2010 CAMP REVIEW
Big is not always best, but our best was big. We had 32 campers in attendence, but we kept the intimacy of a small camp. One Tremont staffer remarked mid-week that he had never seen a camp where the counselors knew everyone's names. But then he had never seen Camp Quest.
The hike to Spruce falls and the swim in the pool was a favorite as always. Stan, Nick, and Rita led 8 (mostly young) campers (and 3 other staff) over the mountain to camp out overnight on the West Prong and got them back for breakfast. The night hike with quiet and no lights was the darkest ever. Campers Nick and Mia accompanied a Tremont naturalist on a survey of salamander streams when her assistant became ill. Chloe got poison ivy. Traditional activities, swimming, field games, stilts, badminton, Socrates Cafe, science experiments, campfires, a movie, and much more were all enjoyed. Campers did a great job on the service projects. As usual, the closing campfire was an emotional time.
CIT Nick organized the senior camper circle where serious discussions went on well past "lights out" the final night.
It's Beyond Belief!
Summer camp 2012 will be our tenth anniversary year! We now have our reservation confirmationed, so save
July 22 through July 28 for Camp Quest of the Smoky Mountains. To keep cost under control, we have guaranteed an increased number.
We also expect to integrate some of the naturalists on Tremont's staff into our teaching program.
We will be accepting applications for campers, ages 8-17, starting in February, and inquiries from new 2012 staff now.
We will also be trying a Family Camp to be held the first three days for younger kids and children with special needs
accompanied by a parent. Since this is new, participation will be limited and subject to approval on a case-by-case basis.
Please look at the Family Camp link and contact the Director if interested. Application forms are available by clicking on the Forms links on the left or by reviewing the links below.
For more information on Camp Quest 2011, contact the director, Jonas Holdeman at (865)896-9270. Keep checking our website
throughout the year as we add more information about the upcoming activities for the next camp.
Each year we have some special needs and we seek some special people to help us. If you think you can help,
please go to this page.
Camp Quest of the Smoky Mountains is a secular residential summer camp for the children of atheists, agnostics, humanists and freethinkers,
and its purpose is to provide children of irreligious parents with a residential summer camp, dedicated to improving the human condition through
rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation
of religion and government guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. However, registration is open to all children regardless of their
beliefs or the beliefs of their parents.
One week in the summer of 1996, at a camp in Northern Kentucky, twenty remarkable kids and a few adult volunteers
made history: Camp Quest, the first residential summer camp for the children of freethinkers, was born.
In 2002, the Smoky Mountain camp became the second of the Camp Quests. There are now many Camp Quest summer camps across
North America and Europe.
Camp Quest of the Smoky Mountains is supported by the Rationalists of East Tennessee and UU friends and donors:
"Thinking people doing thoughtful things."
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