By Laura Seymour

A Jew, a nun and a Muslim walk into a camp conference to talk about being a “faith-based” camp. Yes, that was me this past week at the American Camp Association Conference. There were many sessions and speakers to choose from, and it was an amazing gathering of people who truly understand that camp makes a difference in children’s lives.

I started one morning at a drop-in session called “Faith-Based Camps Café” and followed that with another session called “Prioritizing Character Formation at Faith-Based Camps.” We began sitting at tables sharing our questions and experiences, and my table included me, a nun and a Muslim. The first question was about what parents are looking for when they send their child to a faith-based camp. The answers were mainly that they were looking for a camp that had great activities, was fun and had a good reputation in the community. Not much came up about religion, although the directors were more interested in that important aspect than the parents or the kids, for that matter. If this is not a driving force to get them to come to camp, what is our role in delivering it?

I must share that they were all interested in the various activities that we do that guide campers to understanding and practicing values. I explained that Judaism is a “doing” religion and we don’t have “chapel,” but use the activities to engage the campers in their understanding of a particular value. The best part, I explained, was listening to the campers’ thoughts and questions rather than telling them how the particular value is important in their lives. It seems our approach is a little different, but I did plug Amazon’s teddy bear key chains when I explained how we talk about B’Tzelem Elohim. The best part was learning that their more direct approach could use a little hands-on!

Since I was so impressed with one of the people at my table, I decided to go to his session, which followed. He was inspiring as he spoke about how character develops (which is actually an important theme for all camps). The hope for most sessions is to take away some learning, and he spoke about defining and choosing the values that resonate with you. He really made us all think when he put this in a framework: There are Resume Character Virtues and Eulogy Character Virtues. Should we write kindness, humility and patience on our resume? It might not get us the job, although looking at it that way, those are the virtues every worker should have. Think about it and make your list.

As a camp director in my heart and soul, I know that the fun is important, of course, but so much more happens at camp – it changes our children and our staff and even old – no, experienced camp directors. I can’t wait for the summer, but fortunately, I get to talk about Jewish values every day and now I will share the importance of realizing that our eulogy should also reflect our resume!

Laura Seymour is Jewish Experiential Learning director and Camp director emeritus at the Aaron Family JCC.