Through the 15 years that Kids VT has published a family newspaper for Vermonters, we have become well known and respected as a local resource for many products and services used by Vermont families. One of our most sought after areas of expertise is in Camps and Summer Programs, where we continue to be the most comprehensive clearinghouse of information for families.

We stay current by hosting the Camp and School Fair annually in Burlington (the 13th was on February 6), providing our Virtual Camp and School Fair at www.kidsvt.com and publishing this, our Camp Issue, with its complete guide to Camps and Summer Programs.

I personally have a long history with summer camp as well so I really understand the important role camp can play in a child’s life. When I was only seven, my parents sent me to a general sleep-away camp (where my father had been a counselor years before) for the full summer. While it was hard to be away from home at such a young age, it was also empowering. I made new friends, learned new skills, and began to rely on myself in ways I couldn’t have if I had been in my home environment. I stayed at that camp for five summers, and then went to another, more specialized, Vermont camp for the next two.

As soon as I was old enough, I returned to camp as a counselor, spending one summer in Massachusetts and another at my alma mater in Vermont. In those years, while being able to spend my college summers outdoors, I learned about teaching and even some aspects of parenting. When I graduated college, I assumed my camp years were behind me. As luck would have it, I had a gap in my career one summer, and I became a Camp Director at a camp for teenagers. That may, ironically, have been the best job I ever had – as well as the best parenting training! I know I touched the lives of my campers, counselors and staff.

Camp continued to play a strong role in my private life as my own kids went through summers of day camps followed by years at residential camps, where my daughter made some of the best friends she will ever have. I have no doubt that those girls will be in each other’s lives forever.

And here am I, writing about Camps, discussing them on the radio (with Lana and Nolan on Star 92.9), producing live and virtual camp fairs, and occasionally being invited to speak on the topic to local parent groups. These are surely benefits of my camp experiences that my parents couldn’t have imagined while we were packing my trunk when I was seven.