ANOTHER CAMP IS
POSSIBLE
Most
summer camps host competitive color wars and name their bunks after
numbers, letters, or (often fictitious) Native American Tribes. Only one camp
hosts the World Peace Olympics and names its bunks after people like Harriet
Tubman, Anne Frank, and Pablo Neruda. This camp is Camp Kinderland.
Today, as militarism,
nationalism, and fundamentalism ravage the world, Camp Kinderland,
and its model and vision for teaching children peace and cooperation, is more
important than ever.
Another
Camp is Possible, which we have already shot and are now in the process of
editing, will be a feature length documentary about the legendary Camp Kinderland.
The summer camp was founded in the 1920's by secular Jewish workers who wanted
their children to get away from the hot New York City summers and be in a progressive
Yiddish-speaking environment. Eight decades later, of the many
progressive camps which enriched America's
cultural and political landscapes, Camp
Kinderland stands alone.
Over eighty years after its founding, Kinderland is alive and kicking, and is
still working to make the world a better place by teaching cooperation and
collaboration, and fostering a sense of social justice. Much like the camp itself, Another Camp is Possible will
be both educational and fun. It will be both an engaging, entertaining, and
inspiring movie, as well as a peace education resource for parents and
educators.
Progressive
values imbue the camp, from its bunk names, to the Paul Robeson Playhouse and
Roberto Clemente Sports Shack, from Holocaust Commemoration Day to Hiroshima
Commemoration Day. Yet it is in the “Peace Olympics,” the camp’s alternative to
other camps’ aggressive and competitive “color wars,” that Kinderland's values
are most dramatically seen, understood (and enjoyed!). Each summer
Kinderland organizes its program around a theme, and for the 2007 season it is
“From Discussion to Action: Making the World a Better Place.” During the Peace Olympics
the camp forms into four teams, each representing a movement engaged in “making
the world a better place”: Center for Constitutional Rights, Greenpeace, Jews
For Racial and Economic Justice and the Highlander School.
As campers play sports, prioritize teamwork and "sportspersonship"
over competition, paint murals and choreograph dances, they come to understand
the mission, issues, and activities of their respective activist teams. And as
each team shares with, and learns from the others, all emerge as Peace Olympics
winners.
