Got nature-deprived kids? Summer camp is here to the rescue

To the Editor:
Growing up as a kid in our modern world can be tough and filled with new challenges. Summer camp is here to help.
Children today are more connected than they have ever been, but also more isolated. Camp can help. With a constant stream of entertainment and unlimited options for their free time, the joy of making new friends by inventing a game together in the woods is becoming a lost art. Camp can help. Kids can feel an enormous pressure to act a certain way, belong to a certain group, to be anything but themselves. Camp can help.
Located in the heart of Stokes State Forest, Lindley G. Cook 4-H Camp sits on 108 acres all to itself. While upon first glance, one may only see an old Dining Hall, eleven rustic cabins, and the serene waters of Lake Shawanni; the campers who have spent time here know 4-H Camp is far more than the sum of its geographical parts.
L.G. Cook, New Jersey’s state 4-H Camp, is a non-profit organization operated by Rutgers University with enrollment open to all youth ages 8-16. Our campers come from all different backgrounds and communities across the tristate area. Being a member of 4-H is not a requirement to attend camp; in fact, the majority of our campers are not 4-H members.
We’ve been running summer camps here since 1951, and we continue to offer the same classic American camping experience we always have. This means Camp is an unplugged tech-free setting where campers interact socially the old fashioned way: making friends face to face by sharing jokes, telling stories, and discovering what we all have in common. A camper’s week at Lindley G. Cook might be the only six days out of their entire year that they don’t come in contact with a cell phone or computer screen.
Sleep-away camp is meant to be campers’ home away from home, a place where they can become the best versions of themselves. The two central pillars of our program are kindness and respect because the campers’ emotional and physical safety is L.G. Cook’s highest priority. The staff work tirelessly to ensure that Camp is a caring, nurturing environment where everyone belongs, where differences are celebrated as strengths, and every camper realizes that he or she is an integral and unique part of our camp family.
Camp also teaches personal responsibility through the philosophy that we all work together to take care of our home. Throughout our classic camp activities campers learn by doing and pick up crucial life skills along the way. They learn the excitement of trying new things as they kayak at the waterfront, or hold a bow for the first time. Campers gain independence and autonomy when they select their own afternoon activities or make up their bunk in the morning. Self-confidence is fostered as they create a talent show skit with their cabin mates or strike up a conversation with a new friend around the lunch table or campfire.
More than anything, we have found that what makes an exceptional camp is an exceptional staff. Through an intensive hiring and training process we search for extraordinary counselors who can be all that the job requires: part role-model, part teacher, part older sibling, part friend. A majority of counselors were campers at L.G. Cook, went through our Counselor in Training program, and now want to create the same fantastic experience they enjoyed for a new generation of campers.
What can be lost in the myriad of all these real benefits Camp offers is perhaps its most important feature...it’s so much fun. Every session of Camp includes so many wild events, goofy songs, and indescribable moments that mere stories at the end of the week can’t quite seem to capture what transpired. Many of our campers declare their week at Camp to be their favorite of the whole year and return summer after summer all through their youth.
We believe every child deserves the chance to go away to summer camp, and we strive to keep our rates as low as possible to try to give every kid the opportunity to become a camper. We hold six day sessions, Monday-Saturday, throughout all of July and the first half of August. Campers can come one session, or multiple ones.
If you’ve never considered sending your child to camp before, I hope you will. If you’ve been looking for the right camp to fit your needs, please give Lindley G. Cook a look. We offer camp tours daily upon request, September through June. You can reach out to us at the Camp Office at 973-948-3550 or by visiting our website, nj4hcamp.rutgers.edu. We hope to see you here soon.
Jaclyn Bealer, Assistant Program Director
Lindley G. Cook 4-H Camp