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Regional Camps Including their kids was exactly what Kathy and Jeff Parsonnet looked forward to doing when their daughter Myra turned 4. To them, it signified an important milestone: It meant that the youngest member of their family was finally old enough to go to AMC's Three Mile Island Camp in Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H. That was 10 years ago. The Parsonnets, who live in Norwich, Vt., have gone back every summer since. The first time they went, it was just the four of them, but the following year, Kathy's recently widowed mother as well as her mother's sister joined them. All of them love the annual tradition and the simplicity of the island located 100 miles from home, Parsonnet says. "It's not just that we don't have plumbing or electricity in our cabins; it's the freedom from the constant information that bombards us in our daily lives. These days, I feel tied to everything and everyone electronically," she says. "Between deadlines, news headlines, phone calls, messages, and emails, it's so hard to get a sense of quiet. But at Three Mile Island we have that. It's not only quiet in the auditory sense but there's also a quieting of the mind, once you get away from everything." Another strong draw about the camp, which can accommodate about 90 people at a time, is its intergenerational component. "When my daughter was very young, she made a date with her grandmother to do origami together every afternoon while we were there," Parsonnet says. "So for several years on end, they would wind down each day doing origami. Down at the dock, you frequently see kids who want to swim asking whatever adult is nearby to watch them. Or you might see a 6-year-old and an 80-year-old who just met that morning playing cards." Over the course of a decade, there have been times when Parsonnet's kids resisted the yearly plan. "But you just tell them they have to, and once they get there they are glad," she says. "Once they're on the island, they can do whatever they want. They can swim, or play games, or go kayaking. The teens sometimes just hang out by the water watching members of the opposite sex." "I love going to Three Mile Island," says Myra Parsonnet, who is now 14. "It's good bonding time and there's so much outdoorsy stuff to do there. You can go hike a mountain nearby, or you can just talk to new friends." Myra says she doesn't mind the break from the material comforts of home at all, and her mother observes wryly that it is not usually kids who have a problem giving up their keyboards and wireless access. "It's the adults who have trouble with that," she admits. "We have to force ourselves to just turn off the cell phone and not sneak a peek at our messages. For the kids, there's so much to do there that they don't normally get to do that they really don't think about anything they're missing." For more information, visit the following links:
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Teens get a chance to acquire outdoor skills. Photo by Tracy Powell.
