CAMP CHAMPS

For many Mat-Su Valley kids, camp is as much a part of summer as the long days, swimming, fishing and the outdoors.

Summer camp is also a refuge from boredom for children who need a place to go and things to do while parents are away working. As technology makes the world a smaller place and with the cost of living rising dramatically over the past year, area summer camps report they’re holding their own this year.

At the Amazing Race Kids Camp, a week-long Salvation Army-sponsored camp held at King’s Lake Camp in Wasilla, children get a week of fun, organized outdoors activities while also learning spiritual lessons. Designed to help kids get in touch with nature, healthy living and themselves, Kids Camp is one of seven one-week camps the Salvation Army has hosted for the past 10 summers at its cabin facility by King’s Lake.

This past week, the rustic cabins set between the Matanuska mountains and the lake set the stage for 48 campers age 7 to 13 to just be kids.

Donna Bakke, program director of the Salvation Army’s King’s Lake Camp facility, said this year’s Kids Camp helps instill a sense of self-worth in children while they learn that it’s OK to have fun without a television or computer monitor in front of them.

“Most of the time we see our kids sitting in front of their X-Boxes and Wii games for fun instead of exploring Mother Nature,” Bakke said. “We think kids should take advantage of summer camp by exploring God’s beauty.”

This is Bakke’s sixth year directing Kids Camp, designed by both Salvation Army ministry members and the community at large.

“I really love working with these kids,” she said. “They get a sense that there are other ways to have fun besides being cooped up indoors all summer long.”

The kids, many home-schooled, are from the Valley, but also are drawn from Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Each of the Salvation Army’s seven camps caters to the specific needs of kids in the group, Bakke said. They are Teen Camp, Music Camp, Adventure Corps, Family Camp, Salvation Army Youth (SAY) Camp and Senior Camp.

King’s Lake Camp has long been the setting for summer and winter retreats as far back as the 1920s with the Salvation Army purchasing the 125-acre facility and surrounding properties in 1998, Bakke said.

For this past week, campers began each day with a wake-up call and flag-raising ceremony. They then retreated to their cabins, each cabin holding three bunk beds. After a morning sermon from the Salvation Army chaplain, it’s off to start activities.

Outdoor electives include standard summer camp activities, like swimming, boating, canoeing, hiking, arts and crafts, group sports and archery. After a quick lunch, it’s back to the recreation, where campers pick from a list of other activities. All-inclusive games like capture the flag and a healthy dinner close out the day before a ceremony to lower the American flag.

The television series “Amazing Race” inspired this past week’s theme. Campers were given clues leading them to their next activities. After completing two electives, campers were thrown on a detour, where a certain task has to be completed by the next morning for that team to receive points. Detours included finding a painted rock and placing it front of a blue trailer by the entrance of the campgrounds. Some detours included mathematical and vocabulary challenges, with answers leading to more clues.

“It’s a creative way to stay with the theme,” Bakke said of the competition. “We add up the points at the end of the week and hand out prizes to the winners.”

Similar activities are planned for this week’s SAY and Teen camps.

Fun in the outdoors

Tiffany Mae, 12, adjusts her inside-out shirt before heading out on her first adventure with a group of girls in Jody Wildeboer’s hiking congregation. It is “Backwards, Inside-Out and Crazy Hair Day” at the camp.

“This part is a lot of fun,” Mae said. “I could be at home, but I like it here.”

“I love the outdoors,” said Grace Barnett, 12, a home-schooler. “My dad has taken us camping quite a few times already this year. I wish this was five weeks instead of one.”

Wildeboer, a first-year camp counselor, said she came to King’s Lake Camp via Haines, where she works at a Salvation Army thrift store.

“I have a big heart for these kids,” Wildeboer said. “They’re a joy to be around. It reminds me a lot of when I was at camp as a kid — same thing, only older.”

Jenna Stump, Amazing Race Kids Camp crafts director, remembers her first Salvation Army summer camp in 1998, when she was in elementary school. Not much has changed since then, she said.

“We would do pretty much the same things, but it was all about the swimming and making new friends for me then,” Stump said.

Stump has returned as a camp counselor three times over the past five summers, having grown up in the Valley and attended what she considers the “great ministry” of the Salvation Army.

“This is my favorite,” Kyler Keske, 11, yells as he climbs the wall of a large, inflatable water slide in the shape of an iceberg. “It’s kind-of cold in the lake, but once you find a warm spot, it’s perfect.”

Matthew Bovey, 9, agrees.

An Aquarian Charter School student from Anchorage, Bovey was attending his second year at Kids Camp and said he hopes to return again next year. When told by his parents he’d be returning to King’s Lake Camp this summer, he couldn’t contain his excitement.

“I stuffed my face into my pillow and screamed,” he said. “It should be longer though.”

Camp competition

Bakke said enrollment numbers have slowly decreased over the past six years at the Salvation Army King’s Lake camps from more than 100 in 2002 to fewer than 50 campers this year. Major Dan Hughes, director of summer camp enrollment at the Salvation Army, said Teen Camp took the biggest blow this year, with only six registered to start for this week.

“There are so many things in society that occupy our kids these days,” Bakke said about why summer camp may not be as popular as it once was. “If they had the choice to do their own thing or play outside, unfortunately, they turn away from the camp idea. It’s unfortunate.”

Cost is another factor, he said. Salvation Army camps have a registration fee of about $125, which can fluctuate depending on the particular camp and the activities. There are also more summertime alternatives for kids than a traditional summer camp, like the Boys and Girls Club and various vacation Bible schools hosted by local churches.

“We try to find a price that people can afford,” Bakke said. “But we don’t want to turn anyone away either.”

The Boys and Girls Club operates year-round, but also offers summertime activities for local kids ages 6 to 18. The club carries a $20 fee for enrollment, excluding field trip fees, for the entire year. The Boys and Girls Club has more than 350 local kids enrolled in its summer program, club officials report, which is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Counselors host fun activities ranging from swimming, bowling and go-karting, to trips to H2Oasis, rock and rope climbs, local parks and an upcoming field trip to Boscos comic bookstore in Anchorage.

“We don’t have camps, but we have tons of activities,” said Gretchen Geist Dumbrow, an outreach coordinator for the Boys and Girls Club. “We provide a safe, positive environment for kids. They seem to like it enough to come back and enjoy the Club year-round.”

With more alternatives, area families should try to take advantage of everything available, the summer experts advised. Children attending the Boys and Girls Club throughout the summer can still take a week to participate in one of the traditional summer camp adventures, Bakke said.

The Salvation Army also arranges partial and entire scholarships to assist low-income families with camp fees, she said.

“We want these kids to learn about the ministry and themselves while having a blast all summer long,” she said. “Summer camp is meant to make memories and encourage future outdoor enthusiasts as well, which I think we do here.”

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com, or 352-2269.