My Nonprofit Reviews

Camp Unalayee is a wonderful organization and I feel incredibly lucky to be connected with them. For me, the most outstanding feature is joy: so many people are always not only excited to be there but deep-down joyful. The beauty of the wilderness setting has a lot to do with this, of course, but it’s the air of confidence and calm that matters most: all the staff and many of the older campers seem to be thinking “we are capable and know what to do, it’s not complicated, we can live fully in this moment.”

Campers learn practical skills, get stronger, make friends, and build self-confidence - but in the end the experience is much more than that. Camp Unalayee strikes a rare balance between promoting group experience - with the goal that everyone helps out and everyone belongs - and honoring individuality - giving campers choices of activities, alone time when needed, and many opportunities to perform and create. And another balance comes to mind, between economy and exuberance: the economy of leaving few traces and living simply; the exuberance of the long hike and the high peak climbed, the all-out splashing game on the shore of the lake, the crazy performances improvised around the campfire. These essential social, ethical, and emotional lessons are not deliberately “taught” or forced, they just grow naturally out of the camp experience.

I am the parent of a camper who returned for many years, and I myself participated as an adult camper at family days and as a volunteer. We paid when we could, took advantage of camperships when we couldn’t, and plan to keep giving back for the rest of our lives.