What are
BYM Camps like?

“There’s a childlike joy
that I feel at camp.”

BYM Camps are more than your typical summer camp.

We are a vibrant, diverse, and youth-centered community that welcomes you with open arms. We create an environment where campers can both find themselves and be themselves. We build opportunities for older campers to step into leadership, to develop emotionally and spiritually, to shine their light brightly while also celebrating the light of others. We nurture life-long connections to wild spaces, to specific places, and to each other.

We believe in the power and brilliance of our campers, and we support them as they find their voice around the Fire Circle, their courage in the wilderness, their artistry through creative play, and their work ethic through daily chores. Campers are unique and essential community members, and they learn how to contribute to and sustain that community, first at camp, and then in the rest of their lives.

Campers are transformed every summer, and they transform us as well. We all keep coming back, year after year, knowing that we’ve found a home.

Quaker
Values

The foundation of BYM Camps
is the Quaker belief that
“there is that of the Light
in every person,”
and the Quaker testimonies of
Simplicity, Peace, Integrity,
Community, Equity, and Stewardship.
These values imbue everything we do, and we work to manifest them in ourselves and each other every day.

Connection & Interdependence

We believe that all people, and all things, are divine and should be valued as such. We foster a sense of respect for each other and the non-human world, and we honor the fact that we are inextricably connected to, and dependent on, each other. We always seek to listen and learn.

Radically Welcoming,
Genuinely Diverse

Our camps are strengthened by genuine diversity of all kinds, and we are forever working to build communities that are radically welcoming and inclusive. We commit to creating camps where people of any race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status actively want to attend or work, where anyone and everyone feels at home.

Joyous & Brave Community

BYM Camps have joy and challenge at the center of everything we do. Our camps celebrate individuality, encourage every camper to flourish, and create a culture of organic friendship, laughter, and play.

All of that happens in the context of a diverse and welcoming community, where everyone is valued, and everyone is counted upon. Campers learn how to balance their needs with those of others, how to listen to and work with those who might see things differently. We support campers, and they support each other, as they explore and stretch, as they take risks and try something new, as they become someone new.

Our Quaker Foundation

Everything at BYM Camps can be traced back to our foundational Quaker principles. Our camps are simple and unplugged, the activities driven by camper imagination and interest. Campers live closely with nature and with each other, learning how to create a sustainable relationship with the earth and just relationships within their community.

Silence, and the reflective stillness it creates, is a core part of camp life, with the Fire Circle being where the most meaningful moments often occur. And because we value each camper’s access to truth and wisdom, their voices are cultivated and respected. Every day, campers play together and work together, they listen to each other, they listen to their inner voice, and they are both seen and heard.

Our Camps

Whether it’s spent hiking up mountains, playing games, or making art, each day at a BYM camp is a lifelong memory in the making. Find the program that’s the right fit for your camper…

Catoctin
– Ages 9-14

A camp for kids to discover the adventures that await in the wild and create a raucous fun all their own.

What your camper will come home telling you about:

Finding a sense of pride and bravery atop a rock climbing wall they weren’t sure they could scale.
Relaxing, reflecting, and refreshing with a swim in “The Lagoon” after a day of games, outdoor exploration, and nature-based art.
How fun something as simple as dinner cleanup can be when it’s spent working together, singing and laughing with friends.

More About Catoctin

Opequon
– Ages 9-14

A camp where kids celebrate nature and community while letting their artistic energies loose.

What your camper will come home telling you about:

Bringing art and nature together by making pottery with the clay they dug out of Opequon Creek themselves.
Embracing their inner weirdo with their fellow campers by spending the afternoon tubing down the river in full costume.
Learning the joys of sharing and affirmation as they transform the entire camp into an ”Art Walk,“ where campers show off their puppetry, dances, and murals.

More About Opequon

Shiloh
– Ages 9-14

A camp for kids to forge joyful relationships with the outdoors, their friends, and themselves.

What your camper will come home telling you about:

The excitement going out on an overnight hiking trip for the first time, deepening their friendships with a smaller group of campers.
Helping to build a campfire for a hundred of their new best friends to sing songs around, gaining outdoor skills and confidence in the process.
The reflective afternoons of spotting herons and mastering their J strokes while canoeing on the Shenandoah River.

More About Shiloh

Teen Adventure
– Ages 15-17

An adventure-based camp for learning new skills, embracing leadership, and building resilience.

What your camper will come home telling you about:

Building confidence and grit by serving as their trip’s “Leader of the Day” for the steep hike up to a 4,500-foot peak with a beautiful view.
Scouting and navigating whitewater rapids on their James River canoe trip, strengthening their sense of observation, communication, and teamwork.
The joy and inspiration that comes from visiting local farms, learning from local artists, and exploring the best swimming holes of Rockbridge County.

More About Teen Adventure