FML in Balance

One of the strengths of Flying Moose Lodge (FML) is that it has an even balance between its base camp program and its trip camp program -- boys leave on trips each Tuesday and return to base camp on Friday to relax, recover, and prepare for the next week's trip. Because the camp is located on what is generally acknowledged in the parts as one of the most beautiful lakes in Maine, and because there is no electricity in camp, the time in camp can be as meditative as the trips. This balance is fairly unique in Maine.

Camp "Four Winds" is a "sister camp" of sorts -- a girls camp 40 miles away where one of our trips stop each week for fresh water. It is a more traditional girls camp, with a heavy emphasis on base camp: tennis, horseback riding, arts and crafts, singing, sailing, and water-skiing. They occasionally have trips -- but their trips consist of easy day hikes and swimming. The assistant director has been trying for years to build up the trip program, but it remains a very minor part. The interactions between our boys and their girls keep us uneasy about the idea of making space at FML for girls. Four Winds counselors report that more girls go swimming when Flying Moose boys stop for water, than any other time. As for our campers, I led the Bagaduce trip a few summers ago, and one of our boys insisted on changing into clean clothes once we portaged into their lake. I'd never seen him so suave, and the cologne he brought for the occasion was far from pine tar.

There's another camp in Maine called D'Arrow that also focuses on trips, but unlike FML, it's co-ed and it doesn't have a base camp program -- kids arrive for trips, go out for a few weeks in small groups, and then go home when the trips are done. The daughters of one of Flying Moose's favorite alumni go there. He brings his family through camp on their way to and from D'Arrow, and they work on the canoes or whatever other major project we need help with. His girls report that D'Arrow has none of the problems of a coed base camp, but they're pretty sure it's because there is no base camp, and the kids that go there are pretty dedicated to the idea of trips, and not there to socialize with the opposite sex. Still, she says, she's exhausted after trips and wishes D'Arrow had a base camp like FML.

Solutions

I'd like to run a coed camp where sexual differences were respected and appreciated, but … well, I don't have the money to start it, and if I did, I'm still not sure how I'd deal with hormones. Alternatively, I'd like to be able to offer the same single-sex trip and base camp experience to girls. If I had a million dollars, I think I'd try to buy some land across the lake and build a girls camp there. At least then campers would have to improve their canoeing skills in order to mess around. There's a demand for it from most of our campers' sisters, or at least from their parents, if they have a sister.

A Spring 2003 class on "Life History Research and Methods" that I had with Mary Louise Gomez.