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Is the announced closing of the Girl Scouts’ Camp Louise another bucket of dirt tossed onto the dying coals of summer camp traditions?

Consider recent history: the decline of the Boy Scouts’ Camp Rotawanis in Butler Township, and the near-closing of Camp St. Andrew in Tunkhannock, the latter saved this year by a deal between camp owner, the Diocese of Scranton, and The United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Earlier this summer, Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania announced the pending closure of Camp Louise, citing “serious infrastructure” problems, especially with its sleeping quarters

As was the case when the diocese announced the supposed end of Camp St. Andrew, supporters of Camp Louise – located just across the Luzerne County border and north of Berwick – have joined in an effort to save their place of summer memories, according to a recent news report.

So, yes, locally the summer camp seems an endangered species. But that’s not the case nationwide. According to the American Camp Association website, between 2002 and 2013 the number of ACA day camps increased 69 percent, while the number of resident camps climbed 21 percent.

Yet there are plenty of reports about the decline of camps in various areas of the country, akin to what seems to be happening here. The summer camp, often a child’s initiation into survival away from home, has itself become subject to “survival of the fittest.”

A 2011 New York Times article suggested that the Great Recession had pushed already-struggling camps over the brink, but it added that other pressures are reshaping the camp-scape: “As in just about every industry, slick, nimble upstarts are muscling in on the establishment. These newcomers hold out 21st-century promises: We can groom the modern organization kid, hone lacrosse skills, improve algebra, pad the high-school résumé.”

Mindlessly whittling a twig into shavings or raucously singing ditties doesn’t do much for a future college application.

Indeed, the survival of the JCC Day Camp in Lehman Township seems an example of adaptation. Gone is the era of tightly scheduled activities attended every day without exception. Now, youngsters decide what days they feel like coming, and pick activities from an impressive menu.

Despite its Jewish roots, JCC Day Camp also became very ecumenical, and it draws from a wide area beyond its Wilkes-Barre roots, providing bus service.

So maybe it’s not that the lure of summer camp is failing, but that certain camps are failing to keep up. There’s certainly strong argument to save the venerable institution. Camp activity can help to counter our obesity epidemic. And we’ve come to the point of coining a term for the consequences of too much electronic screen time: “nature-deficit disorder.”

There is evidence that summer camps help to build self-confidence and social skills, forge friendships, decrease childhood aggression and increase the ability to focus.

So here’s hoping Camp Louise supporters – and others like them – can reinvent their hallowed grounds, ensuring that youths will enjoy summer camps for many S’more seasons.

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