Why do you want to do?

Why do you continue to do what you do? I know that many of you ask yourselves that question, if not regularly, at least every so often. After attending the recent risk management forum in Florida, some of you may question yourselves even more. While I can't answer for any individual, I would like to address the reasons our field of endeavor is so important to the future and why it is so important for you to continue to do what you do.

America's children are in greater jeopardy than at any time in recent memory. Our society is failing them at almost every turn. The recent debates in Congress over welfare reform and balancing the national budget clearly show that children and their needs are not a high priority for our leaders. I firmly believe that we need to reform our welfare system and need to balance the national budget, but not on the backs of our children. Our leaders are more than willing to give corporate welfare that ends up being distributed to shareholders as profits, but are not willing to provide the type of support that our children need to grow into healthy adults. What I have just said should not be construed as advocating that our government raise our children. Where our leaders spend tax money is, however, a clear indication of the relative importance they place on issues.

My concern is not just with our government. Parents should be the primary influence in children's lives. The breakdown of the family and the significant increase in the number of children being raised by children has been identified as a root cause of many of the problems facing society today. For a variety of reasons, some personal choice, some economic, some societal, America today has more children growing up without positive parental influence than ever before. As a result, many of our institutions, including schools, child care organizations, and agencies such as the YMCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Camp Fire, are being asked to take on roles and deliver services that traditionally were provided for in the home.

American society, in general, has taken a turn down a dark alley and desperately needs help to return to being a beacon of light to rest of the world. I can not think of a better illustration of this than the O.J. Simpson trial. This media circus exposed more of our society's ills than most of us like to admit we have. To catalog a few: racial hatred, spouse abuse, the power of wealth, a judicial system that many people believe is fundamentally flawed, greed, and, in many ways most telling of all, our society's eagerness to turn a tragedy into entertainment. As Mitch Albom wrote in his column in the October 4, 1995 Detroit Free Press, "Sometimes the country makes me so sad I want to fly away."

The preceding gloom and doom leads to one clear line: "Camp Gives Kids a World of Good!" Camp is one positive thing our society continues to give children. It does give them a world of good when many of them have very little good in their worlds. As I listened to people talking at the risk management forum, I was glad to hear a clear commitment to offering children the world of good that camp gives. Many people would have listened to the problems identified during those three days and decided to find another profession. Why choose to work in a profession fraught with so much risk? The discussions I heard were focused on the positive things that children experience in camp and how to keep those experiences available in the face of so many different pressures.

Keeping the camp experience thriving as one positive in the lives of our children is the goal of ACA's public awareness initiative. As we look around at all of the negative influences on our children, we must work to assure that the positive influences are strengthened and made as widely available as possible. Camp is not the answer to all of America's problems, but it is one part of the answer to some of those problems. It certainly is one of the answers to the question, "How are we going to help our children develop into healthy adults?" Camp must be offered in concert with many other services if our children are going to thrive. Our public awareness initiative is designed to help society understand how camp can be one part of a process of child development that assures all of our children have the opportunity to succeed.

By choosing to become and remain camp professionals, you help give kids a world of good. That's why you do what you do. Keep doing it!

John A. Miller is the executive vice president of the American Camping Association, headquartered in Martinsville, Ind.