Bay Windows , New England's largest LGBT Newspaper. July 27, 2006.

"Camp Camp Celebrates 10 Years "

A WEEK IN THE WOODS WITH OTHER LGBT CAMPERS

By Anthony King

It’s not everyday you get the chance to revert back to being a kid at summer camp. You know what I mean: swimming in the lake, playing a mean game of softball in the afternoon, hiking through the woods, bunking with other campers, toasting marshmallows on the fire. Camp Camp — “America’s premier summer camp for GLBT adults” — is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this August, and being a kid again is just how camp co-directors Susan Clinkenbeard and Kerry Riffle want their campers to feel.

Situated on two lakes in the Maine woods, Clinkenbeard and Riffle’s gay campers take over a space regularly used for a teen summer camp, so there are plenty of chances to experience those feelings of being a kid again, although this isn’t a place to take your kids. “Family camp is great,” Clinkenbeard tells me, “but sometimes you need a place where you can leave the kids at home, leave your pets at home, leave your Blackberries, your e-mail, your cell phones at home, and just be yourself for a week.”

Clinkenbeard feels every summer at camp is special, but celebrating 10 years is particularly exciting. “As part of the anniversary, we are going to have a birthday party, [and] we have many special events scheduled, including outside entertainment,” she says, although she didn’t want to ruin the surprise by saying who would be appearing. “[The guest entertainment] is something we’ve never done before,” she notes, “and it’s probably not something that we will continue to do. It’s something that we want to do for the birthday party.”

Camp Camp was founded in 1996 by Bill Cole, who, after coming out, began searching for a place to fit in the gay community. Cole, who Clinkenbeard says has always been involved with camping, decided to open a weeklong camp for LGBT campers who felt like he did. “It was brave,” Clinkenbeard says of Cole’s decision. “I think things have changed, but I think camping is still an area where homophobia exists,” which is one reason Clinkenbeard and Riffle are ambiguous of Camp Camp’s location. “That’s for security reasons,” she tells me.

“For my own personal experience, I was a very happy camper,” she says about attending summer camp as a child. “I went to camp 11 summers in a row. I was a counselor in training [and then] I was a counselor. I felt very invested in that. I dreamed of being a director someday.” But, she says, she realized it wouldn’t work “when I realized there was no way for me to be out at camp.”

Camp Camp is to “redeem that bad experience,” she says. Camp Camp offers participants the chance to make up for rough experiences as gay youth, but Clinkenbeard laughs off the idea that it’s a “recovery” camp. “We have some people who have had a bad experience, who probably had bad experiences as a kid in terms of being teased,” she says, but stresses that Camp Camp is “not about recovery.”

Not that it doesn’t come up. Clinkenbeard tells a favorite story about a camper who had yet to participate in sports. “He never hit a baseball. So to go to camp where we have softball, and all these mega-dykes were coaching him,” she trails off, laughing. “When he hit that ball, everyone was screaming their heads off. He thinks of that as his moment.”

Camp Camp participants run the gamut in age and stereotype. Anyone older than 18 is allowed to register, and Clinkenbeard is proud to say they have a regular who is now in his seventies. Regular campers mix with newbies, gay men with lesbians and vice versa. They also have had a good number of transgender participants, and she notes, “We’ve had people [participate] who are in the coming out process, and this is a great place for them to try that.”

The camp is set up to appeal to all types of campers, she says, especially those who don’t think of themselves as outdoor types. “If you are a real jock person, you can keep yourself occupied all week long. If you are intimidated by jocks and don’t have the least interest in that, you can do something else. What we do encourage people to do is to try something new, to stretch themselves”

And there are plenty of opportunities to try something new. Besides the usual softball and volleyball, Camp Camp organizers offer everything from canoe and kayaking to fishing and hiking, as well as more indoor activities like paper crafts, drawing, jewelry making and theater. There’s even a pottery wheel, and a class on working with stained glass, which Clinkenbeard says is one of the most popular.

“If you’re an early-to-rise person,” she says about a regular morning at camp, “you might get up and go get a cup of coffee and sit on the outside porch, or you might go sit in on the morning aerobics class.” I hesitate. “Or you might not,” she laughs. “I did it once.” She did say that she was a part of a “small band of die-hards” who make the daily swim across the lake. “I love it,” she says.

The afternoon activities are fairly typical, with mountain biking and swimming, but it’s in the evenings where campers get to show their stuff. Besides a barn dance, and the “Gay Gaymes” — which is “part game show, part wacky Olympics” — Camp Camp also organizes the annual “Talent/No Talent” show, the closing night ceremonies, and the infamous “Tea Dance and Pajama Party.”

For the Tea Dance, Clinkenbeard tells me there is a “cabin that’s devoted entirely to wardrobe and costume. Some people take their appearance very seriously, [and] I’m not talking about the girls,” she laughs. “You know the Tea Dance is underway when the parade of queens make their way across the field.”

Overall, Camp Camp sells itself as fun vacation where the LGBT community can get together to meet new people and have a good time, and past campers are loving it. “There are some people who came for their first one, and wouldn’t dream about having a summer when they didn’t come back,” Clinkenbeard says, beaming.

On a deeper level, it’s also a place where gays and lesbians can be out and comfortable. “One thing I’ve heard,” Clinkenbeard says, recalling past feedback, “is that [campers] are getting a view of what it’s like for straight people [and] how they live their days, every day. There is this overwhelming feeling of sadness about knowing you are going to [leave] and you’re not going to have that feeling again, because you’re safe, you’re in a majority, [and] you don’t have to think about how to act.”

The 411 on ‘Camp’ Camp

Date: Sunday to Sunday, Aug. 20-27, 2006

Location: Deep in the Maine woods several miles from Kezar Falls, Maine. It’s about two and a half hours from Boston.

Who’s there: Almost 200 campers and staff from across the country, including every type of LGBT person you can think of. Ages range from 18 to 70 (seriously), although the average camper is in his or her mid 30s.

Cost: $950 for the week

Bathrooms?: Uh, yeah. Plus running water and showers in 25 cabins. There’s a main lodge with a huge fireplace, a theater, tennis courts, a sand volleyball court, beaches, a ropes course, studios for crafts … You get the picture.

Give me more!: Visit campcamp.com for a full detail of the grounds, the activities, and to register. You can also e-mail questions to info@campcamp.com or call 888.924.8380.

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