Why I Think The Nature Place is the Best Outdoor Camp for Kids

I think The Nature Place is the best outdoor camp for kids.

For context, my name is Emily. I’m the Communications Manager at The Nature Place, and have spent most of my life participating in or working at camp. While the thoughts I put forth are opinion, based on life experience as both camper and camp professional, they paint a picture of the point I’m aiming to illustrate: why I believe The Nature Place is the best outdoor camp for kids.

Our campus is magical, and we’re encouraged to enjoy it by being present.

The Nature Place is nestled on 200 acres of fields, streams (my favorite, I love listening to the water), forests, and farmlands. It is the perfect retreat. But what takes us beyond that of other outdoor camps is our emphasis on being present and intentional as we make our way around campus. In a time often filled with overscheduled childhoods, TNP offers a change of pace, and many opportunities to slow down and take it all in. As I walk around on any given day, I see counselors pointing out the hawk flying overhead or stopping the group to examine the berries in a bush they’re passing.

We build life skills outdoors, not just outdoor skills for life.

I went to camp as a young person where I met friends, sang songs, learned to make campfires, and participated in Whose Line is it Anyway-style improv that taught me it’s possible to laugh myself into tears of joy. That having the confidence to by myself, to be silly, and to love whole-heartedly (even when it hurt to leave my friends when summer was over) were good and admirable human qualities.

The Nature Place is a place for those same things. Activities from music and drama to outdoor skills and high ropes are experienced in this space. When I walk out of the office, I often hear campers in those same fits of laughter I experienced as a young person, which is both nostalgic and heartening for me now, as an adult. And in witnessing them hugging one another fiercely with tears in their eyes on the final day of camp, I think of the gift that not only do we build outdoor skills like hiking and campfire building here, but that we experience laughter and joy and togetherness, and how to move through tough feelings. All of these lessons hosted outside in the fresh air and among the trees.

Perhaps it’s the socially-nourishing environment, and the intangibles that come with it.

My foundational childhood memories were also forged in the times that were unscripted. I remember a summer at camp when I was 12, and how my favorite counselor took the time to sit with me (in a common space where I had gone to be an introvert) and ask me about my life. It meant something to me that a person I looked up to was actually interested in what I had to say, and asked me questions about my life and hobbies. I remember the time I participated in the limbo at a camp beach party (and managed to make it through the other side without falling!), everyone cheered for me and hugged me when I completed the task. I think the fact that we are so intentional to provide a socially-nourishing space where campers and counselors lift one another up is a cornerstone that TNP is built on.

These memories are so dear to me, and it brings me back to the message I hope to convey as I write this: I believe The Nature Place has incorporated everything that worked well for me in my own childhood, and done a great job at making those things common practice. From the amazing humans we hire who genuinely care about our campers (you can read more here about what we look for in our summer camp staff), to the unscripted moments in our non-rushed day, to all the cheering we do for one another, whether it be at Morning or Friday Share, on the ropes course, or down at The Pond, something in the air is different here. I believe it to be those intangibles that impacted my own life growing up. I also find our staff an absolute joy to interact with. There’s a feeling that runs through camp that we are here to take care of one another, and I think that makes us stand out.

A large part of my role here at camp is to communicate just how amazing The Nature Place is. But as someone who’s experienced and worked at camps for a big portion of their life, and who’s seen the benefits of the intangibles that come from how things here are structured, I can and will say it with firm conviction: I think The Nature Place is the best outdoor camp for kids. 

But… you don’t have to take my word for it. Read our Kind Words page with testimonials from parents. Or come visit us and see for yourself!