Transporting Kids to New Vistas on Life

About 300 children from across the Southland arrived in the Malibu Hills on Wednesday for a week’s respite from the pressures of life in the inner cities and suburbs and to spend time making friends, playing sports and praying.

For many of the kids visiting Camp Gilmore and Camp Mt. Craggs, it will be their first contact with the great outdoors and their first experience at summer camp. The two camps, located next to one another inside Tapia State Park and operated by the Salvation Army, are open to underprivileged youth at little or no cost.

“The look on the faces of the children when they arrive and when they leave is totally different,” said David Bentley, president and director of the camps.

“Life is becoming more and more difficult for young people. There’s more pressure on them to be involved with drugs and gangs. But if they can be removed from that for a week and see they don’t need that to have fun, it gives them hope.”

Although they’re only a few miles from the city, the camps are light years from city life.

At Mt. Craggs, the emphasis is sports, with students drilling in the basics of basketball, football, soccer, volleyball and swimming. Camp Gilmore is a music camp, where students spend a week singing and playing brass instruments and timbrels, culminating in a camp concert of Salvation Army anthems. In between, the kids get free time for other activities and can attend prayer groups.

Organizers say the rewards of camp are twofold. There are about 30 counselors--many from other countries--who learn leadership skills they can use later in life as ministers and teachers. The kids, who range in age from 7 to 17, get a dose of discipline, camaraderie and the Bible.

Most of the kids come from secular or non-practicing families, and enroll in the camp more for its affordability than its Salvation Army ties, Bentley said. The average needy family pays about $10 to $20 per week for a child. The rest of the child’s $160 cost is covered by corporate donations.

Nick Taylor, a 10-year-old from Glendale, arrived Wednesday for what he said is his third trip to the camp in the last two years.

“It’s just so much fun,” he said. “I like the counselors, I like all the sports. My favorite is archery--we use real bows and arrows.”