Out-Smart, Houston’s gay, lesbian, bi and trans magazine, May 2003
“Camping It Up: Summer camp isn't just for kids anymore”
By Eric A. T. Dieckman
“Every morning you meet with your Rainbow Group,” explains Ron Begal, a 'Camp' Camp veteran. “You check your mailbag. Maybe there’s a word of encouragement from a new pal, or an invitation to play in a softball game, or a note from a secret admirer.”
Beginning August 18, this is the way folks will begin their day at 'Camp' Camp, a woodsy retreat in Kezar Falls, Maine. During most of the summer, this is a camp for teens, but for one week, it’s a getaway for GLBT men and women. By the end of the week, which ends with – what else? – Sunday brunch, campers leave with a head full of memories and an address book full of new friends.
“You get to know people in the different activities you do,” says Begal, who lives in Montrose. “You get to know people through your Rainbow Group. You get to know people at the functions each night. You’re constantly meeting new people.” Rainbow Group? That’s a small subset of the 200-plus campers (generally 55 percent men, 45 percent women), which meets each morn to compare notes and share stories, chitchat, and provide support and a strong sense of community.
'Camp' Camp is the seven-year-old brainchild of Bill Cole, a 55-year-old marketing and strategic planner for educational institutions. While Cole did attend a number of summer camps as a youngster, he did not have many good experiences with camp. “I grew up on a dairy farm in Virginia, so the camps I went to were 4H camps,” he recalls. “The first time I went I was terribly homesick and I hated it. All the big kids picked on me.”
His opinion of camps changed while teaching at a school outside of Washington, D.C., that had 800 acres of land and a summer-camp program. “The head of the school asked me to take it over. She realized I had a great way of organizing things,” he says. “And that’s when I fell in love with camp. Seeing these kids in a camp environment, where they weren’t caught up with grades and all that mess, I was totally blown over.”
A late bloomer, Cole did not emerge from his closet until the tender age of 49. He had been married twice, the second time for 12 years (to a woman he still loves dearly). After they separated, Cole helped his ex move to Boston. In return, she put him on a ferry to Provincetown. “I spent a week there, walking up and down Commercial Street, weeping mostly, missing her,” he recalls. “It was carnival week in Provincetown. Everybody was shaven-headed, nipple-pierced, ear-ringed and tattooed – all the things I wasn’t.”
Cole didn’t find his niche in P-Town, but he did begin to think. He didn’t know any other gay people. He loved camping, and he was already a member of the American Camping Association. Why not start a gay summer camp for adults? “I started 'Camp' Camp a month after I came out.”
Many 'Camp' Campers find a week in cool, breezy Maine to be like a good potato chip: You can’t stop at just one. Most return year after year, if for no other reason than to sample more activities. Doing everything in one week is impossible. Campers Begal, 47, his partner Charles Pasch, 45, and their friend, David Crawford, 35, will all return this summer. Pasch is looking forward to his third year at the camp, located on the comically named Lake Stanley. The others will make their second visit.
Begal and Pasch became partners after Pasch’s first trip to 'Camp' Camp. During their visit together last summer, the two busybodies made matching silver rings and learned the value of relaxation. Upon their return, says Begal, “I think we became much closer.”
Crawford, a massage therapist, loves the outdoor adventure as well as the affordability. “For $800 for a week’s vacation, meals included?” he says with a laugh. “Money is an issue, and rock climbing is the major [attraction] for me. I had never gotten to do that before. And Maine in August? It’s a highlight just to get out of our heat.” With a modest list of rules, among them prohibitions on cell phones, Walkmans, newspapers, TVs, alcohol, or drugs, the camp is a sanctuary from the stresses of life. “You get to be a kid. It was a great escape from the real world,” says Crawford, who anticipates another summer week of nonstop outdoor action, including hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking.
Pasch, an accountant, appreciates the same bottom line Crawford relishes. “I think it’s a bargain, too, as far as what we spend and what we get out of it,” Pasch says. “We’ve been on vacation in P-Town, and we spend quite a bit per night on lodging alone. This camp is already less than that per night, not counting the food and so forth.” (The food is not typical camp-mush either. Didi Emmons, chef at the acclaimed Delux Café in Boston, makes the kitchen sing.) Pasch anticipates reuniting with friends from last summer and lots of sailing, fishing and canoeing.
Begal, a software sales manager, completed the beginner and intermediate ropes course last year. This summer, he will conquer the expert level, go hiking and rock climbing, and learn watercolor painting and stained-glass making.
Of course campers can always just lie out on the Lake Stanley sandbar. But the existence of a shore doesn’t mean a beachy meat market. This is no circuit party or bathhouse.
Despite the no-drugs-or-booze rule at 'Camp' Camp, there are a few evening events where alcohol is served, but imbibing is not encouragement to lose control. “Some people come expecting it to be sex in the woods,” Cole says. “It’s not. That’s not to say sex doesn’t happen. We say it’s sex-positive but not sex-focused.”
Whether or not you land a bunk buddy, extra cushioning for your bed at 'Camp' Camp is a good idea. “The downfall is the bedding,” Crawford says. “The padding is about four inches thick. It’s better than sleeping on the ground.” Consider an inflatable mattress or an extra sleeping bag. For those unable to schlep loads of stuff from home, sleeping bags and pillows are available. They will make sleepy time more comfortable.
Speaking of bedtime, 'Camp' Camp has no stern monitors that campers will recall from their childhoods. “We don’t have cabin counselors,” Cole points out, “so you don’t have to sneak into [or out of] your cabin at night. No ‘Lights out.’
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