By MAIA FILAR
Special to The CJN

For many young people, going to sleepover camp is the best part of their year – it’s an extended vacation when they’re allowed to get dirty, spend time with friends and experience some independence from their parents.

And most adults have an image of summer camp as a place where kids can rough it, leaving behind modern conveniences to get back to nature. But times have changed.

Take a trip to a typical camp this summer and you’re bound to see kids wearing expensive clothing, yakking on cellphones, and playing handheld video games. And instead of huddling under the covers with a flashlight and an Archie comic, campers today are more likely to be watching X-Men on a portable DVD player. Counsellors and parents have begun to take notice of the problem, and some camps are starting to do something about it.

Mark Diamond, director and owner of Camp Manitou, an arts and sports camp in Muskoka, wants to stop the trend before it becomes part of camp culture. This year, Manitou has sent out a friendly reminder to parents and kids to help them keep in mind what camp is supposed to be about.

It lists what the camp tries to promote – getting away from the city, not worrying about how you look, being social and interacting with others – and what it doesn’t want to promote – putting on makeup, wearing expensive clothing or sunglasses, blow drying or straightening your hair, watching movies or playing video games, and using cellphones.

Diamond acknowledges that adolescence is a hard time, when insecurity may lead many kids to bring these items with them, but he said camp is designed to make kids forget the pressures of city life.

“Camp is a special place where people appreciate you for what really counts,” Diamond says. “When [campers] realize, ‘Wow! They really like me,’ it increases their self-esteem.”

But many campers have a hard time seeing past brand labels and the latest must-have gadgets.

One of the best ways to stop this before it takes root is with parental support, but Diamond says getting it isn’t always easy.

Most parents are completely supportive of Manitou’s efforts, he says, and all parents must sign a contract stating that any contraband items found will be taken away and given to charity.

But some parents let their anxiety get in the way of good judgment.

“Some parents feel insecure when their child leaves and are very concerned,” Diamond says. “Therefore, they support their child’s reasoning to bring a cellphone. This is a very natural response. What happens then is that children call their parents when they are not home, and [parents], in turn, call back in a panic.” But what’s wrong with bringing a cellphone to camp? Or what about the newest in expensive yoga wear if that’s what a camper is used to wearing at home? Of course, there’s a time and a place for everything.

Many camps have dances where makeup is permitted, and Shabbat is often a time to wear nicer clothing. There are also nights when an entire camp will watch films as a group, or use computers for a certain activity.

The difference, camp directors and counsellors stress, is that these are communal activities. It’s when electronic gadgets or expensive clothing are used in anti-social rather than inclusive ways that they become a problem.

Counsellor Lia Boritz works at Camp Shomria, a casual, kibbutz-style camp near Perth, Ont., that’s part of the socialist Hashomer Hatzair movement. She says that in recent years, she’s been seeing more electronics and brand name clothing, as well as a greater emphasis on looks, than ever before. This summer, she hopes to change that.

But because at Shomria, youth teach other youth and adults are not as present in day-to-day activities as they are at some camps, Boritz feels counsellors can’t use the same approach that Diamond uses at Manitou.

She says that because she and her co-workers are role models, she’s organizing discussion among them about what’s appropriate to wear around campers. Diamond agrees wholeheartedly that counsellors must set the tone, but he thinks role-modelling must also begin at home.

“Why teach your child that it’s OK to spend $200 on a pair of sunglasses and have that pressure on them not to lose them?” he asks. Some parents leave it up to their kids to learn from their own mistakes.

One Shomria mother thought it would be inappropriate for her daughter to bring her hair-straightener to camp, but she couldn’t convince the 13-year-old. It was only once the teen was swimming and playing sports at camp that she noticed she wasn’t thinking twice about her hair.

“She went to camp and realized how stupid it was [to bring the hair-straightener],” her mother says.

Most parents say the materialism connected to summer camp has become a sore spot – and a struggle with their children over basic values.

Diamond and Boritz agree that parents need to stand firm when it comes to a camp’s and their own rules, as well as make sure that what kids bring to camp accords with its activities.

“At Manitou we start with the staff,” Diamond says. That means he makes sure his counsellors follow all the rules set out for the campers, and he expects parents to do the same. “They are the kids’ role models, and kids always follow their mentors.”