Chronicle poll results: Summer camp
PollOur readers share their views

Chronicle poll results: Summer camp

We asked our readers if they had ever attended summer camp as a camper or a counselor. Here's what they said.

Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Were you ever a camper or a counselor at a summer camp?” Of the 312 people who responded, 39% said, “Yes, a camper”; 4% said, “Yes, a counselor”; 40% said, “Yes, a camper and a counselor”; and 17% said, “No.” Comments were submitted by 82 people. A few follow.

Informal Jewish education, such as summer camp, is vital to the future of the Jewish people.

My mother made me go; I hated it!

The old “Emma Farm” in Harmony. Still very fond memories after all of the years.

I was both a camper and a counselor in Mexico. This experience changed my life for good. I became part of a team. People that I met there are still considered part of my family.

I was both, because it is a Jewish rite of passage. It is a great concept to experience both because it helps kids learn to be independent, get outside their comfort zone, grow new skills, and make lifelong friendships/memories.

Summer camp was the most formidable experience of my life. My wife and three sons had similar experiences. Collectively, we had over 45 overnight seasons.

Emma Kaufmann Camp was one of the greatest, and most developmental, experiences of my life. I am 71 years old and still have good friends from those years.

Met my husband at Emma Kaufmann Camp when I was 12. Ran into him several year later in Pittsburgh and we have been married for 35 years.

The best times of my childhood were spent at overnight camp as a camper and as a counselor.

My family could not afford to send me to camp. I feel that it’s an experience that every child should have. I made sure that my own children got to go.

Every child should have wonderful camping experiences! I was a camper at Camp Wood Echo. I was a counselor at Camp Comet. Amazing memories of friends, activities, snakes, tadpoles, crayfish, poison ivy, shooting stars, s’mores, dancing to Elvis (whatever that was ), girls (whatever that was), campfires, sleeping bags, sports, learning lots of new stuff… priceless.

Chaim Potok was my camp director. Those two summers changed my life!

As were many Jewish kids from Pittsburgh, I was blessed to experience four summers at two-month drop-offs at Camp Lynnwood.

I hated camp. I can see how it could have been fun, but it wasn’t for me.

These experiences were defining. My Jewish overnight camp provided a lifetime of connections. PJC

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