Camp seeks to build a compassionate future

Photo courtesy of puget sound interfaith youth camp

CAMP COUNSELORS. LeAnn Conley, Christian, and Ryan Tompkins, Unitarian, were camp counselors last year and Zak Dehlawi was the Muslim faith leader.

A unique camp experience for youth entering seventh, eighth or ninth grade next fall will be held August 24-29 at YMCA Camp Seymour on Key Peninsula in Pierce County. It is called Puget Sound Interfaith Youth Camp, where young people of different faiths and religious traditions get together to share, grow and discover a greater understanding about their common humanity within a nurturing and respectful environment.

The camp is just like any other summer camp for youth in that it offers all kinds of outdoor activities like swimming, kayaking, arts and crafts, hiking and campfires. What makes it different is the emphasis on helping the young people develop greater personal character by cultivating appreciation and empathy for others through that tried and true method of talking to each other.

In small group sessions, the campers explore topics like stereotyping and faith in the media, expressing their own faith, how to listen compassionately and not judge, conflict resolution and building allies, and about the struggles and solutions that revolve around living in one’s faith at school. There is even an “ask it basket” where campers can anonymously place questions they may not want to ask outright.

The camp’s counselors and staff reflect the young campers in that they too come from varying traditions. There are also adult faith leaders in attendance, some clergy and some not, that act as a resource for campers who wish to talk about their faith journey and ask questions.

Sallie Shawl is one of the original camp organizers and serves on its steering committee. She said the goal is for the youth to discover their commonalities and thus move them forward to helping create justice and peace among themselves, in their communities, and ultimately the world. They learn as much about themselves as they do their new friends as they discover more about each other’s everyday lives, beliefs and feelings.

“It’s about creating a peaceful future, a civil society,” Shawl said. “These kids are in their early teens now. In 10 years they’ll be finishing college, and in 20 years they’ll be starting to lead the world so it’s about creating compassionate human beings who understand that we’re all in this together.

“If people discover that we’re all human beings, we’re creating more compassionate human beings.”

Shawl said the camp started two years ago by a group she belongs to called People for Peace, Justice and Healing. The idea sprang from a documentary the group watched the summer after the 9/11 attacks called “Trust Me,” about a camp in North Carolina composed of 33 boys of Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds and how they dealt with polarizing issues of religion stemming from the terrorist attacks.

“When it was over, we just sat there in silence, somewhat stunned by the power of what these young men had gone through and how significant it seemed,” she said. “We said we really need something like that here.”

The group invited local religious leaders and others to help develop such a camp and the first year it attracted 44 campers. Last year there were 62: 18 Christians (two whose mother is a Buddhist and who also identify as Buddhist), 12 Jews, 10 Unitarians, nine Muslims, seven Baha’is (one being a Lakota child who also practices Lakota spirituality), four who attend an interfaith congregation, one Wiccan and one who identified as “none.”

Shawl recalled a conversation she had with one counselor, a Christian man, who told her about a Muslim high school girl who was at camp. “He said she longed for a safe place to be herself and express her religious beliefs. We’re trying to provide that,” Shawl said.

Shawl also said it is important to note that no proselytizing is allowed at camp. “Parents don’t need to be concerned that their kids will be harassed by children of other religions. We’re there to honor all the kids and what they believe and to learn more about that.”

Signing youth up for the camp is based on an application process. Campers are selected with a view toward forming an equitable distribution of boys and girls from a variety of religious and faith traditions. The goal is to have a roughly equal number of campers from each of the major traditions, and a good number of campers from the smaller ones.

Puget Sound Interfaith Youth Camp, a collaborative effort of representatives from or members of Associated Ministries, the Baha’is, Interfaith Works (Olympia), Mas Jid Al-Nour (Islamic Center of Olympia), People for Peace, Justice and Healing, Soka Gakkai International, Temple Beth El and YMCA Camp Seymour.

Applications are still being accepted until June 17. They are available online at http://www.soundinterfaithcamp.org or by calling Shawl at (253) 383-3056, ext. 105. Camp counselors and faith leaders are also needed, and a full job description is given online. Contact Shawl for more information.

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