iworld.

For the past month or so I have been in Hendersonville, North Carolina acting my age with young campers!  I believe camp is a critical part of a child's growth because not only does it take a child and place them in a situation where they have to make new friends face-to-face, but it creates a completely real environment with no technology to distract them.  Camp is 100% kid, which unfortunately the environment we live in now... is not.

Generations past talk about how different children are from their times.  I know my parents always talk about how much more time they spent outside with other neighborhood children; building forts, playing cops&robbers, learning how to interact with their peers with absolutely zero technology, & watching cartoons only on Saturday mornings.  Kids were described as "better seen, not heard."

My generation has the kids that grew up watching "Hey, Arnold,""Boy Meets World," and "Growing Pains."  The generation where computers were completely up and running in every house hold, video games transitioned from Nintendo64 to Game Cube to X-Box, & texting became the new fad.

However, this generation of kids was born texting & with touch screens.  They live in an "iworld."

Technology is a great thing, but is almost a contagious virus, if you will.  It has spread all across the world & is unstoppable.  There is no cure for it's aggression & people have accepted it as an integral part of their lives.  They go everywhere with their ipads, iphones, Nooks, Kindles, & more... for kids technology has replaced the "baby blanket" that trailed them everywhere.

Camp Pinnacle feeds off the idea of individuals being their "best self."  A time when no one is watching where you just are the epitome of great.  Whether it is helping others, working on something with an incredible amount of determination & endurance, or cleaning up trash that may not even be yours... being your "best self" happens so much at camp.  Kids start depending on others for entertainment rather than technology, they have hands on experience with outdoor activities rather than watching it on the big screen, & spend two whole weeks loving nature & what it has to offer.

Pure joy comes out at camp as well.  Roasting marshmallows & making s'mores by a real campfire, getting dirty but loving it, singing oldies but goodies with some of your favorite people, interacting with different age groups & even adults on a healthy level, learning to conquer some real fears in a reasonable risk kind of way, being able to get back up after you get knocked down, & just looking up at the stars at night or across the reflective lake & just love nature for the very first time brings out the best in everyone.

As an adult (sort of) observer, I can now look back on my camp experience & think how lucky I was to go to camp almost every summer from the time I was eight.  Looking back even further you realize how important the little moments were.  The singing every Sunday at the bluff, the great songs I learned, the overnights I had where we just stared at the stars, the first mountain I climbed.  Somehow, going to camp just makes you feel accomplished & fearless.

Just four weeks at camp I learned all this.  Imagine the impact on a child.

Camp can be the changing factor in a kid's life.  For me, it challenged me to work hard for a beautiful reward, meet new people, & actually love the outdoors.  Wouldn't you want that for your kid?

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