Summer Camps for Pagan Children: The Absence of Adventure

You would think that summer camps and Pagan children would go together like ice cream and waffle cones. Unfortunately, there is a serious gap in getting summer camps appropriate to Pagan children, particularly ones that are affordable.

Why? Well, because so many summer camps are sponsored by religious organizations. Pagan organizations tend to be sparse and/or ill-funded. Christians, however, have church groups in spades.

This means that affordable choices are often reduced to A) day camps for art or technology, B) 5-day or week-long camps for one sport or another, or C) 5-day or week-long summer camps that start and end each day with a prayer service.

Don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge other religions their beliefs, but I attended one of these camps with a "prayer service." We went horseback riding, swimming, canoing. We played Capture the Flag, and roasted marshmallows over a campfire. And nearly every single attendee was convinced to "accept Jesus into your heart" through individual prayer and counselling by the camp staff.

The point is, having a traditional camp experience, with a variety of outdoor activities, is incredibly difficult to find without the strings of (often Christian) religion attached. Attempts have been made to create Pagan-centered summer camps for kids but, so far as I can tell, they have all fallen away.

It might be worth it for us, as a community, to consider what the core issue is. Is the community just not family-oriented enough for kids' summer camps to be a priority? Is it that Pagans aren't supporting our spiritual organizations to the degree that such a sponsorship would happen?

Growing as a community means we need to start considering the needs of our future generations. We are seeing more and more Pagans raised in the Craft, and surely we will see even more in the future. Let's give those kids some memories and adventures, too.