Camp Hale: The people who make the place
As I nervously approached my final days as an undergraduate student, I panicked about life after school. Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and public policy, I was eager to enter the work force and make a positive impact on environmental politics and social habitus but did not yet know how I would approach this mission. After months of job searching, I discovered AmeriCorps, and most importantly Camp Hale, my current host site. Having been familiar with the area after spending my life vacationing on Newfound Lake, it seemed like the perfect chance to spend 6 months exploring my passions on the serene Squam Lake.
I was not familiar with Camp Hale, nor any summer camp for that matter, having never been to one. After securing my membership with AmeriCorps, I began researching Camp Hale. I found that it was a branch of United South End Settlements (USES), a non-profit that supports underserved youth and families in Boston’s South End. Camp Hale is just one of the programs offered by USES to support their community, offering a unique experience for city kids to connect to nature and learn to appreciate the environment in a way that they can not in their normal setting. It is important to stress, that for many of these campers, Camp Hale is the only chance they will have to enjoy a place like Squam Lake, as it is expensive and exclusive to wealthier and whiter demographics.
Staying in line with their unconventional camp experience, Camp Hale prides itself on diversity within their campers and their staff. On arrival, a month before boys session was set to start, I was warmly greeted by my fellow AmeriCorps partner Emily Koester, and camp Program Director, Pablo Martinez. It was only day one and I was already surrounded by a woman from Wisconsin, and a man from Mexico. Later, we would welcome counselors coming from Colorado, Boston, Columbia, and Turkey. The Camp Director, Karen Liberatore, is a leading woman who started Camp Hales first girls camp in 2012 and has now secured girls session alongside the original boys session. Not only did Karen spearhead girls camp, she now unwaveringly captains camp in the aftermath and complications of the COVID 19 pandemic. By her side is Breanna Morgan, Assistant Program Director, who has been involved with camp for 7 years and teaches after school programs back in Boston. Bre, is a fearless leader at only 22 years old, whom I had the pleasure of rooming with for about 2 months. She is one of the many people here at camp that make the hours fly by and the everyday tasks that much more enjoyable.
The dedicated and close-knit admin team and staff is not where diversity ends, however. Here at Camp Hale, the stride towards diversity and inclusion seeps into enrollment procedures as well. Camp Hale is unique in its sliding tuition scale that allows campers to enjoy camp at astronomically low rates thanks to the generosity of donors and charity fundraisers. In addition, they save enrollment spots for local kids from Sandwich NH. All in all, the campers range from 5-17 years old, come from cities suburbs and rural settings, and represent all sorts of economic and cultural backgrounds. I am choosing to write about this aspect of camp to portray an example of how the world should and can be. Camp Hale is a testament to what is possible if people from diverse backgrounds can work together to inspire, uplift, and foster a generation of tenacious youth despite their race, wealth, or privileged. It is more important than ever, following a year spent indoors, isolated, and in front of a screen, that our youth have every opportunity to get outside, be in clean, safe, and natural environments, and live their lives away from the virtual ones they have grown accustomed to. AmeriCorps has helped me do this, and Camp Hale has made it possible for Boston youth to do the same.
Sarah is a recent graduate of Bucknell University, with a BS in environmental studies, and a minor in public policy. Learn more about Sarah here!