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Home » Blog » Giving Kids the Wings to Fly

Giving Kids the Wings to Fly

Sunday morning I drove my 23-year-old daughter Erin to JFK Airport.  She was setting off on a 3 month adventure in Southeast Asia. Our early morning drive was not a talkative one, but we managed to spend part of the trip discussing the sights she would see, a father’s concern for safety and the request that she call home at least once in a while. Our curbside goodbye, while heartfelt, was brief and easy.  It made me think of other smooth goodbyes… previous international trips, heading off to college and her many summers at camp.

As I drove back home I thought of similarly-easy transitions with our older daughter Allison – another experienced international traveler and summer camp veteran.  I specifically thought of a call my wife Laurie and I received from Allie a few days after we dropped her off at Wheaton College.  She was in a quad dorm room and was dealing with three crying roommates… missing home and pining away for boyfriends.  An exasperated Allison said to us “Didn’t these girls ever go to camp?”

I have no doubt that my daughters’ abilities to transition so successfully into new environments is completely due to their experiences at sleep-away camp – an especially-wonderful place in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts called Chimney Corners Camp.  They’ve each spent 15+ summers at CCC… and I’m only slightly disappointed that I can’t get them to shift their allegiance and come work with me at Mason.  Well, not really – I fully understand such camp loyalty.

But here’s the point: Summer camp builds more confident and independent kids.  Going to camp teaches children how to get along with others, how to adjust to new environments and how to work through challenging situations.  These are skills and experiences that will pay dividends in so many other situations.  I know it did for my girls.

Kids come to camp to swim and to play, to have fun and to make friends.  But the value of camp reaches far beyond these experiences.  Camp gives kids the wings to fly.

Now, if only Erin would call to let me know that she got to Thailand safely…

 

Dave DeLuca