Since 1989, Homes for the Homeless, a homeless services provider that operates several shelters in New York City, has run three camps – Lanowa, Wakonda and Kiwago – just a short drive upstate. This summer HFH offered three sessions, each about two weeks long. When operating at full capacity, the camps can serve up to 1,000 of the city's homeless children per summer, says camp services coordinator Dona Anderson.
Free of charge to those on public assistance and eligible for public child care, these camps are designed for 7- to 13- year-olds from all five boroughs, uniquely catering to those currently living in shelters, recent shelter dwellers, children living in foster care and others living on public assistance—many of whom who have never experienced the “real” outdoors. Registration for camp begins as early as March each year, led by a team of recruiters who advertise in shelters, foster care agencies and after school programs around the city.
Located approximately 50 miles north of New York City in Harriman State Park, these leafy camps contain enough flora and fauna to make an impression on the youngsters. Camp Lanowa itself sits on Upper Twin Lake and boasts 20 camper cabins, a frog pond, a climbing wall, a swimming hole and campfire pits.
“There is value in exposing children to a natural environment. The simple act of walking in a green space, learning about the cycle of nature—a lot of kids, rich or poor, don’t experience that,” said Ellen Hart-Shegos, a nonprofit consultant who has studied the effects of homelessness on children. “If they don’t have access to a pleasant, stress-free natural environment and all they know is concrete, then we can all understand how that might impact their social, emotional, and physical health,” she added.
Kenna Burch, a 20-year-old from Idaho serving as Camp Lanowa’s nature specialist this summer, conducts nature walks, accompanies children at the frog pond, helps them find water dwellers like bullfrogs and crayfish, picks berries for snacks, and of course, fields hundreds of questions—anything from “Do alligators live in the pond?” to what to feed newfound creepy-crawly friends. “It’s amazing to experience firsthand what they are seeing for the first time,” said Burch.
First-time camper Myaisha, 13, from East New York in Brooklyn said the frogs and toads were a favorite part of camp for her. She wasn’t particularly fond of either rocks or darkness, however. “At nighttime, it’s like boom! – a rock. You can see in the city,” said Myaisha, who speculated she would have been “watching TV and drinking soda” if she were not at summer camp.
More than one staff member at Camp Lanowa said the reaction of the campers to nature is somewhat mixed, but their affinity for it tends to grow over the course of their stay in the woods.
“A lot of kids get freaked out. They push, shove, and fight ... and then all of a sudden they’re holding hands in the pond,” said Burch, the nature specialist. "Or with hikes, they complain the entire way but then they’ll cross paths with a deer and think it is the most beautiful thing they’ve seen.”
Maceo, a 10-year-old first-year camper from Brooklyn, said he didn’t like the flies, but enjoyed hanging out with his new friends, playing sports, and participating in activities held in the learning center, which include listening to music and conducting simple experiments and observations, such how many pebbles it takes to sink a boat.
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“A lot of the kids are a year or two behind in school. We try to make education viewed as something that is fun – so catching frogs here can lead to looking at a frog in a book during biology class back home,” said Laura Henrich, Lanowa's director for the past 19 years. At the camp's learning center, kids often work on their journal – a sort of take-home memory book – in which they can write, color and draw their impressions of camp.
