An All Girls Camp . . . Disaster or Delightful? One Girl Spills the Truth

[redqueen]

http://buffalogrove.patch.com/blog_posts/an-all-girls-camp-disaster-or-delightful-one-girl-spills-the-truth

What happens when you put 300 pre-teen and teen-aged girls together? The answer might surprise you.

My 14-year-old daughter breaks my heart every summer as she joyfully hops on her camp bus to her so called “home away from home”. She leaves this Sunday so I asked her if she’d write my July blog for me. I didn’t tell her what she could or should write about and this is what she gave me:

Every summer I go to an all girls’ camp in Northern Wisconsin. Not only is my summer camp for girls, but it’s also for unity, the strength to be courageous, and most importantly sisterhood. The average person probably doesn’t understand why we camp girls get so excited every summer. They think to themselves, “Who cares if blue team or white team wins? It’s just a color.” or even the classic “Why would you want to spend 4 to 8 weeks of your summer six and a half hours away from home?”

Well to all of you non-campers, those 4 to 8 weeks of our summer means more to us then just learning to ski around the lake or making a pretty necklace in arts & crafts. Yes, those activities are important, but the real reason we go to camp is for the thrill of knowing that we are truly loved and cared for no matter who we are. At camp you’re allowed to sing at the top of your lungs even though you are probably tone-deaf. And at camp you’re allowed to join archery even if you can’t aim like Katniss Everdeen. No matter what age, race, or personality, every single girl is cared about and loved unconditionally.

My parents absolutely love that I go to camp. They love that I’m free to be whoever I want to be and I’m in an environment that I will be accepted no matter what. My mom loves that I can be a dancer, or a skier, or even a gymnast at camp. Although my dad loves these things too, I think he also loves that there are no boys at camp. Because there are no boys, the pressure to change who we are to impress the boys has been lifted off our shoulders. We don’t feel the need to wear makeup or act a certain way. We feel beautiful in our skin because at camp we are loved for our pure and true self.

...

[HockeyMom]

1. Growing up in NYC I went to an all Girls Camp in the Catskills

My parents wanted me to experience the country. It was nice being in the mountains, swimming in lakes, etc. This back in the early 60s. My problem was that I had gone through puberty at 10 years old. The camp felt because of this, I should be grouped with older girls. While physically I may have been like the 13 and 14 year old girls, maturity wise I just didn't fit in with them. That part just didn't work out.

My own daughters were athletes and went to sports camps which were co-ed and not sleep away.

[seabeyond]

5. that was wrong and haev never heard anything like that. what absurd thinking. nt

[seabeyond]

2. that camp seems to be doing a very good job with the girls.

i went to different camps growing up. i am not remember stereotypical ugly. it all seems to be good. i also did not feel the same thing this girl is feeling. simply, we did not have the same pressure in my time, the girls have today.

very good. thanks

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Girl Scout camp was a disaster for me. I didn't fit in and my tentmates actually

bribed me to trade tents with someone else because they just didn't like me. Whatever.

[redqueen]

7. Wow, what nasty kids.

I never went to camp but if I had I'm sure it would have been like that.

[loli phabay]

15. thats pretty much kidds for you. they want to be around their friends

What did tbey bribe you with and i hope you held out for something good.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. A Beetle Bailey comic book. *shrug* I didn't put up too much of a fight. I knew

they would just keep harping on me, so I made the switch. The girls in the new tent were nicer to me anyway.

[loli phabay]

18. i call that a win win

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. :^)

[CrispyQ]

4. I would have loved that place!

At camp you’re allowed to sing at the top of your lungs even though you are probably tone-deaf. And at camp you’re allowed to join archery even if you can’t aim like Katniss Everdeen. No matter what age, race, or personality, every single girl is cared about and loved unconditionally.

I recall my high school gym teacher. She was mean toward girls who were not fit & athletic. I was a tall, skinny kid, but terribly out of shape. Remember the old Presidential fitness tests we had to take? I couldn't even run the entire 600 yard dash! But instead of encouraging the less fit ones to get in shape, & being a role model for us, this teacher did a terrible disservice to us all & made fun of us. She would gather the girls who had already crossed the finish line & they would laugh at all us slow ones as we crossed. I wonder how much my loathing of exercise stems from those awful experiences.

[seabeyond]

6. old Presidential fitness tests

i wanted to brag that i loved when that came around, and i kicked ass in all this. the only tough one was climbing the rope. but once i learned how to do that, i beat everyone. BUT.... what you are saying your experience is, is so ugly.... now i do not feel comfortable bragging about how i loved doing the presidential fitness test.

in all my time in sports, i never experienced a coach that had that attitude. i have seen jerk coaches. i was lucky to have very high character coaches. but, that was nasty. you have both gender coaches that feel humiliation and demeaning the person will push them. son and i have talked about that. he has one for track. it does the opposite with most kids.

[CrispyQ]

12. She was the exception, not the rule.

My junior high PE instructor was not like that. She wasn't overly encouraging, but she wasn't mean. For the most part, most of the boys liked their PE instructors.

The mean one was also the only coach/PE teacher who didn't teach another class. The junior high girls PE instructor taught English. All the men coaches & PE teachers taught other classes, with the exception of one, who was also the Vice Principal of the school. I don't know if that would make a difference. I wonder what she would do if she taught math & her favorites in gym class weren't so smart at equations?

She'll never know how many girls she turned off to fitness & exercise because of her meanness. There were many of us who were relieved when we become juniors, because then PE was optional, not mandatory.

Are you still in awesome shape?

[seabeyond]

14. i do not know about awesome

because being this all my life, at a certain age, one can never be that again. i am fit though.... and it has stayed a lifetime. my body still has to move and exercise, i have just adjusted with age. that is the importance to me, that i worked so hard teaching the boys. my oldest gets it now that he has applied himself in his sport, my youngest doesn't quite get it, yet. if at a young age you did exercise/sport and was in top shape, it really tends to stay with a person a lifetime. the body memory. and the need to have that feel.

i have a couple nieces that haven't exercised their entire life, and i think that is sad. i think it will really effect them as they age.

i think there is all kinds of ways we can stay fit. implement it thru out the day, if one doesnt really like to set time aside for exercise.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. I got rope burned in jr high because of a gym teacher like that

same attitude you describe, and her 'favorite' girls learned at her knee.
One day, the first time I had ever made it to the top, just as I was swiping the ceiling.. the 'favorite' who was holding the rope jerked it. I heard the giggles even as I was rocketing to the floor and the skin was peeling off my hands.

[seabeyond]

9. that is horrible. i wonder what world i was in that i didnt see, or know, or experience this ugly

i just was not a part of it.

[CrispyQ]

13. Ouch!

The last day of high school was one of my happiest! I had an uncle tell me during my junior year, "Treasure these times! They are the best of your life!" I remember thinking, "Oh shit, I hope he's wrong!" Thankfully, for me, he was.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Would the same perceived benefit of all-girls camp extend to all-girls classroom? n/t

[redqueen]

11. Camp is a couple of months in the summer, and recreational...

while school is much longer, and more educational.

Not sure how your question relates to this OP. There are sex segregated schools. You are welcome to discuss them in a thread about schools.

[loli phabay]

16. you know im kinda on the fence on this

Dont think i would be bothered if my kids were in same sex classes.

[ismnotwasm]

19. I think I went to some kind of camp once

It was co-Ed, must have been a middle school function. A few students snuck out at night to meet each other and get high. What I remember most is getting trouble for something and getting busted by a drunk teacher, (evidently the teachers had their own thing going on) but seeing how he never mentioned it the next day, I figured he didn't remember.

I also was kicked out of a marching band I was in for about three weeks after a long trip. In retrospect, I was the anti-social one, not the girls around me.

A camp like the one described sounds wonderful to me.


What I wonder about is affordability; I know there are camps and scholarships for camps for low income kids but not nearly enough. Young women who are damaged in certain ways when they are young have a kind of emotional armor to the point it's very hard for them not to see enemies. Add poverty to that and you have a potential for unreachable kids.

It would be nice to see more of these positive experiences available for all children.