Camp Mendocino

Camp Mendocino


Camp Mendocino is a 2000 acre camp off of highway 20 between Willits and Fort Bragg that serves a little over 13,000 San Francisco Bay Area kids each year. The camp is run by the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco. Many of the kids who attend Camp Mendocino each year are poor kids on scholarship to the camp.

I spent the weekend up at Camp Mendocino as part of a work weekend to get the camp ready for the kids who begin arriving next week. I shot the camp a bit at night while I was up there. This shot is of one of the outdoor barracks where the kids sleep. The building behind it is a hall that holds a giant model railroad set that the kids can work on and play with as well as a photography center. Digital photography is one of the things that the kids learn at the camp and they have a bunch of mostly low end Fuji point and shoots and 8 or 9 computers to digitally process their images and print them. I think it's wonderful that these kids can be exposed to digital photography up at this camp.

Here is a write up on their camp from their website: "For over 70 years, Camp Mendocino has been providing a creative, fun and supportive outdoor experience in a safe environment for youth ages 8-14. As with all of our programs at Boys & Girls Clubs, kids learn respect for others and themselves and gain character & leadership skills. Through our outdoor programs, like nature, hiking and L.I.F.E (living in a forest environment), children are taught respect and appreciation for the natural environment. And, being away from home for 10 days builds the self-esteem and confidence of our young people. Through fun team-building activities and living together, we work to promote understanding and cooperation among kids from different backgrounds."

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Orignal From: Camp Mendocino