structured activities, a typical day at Camp Atwater will have campers like James from Springfield talking with Jamal from Alabama and Leroy from Atlanta; while Darryl from Washington, D.C. and Brick from Miami, along with counselors Julian from Los Angeles and FeFe from Decar, Senegal, listen to what life is like for James, Jamal and Leroy in their particular domiciles. Of course, the listeners soon become participants, once they hear something that is significantly similar or different from their experiences. This vicarious learning experience is one of many Atwater cultivates and enhances among its entire camp family.

The camp's biggest achievement is that all campers are told in a nurturing manner there is nothing wrong with them and they can learn and achieve their dreams notwithstanding whatever counter messages they receive from the larger society. Campers learn this not through words, but from the achievements they experience in math mania, rocketry, forensics, drama, camp mayor and hut city council elections, athletic tournaments, inter/intra camp activities, and the Business Basics program. These experiences add to campers' belief and confidence that they can and will succeed in realizing their dreams. Reinforcement is offered during Career Days, during which campers can meet and listen to presentations by African American role models: professional and crafts people such as physicians, chemists, environmental specialists, teachers, pilots, engineers, lawyers and business owners.

Camp Atwater's value-based programming also encourages a respect for the environment, its people and all living things. Campers are taught they can gain such respect through teamwork, individual effort, and the sharing of ideas. In addition, Atwater campers are taught that everyone can make a contribution if they are free, internally and externally, to share. Hence, positive reinforcement from both staff and campers is emphasized.

Like most camps, Atwater's effectiveness relies on its staff. The counselors are the most important agents for the development of the campers; they can build or take away the confidence of our children quicker than any adult staff member. Consequently, Atwater's five-day staff training covers interpersonal communication skills, camp history, expectations Atwater has for staff and campers, drug awareness, child abuse awareness, and principles and concepts of leadership and development in general. Most of Atwater's counselors are college and high school students, so the camp offers a developmental experience for them as well.

Camp Atwater does not hesitate to highlight notable alumni as illustrative examples of what is possible for the campers to achieve if they reach for their best -- individuals like Cliff Wharton, chairman and CEO of the CIAA-CREF pension fund and newly appointed U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Ron Brown, Democratic National Committee chairman and U.S. Secretary of Commerce (whose parents, wife and daughter also attended Atwater); Hazel O'Leary, U.S. Secretary of Environmental Affairs; Sam Pierce, the former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Elma Lewis, the director of the African American Cultural Arts Center; and Bertrand Lee, Multimedia property owner and former owner of the Denver Nuggets.

In the Future

Although civil rights battles have opened up access for African Americans at majority camps, there still remains a significant demand from African American parents who want a quality Afrocentric camp experience for their children. The primary reason stated by most parents is that they have a desire or need to preserve positive black family values, a sense of community and a healthy self-definition for their children. Many say this is important because most successful African Americans work and live in a majority setting where their children attend majority schools. The challenges of racism and cultural sensitivity are still major challenges in those settings. A place such as Atwater offers African American youth a cultural and race sensitive environment able to celebrate their heritage, which includes their ancestral contributions to the world.

It must be noted that Camp Atwater cannot accommodate all the African American children available to camps and needing access. However, majority camps could provide a similar program. A camp doesn't have to become exclusively Afrocentric in order to achieve a culturally and racially sensitive camp environment.

By substantially diversifying staff at all levels and including programming that complements the camper population, changes will occur. Your planning and operations will develop a rhythm and flavor that will be attractive and digestive to all your campers and staff. Campers will see themselves and what makes them tick reflected in the camp activities. And minority parents will respond right away to the message you are sending via the camp administration's efforts.

Camp Atwater is indeed a special place. But with hope, all camps will someday offer to all minorities some of that same specialness.

Henry M. Thomas, III, is president/CEO of the Urban League of Springfield, Massachusetts.

COPYRIGHT 1993 American Camping Association
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group