Life Camps

To each of 229 homes where the sun rarely penetrates in the slums of Greater New York City there came last week a penny postcard. Each card carried the message, "Arrived safely at Life Camp."

Thus, for 51 summers, boys and girls have told their parents or nearest of kin what happened to them on July 1. Founded by John Ames Mitchell, editor of Life the Comic Weekly, the camps this year became the responsibility of LIFE the Picture Weekly, published by TIME Inc. The editors and publishers of the new LIFE resolved that Life Camps would go on, that for the first year all administrative expenses would be paid by the magazine, so that every dollar sent in by contributors would be converted into one full day in the country for one boy or girl (it costs $14 to keep a youngster in camp for a fortnight).

Life Camps take children only from the Family Service Welfare agencies of New York City. On arrival at camp, the child finds a minimum of regimentation. He joins a group of seven and takes up residence in a structure designed to stimulate his imagination and responsibility. It may be a covered wagon or an Indian tepee, a stone village or a treehouse. Each group, under a counselor, is virtually free to make its own rules, divide its duties and camp work, find its especial talents, fun, and paths of exploration.

There are three Life Camps: for girls at Branchville, Conn., directed by Miss Lois Goodrich; for boys (8 to 16) at Pottersville, N. J., under William L. Gunn; and a new pioneer camp for older boys (13 to 16) at Matamoras, Pa., under Martin J. Feely. The camps stay open until Sept. 1. Youngsters spend at least a fortnight in camp and many of them stay a month. The Branchville camp runs an extra ten days for a group of older girls (16 to 20) known as the Life Lifers' Club.

Executive Director of all Life Camps since 1925 is Dr. Lloyd Burgess Sharp, a 42-year-old Kansan. The covered wagon idea is his, as well as the broad educational aims of the camps. He started life as a farm boy, went to Kansas State Teachers' College, served in the Navy during the World War. After graduate work at Columbia University, and research for the New York City Board of Education, he joined Life Camps armed with a complete plan of reorganization. Dr. Sharp, who describes himself as the father of a Girl Scout, considers his job only half begun when the summer is over. He follows the careers of the youngsters who have come to him for summer fun, irons out their home problems, watches that they finish schooling, helps them find employment.

LIFE'S photographers are going to Life Camps this month to record how life goes there. They have a high mark of eloquence to shoot at, for Percy Leo Crosby put it all down in pen & ink years ago in the old Life with a single drawing of a tattered youngster gazing at a rural vista and saying: "Gee, it's so beeyoo-tiful I'd like to give somebody a sock in the jaw."

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