My Weekend at Adult Summer Camp
We swam. We painted. We talked about mortality, then we danced to Smash Mouth.
At Camp Social, grown women return to their childhood experiences, and friendship is immediate. Upon meeting eight campers from Cabin 3, I discovered they had no use for menstrual discs, found online dating depressing after divorce, laughed involuntarily, and felt like they knew each other well despite meeting for the first time.
They signed up for the weekend-long adult summer camp to make new friends. Over 400 women, ranging from 21 to 80, arrived at a Poconos sleepaway camp to bunk in twin beds, climb ropes, develop inside jokes, make friendship bracelets, and perform dances for Cher’s "Believe" and Shania Twain’s "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!"
Everyone at Camp Social is called a "girl," and the camp aims to recreate a childhood experience to help adults bond. The camp promises that 99% of campers arrive solo and leave as friends. Nancy Walecki, a reporter for The Atlantic, attended Camp Social to understand why adults would return to summer camp and how seriously they would take it.
The campers in Cabin 3 found that making friends was easier in their younger years. However, as they grew older, jobs, children, and other responsibilities made it difficult to maintain those friendships. They wondered how to meet new people and where to go. None of them expected to attend an adult summer camp, but they decided to give it a try after seeing advertisements.
During breakfast in the mess hall, the campers discussed their adult sons and laughed at a prank involving taking pictures of cleavage at weddings. Jackie Prendergast, a retiree, declared the mascot for the weekend to be the flamingo, explaining that when they lose essential nutrients, their feathers lose color but can regain it with nourishment. "We've lost our color, but we're going to get it back," she said.
The next day, the campers attended archery and prepared for a dance party with a band playing covers of Prince, Michael Jackson, and Bruno Mars. Camp founder Liv Schreiber, a 29-year-old, welcomed everyone and spoke enthusiastically about the weekend ahead. Schreiber has designed Camp Social to help women make new connections and promises that 99% of campers arrive solo and 100% leave as friends.
Written by urgent.news from The Atlantic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
