Running a 50-Mile Race To Raise Money For The WAF
“Camp is Homier than Home.” These are the words I said to my mother when I stepped off the bus after my first summer at sleepaway camp at nine years old. My mom may or may not have realized it then, but the act of sending me to summer camp changed the course of my life.
My name is Maggie Perkins. I have been involved in the Wilderness Adventures community for the past seven years. I was a trip leader for two years, the Director of Base Camp in Jackson Hole, and, most recently, joined the board of the Wilderness Adventures Foundation. This summer, I am running the Leadville Silver Rush 50-mile race to raise money for the Wilderness Adventures Foundation. My goal is to raise $50,000 – a thousand dollars for every mile of the race.
I grew up attending a residential sleepaway camp for girls in Maine called Wyonegonic. Each summer, I packed up a trunk full of green and white Soffe shorts, t-shirts, white swim caps, and Crocs and headed up to Maine for seven weeks. I spent the summers at Camp Wyonegonic, swimming in Moose Pond, learning to canoe, build fires, pitch a tent, and forming bonds with my fellow campers who have remained some of my closest friends to this day.
Summer camp has always been core to who I am. As I grew older and my school friends began graduating from their summer camps, I continued to attend camp and then even went on to work there through high school and college. I rose through the Counselor-in-Training and Assistant Counselor programs, was as a cabin counselor, a head counselor, and the Director of the Waterfront. I spent 13 summers under the pines at Wyonegonic.
After my junior year of college, I decided I was ready to expand my horizons. I left the comfort and routine of cabins and residential programs behind and joined the team at Wilderness Adventures as a Trip Leader. Cabins were replaced by a 16-passenger van and four-person tents, and my trunk was replaced by my backpacking pack. That summer, I led groups of middle schoolers around California, Washington, and Oregon. I visited five national parks, ate countless trail lunches, and joined a community of people passionate about the benefits of summer camp for youth.
At 28, I have spent a total of 17 years attending or working at summer camp. I was a full-time camp professional for two years and have worked with hundreds of children in summer camp settings. Summer camp changes lives. Children do not have to grow up and become camp directors for their lives to change at summer camp. They may walk away with a new confidence after skippering a sailboat, making a new friend, or choosing their activities for the week. There are countless chances for children to gain independence and confidence in the time they spend away from their parents at camp.
I am grateful every day that my family had the resources to send me to camp. I am so excited to be running the Leadville Silver Rush 50 this summer, raising money for the Wilderness Adventures Foundation, founded on the basis that finances should never bar a child from a transformative camp experience. My goal is ambitious, and so is this race. This is something that nine-year-old Maggie could never imagine I might accomplish. But with the skills I’ve gained on the trail, and the confidence instilled in me from years at camp, I am excited to take on the challenge.
If you have been touched by summer camp, or know someone who has, please consider supporting my run by donating to the Wilderness Adventures Foundation. Together we can make camp possible for all kids!
Written by Maggie Perkins
