Electronic Postcards From Camp
By Abigail Leichman, The Record (Bergen County)
Jeffrey Solomon knows what his daughters are doing this summer.
He's spied 13-year-old Elyssa and 10-year-old Sari swimming, playing soccer, biking, rock climbing, and singing. And he never has to leave his Hackensack office to watch them, because all he has to do is log onto Camp Southwood's Web site and take a look at digital photos the camp posts daily.
"I check it three times a day," said the Westfield resident. "It's the parents' lifeline to their kids for the summer. You get letters in the mail that they're homesick, and then you see pictures of them smiling, so you know they're having a good time. It helps get you through those periods."
Gone are the days when parents waved bye-bye as their offspring entered the rustic cabins of summer camp, never to hear from them - except for the occasional postcard or tearful phone call - for weeks at a time. Now, many sleep-away camps offer Web sites with daily updates, digital photos, and even video clips to soothe parental worries. Companies such as Bunk1 help camps set up these online services, which may also include one-way e-mail (parent to child) and personalized voice messages (director to parent).
As one experienced camp director confided to the American Camping Association: "We have few homesick children, but we have homesick parents by the dozens."
That's what gave veteran camper Ari Ackerman the idea to start Bunk1 in 1999 as a student at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Back then, camp owners needed convincing to sign on to the Manhattan-based service. "Now they call me and say, 'I know I have to do this because parents are asking for it," said Ackerman. "It's a win-win for owners because they are fielding fewer calls. Parents can just log in and see that Johnny's OK."
Most camps charge a $10 registration fee for a password to access and download photos via a link to Bunk1 from the camp's Web site. Privileges are valid for an entire year. Bunk1 also offers photo-quality prints and novelty items like photo T-shirts.
The Solomons regularly download pictures of Elyssa and Sari and mail them to camp, where the girls hang them on their bunks. "It's worth every penny," said Solomon. "They love it."
"Everybody is trying to get their face in the camera," Ackerman said. "As much as they don't want to admit it, they want Mom to know what's going on. And they also like that they can show their friends at home what's going on at camp."
"It's taken the anxiety out of the experience at both ends of the spectrum, for both parents and kids," said Lee Miller of Ridgewood, whose 13-year-old son, Alex, is at Camp Allstar in Maine. Daughter Jessica, 11, recently returned from Camp Wicosuta in New Hampshire.
"It was fun to be in the pictures," said Jessica. Via Bunk1's one-way e-mail service, Bunknotes, her dad sent her daily reminders to try getting in viewing range of the camera. "I thought it was good that my parents could see what we were doing," Jessica said. And not only parents; the Miller kids' grandparents also have passwords to the Web sites.
Sam Raphael, 12, was allowed to call home once a week from his camp in Maine, which ended in mid-July. During one conversation with his mom, Joan, she told him she'd just seen a great shot of him online. "He was excited to get the picture," said Raphael. Now that he's home, he accesses the camp photos himself as a reminder of his summer experience.
The only negative thing about being able to view a child at camp, said Raphael, is the disappointment of not seeing that smiling face every time you log on.
"Your kid won't be in every single day," she warned.
"There are days you don't see their pictures," said Solomon, "and you wonder if your child is there, or is she not happy and is that why she's not in the picture?"
But it still beats driving surreptitiously past camp hoping to catch a glimpse of your little one - a practice Miller admits he did in years past when his children attended area day camps.
"You didn't know what they were doing and with whom," said Miller. "Now I can vicariously stay in touch with what's going on."
|
