Thursday, April 29, 2010

Camp Anokijig- Blissfully Old-Fashioned

This is a picture of one of Anokijig's tent sections from the 1950s.  Stroll into a tent section at Anokijig today and things won't look all that different.  During rest hour, campers who aren't napping will quietly swap stories, read books or play games, just like some of their parents and grandparents did when they were campers.  Much at Anokijig has changed over the years, but many things have stayed the same.

We like to talk about the fact that anything you can do at Anokijig, you probably can't do at home and anything you can do at home, you probably can't do at Anokijig.  As we hear news reports of Boy Scouts earning awards for video game proficiency and schools teaching texting abbreviations as part of their spelling curriculum, we're glad Anokijig hasn't changed too much.  Anokijig is a video game-free and text-free zone.  For many of our campers, the last week they spend at Anokijig may be the last week they ever spend "disconnected" from the modern technology that surrrounds and permeates every facet of our lives.

Our campers communicate with each other through words and actions, not e-mails, texts and tweets.  Their parents mail them letters, that they will read over and over again and some of the kids will even send a letter or postcard home.  For many of our campers, Anokijig is an oasis of simplicity in a very complex world and that's just the way we like it.

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