Chicago Sun-Times TRAVEL, August 9, 1998
“'Camp' Camp Makes it a Joy to Be Out(doors)”
by Dave Hoekstra
Gather ‘round the campfire, boys and boys and girls and girls. Roast the marshmallows and toast Judy Garland. We’re here to fan the flame for 'Camp', Camp, American’s first summer camp for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender adults.
“Last year, we had a van come in from Manhattan,” said camp founder and director Bill Cole.
“People spent seven hours together driving to Maine. When they arrived, I opened the door of the van and the first guy out said, ‘Oh, Mr. Cole, I’ve arrived at camp with a broken heart.’”
Cole was able to smooth out all of his camper’s anxieties.
He is the former director of a summer day camp at the Madeira School in McLean, VA, and is a member of the National Public Awareness Steering Committee of the American Camping Association. Cole also is vice president of academic relations at Peterson’s education and career information company in Princeton, NJ.
Cole has been married twice. His second wife is an investor in 'Camp' Camp. Cole came out two years ago. “I didn’t see much in the gay community that was appealing to me,” he said. “I wasn’t into bars. I wasn’t into team sports. I’d been to camp as a kid, and I ran a camp for kids. Whenever parents dropped their kids off, they’d always say how much they’d like to go to camp themselves.”
“The idea came from that – and the feeling to be able to be yourself in a nonjudgmental, noncompetitive atmosphere with a variety of activities in the out-of-doors was a wonderful thing for people.”
Kezar Falls is in the lake district about 45 miles west of Portland, Maine, with a distant view of the White Mountains. 'Camp' Camp is situated on secluded Lake Stanley.
Last year’s camp drew 100 people from 17 states and Canada. The range of campers was from 19 to 68. About 65 percent of the campers were men. Very few campers already knew each other.
Campers participate in summer camps’ greatest hits such as swimming, canoeing, softball, mountain biking, and arts and crafts. 'Camp' Camp is a great place to train for the Gay Games which kicked off this week in Amsterdam. (Featuring 29 sports events ranging from weightlifting and swimming to dancing and chess, the 6th Annual Gay Games will be held in Sydney in 2002.) The 'Camp' Camp fee includes lodging, meals and all activities. (1-888-924-8380).
There are some non-Mainestream twists.
“We have a regular camp staff help us out at 'Camp' Camp,” Cole explained. “There are two very handsome staff members from Australia who were driving vans. Once a camper developed a crush on one of them. When he said as much, the staffer said, ‘That’s very nice of you. I’m straight.’ Just as we told them [the staff] to do.”
Cabins are shared by groups of six to 20 men or women. All cabins have bathrooms attached; most have individual shower stalls. The cabins are unheated. There is one designated smoking area, and there are no laundry facilities.
Cole laughed and said, “The very first camp call after I put my ad in a magazine was from a guy who wanted to know if there were electrical outlets for his hairdryer. I wondered if it was a harbinger of things to come.”
One of the week’s highlights is the Thursday “No Talent Show,” where last year campers read poetry and sang blues and show tunes.
Members from the 30-member male and female staff even put on a semi-striptease show.
“I must say at the beginning of the week the counselors were a bit wary of this new group of campers,” Cole said. “It’s not their field of experience. We interviewed the staff from the camp we lease, and we kept the ones we wanted to have. They mostly came from Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.”
Gays and/or straights need not bring flamboyant Fire Island perceptions into a discussion on 'Camp' Camp. “The first question I get from straight people is ‘Does this mean you’re just going to have sex in the woods?’ Because there is that highly sexual notion to what gay life is all about. The truth is that the camp is sex-positive, but not sex-focused. Sex is not the center of attention.”
But the counselors are.
“We’d ask people to sign up for activities, and they really signed up by what the counselor looked like and how nice the counselor was,” Cole said. “The counselors loved it. We have one [straight female] counselor who is flying back from England this year just to be at the camp. Whenever she walked around camp, she’d carry a wand. She had a white fur piece with gold tinsel in her hair. People loved her.”
Gee, this sounds like so much fun, I’d like to go.
Does 'Camp' Camp exclude straights? And if so, is that discrimination?
“Actually, we were just talking about that,” Cole answered. “We’re open to that, and if it does take off, we’re interested in trying it for the straight community. It’s too early to tell if we’d do one for straights and one for gays or if we’d combine the two groups.”
'Camp' Camp creates a support system that Cole didn’t have growing up in the 1950s on a dairy farm in Purcellville, VA, about an hour from Washington. “It was very much Southern Baptist Church, always trying to please everybody,” Cole said. “It made coming out very tough. And frankly, what made it even tougher is that I still love my wife. It’s hard to put that at risk as well.”
“But a number of last year’s campers said this gave them a chance to rethink their lives and go in more satisfied directions, just because that’s possible when you’re in a loving, supportive community.”
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