Mission Moments
Camp Fire USA Travels to Alaska!
By Debby Bloom, PR and Marketing Manager, Alaska Council
August 2011
When you think of Alaska, does “extreme” pop into mind? Well, in so many ways, you would be right! Now consider taking Camp Fire USA summer program to 22 remote villages scattered around our huge state, from the northern and more chilly Arctic region to our southernmost chain of large and small islands that form the Aleutians—now that is extreme! Villages such as Ambler, Lower Kalskag, Akiak, Tuntutuliak, King Cove, and McGrath, to name just a few, are communities that experienced the Camp Fire USA touch this summer. Just ask any one of our 14 camp counselors who spent their summer in the villages (in two-week increments), and they will tell you of their life-changing experiences … over and over again.
Alaska Council brought its signature camps to select villages, which ranged in size from 90 to 1,000 residents. The camps had a main focus on water safety but a larger focus on youth and community development. Actually, the Alaska Council has been running rural summer programs since 1964. Each camp was tailored to the specific village, since they may be quite different … by culture, language, climate, geography, and style. Still, kids everywhere share a common thread: they are curious, open, eager, and charming.
Roads are few in rural Alaska. Travel is either by plane or by plane first and then by boat on rivers big and small, which serve as lifelines for people who live in the “Bush.” Life for most children is as similar to western culture as it is dissimilar. Anywhere there is a school, kids are linked in with the latest technologies but spend far less time than previous generations learning the centuries-old ways of their elders. The cultural conflicts that arise from western cultures meeting indigenous can be the hardest on our youth. Camp Fire USA attempts to bridge those divides. Children were brought outside to capture the best of the environment, right there at home. They played games, they picked and canned berries together, they sang, they danced, they ate, and, somehow, the community started to join in. Elders cheered as they saw their kids returning to the essence of a life built around culture and the natural world.
The sentiments of the summer were best summed up by 82-year-old elder Sammy Jr. of Nikolai (population: 90), when he said to departing Camp Fire USA staff, “I haven’t seen our community come together like this for years. … I’m not letting you go until you promise to come back … and soon!”