NEVER BE DISCOURAGED 



H. F. G. 



Camp Director of the Aloha Camps. 

 Perhaps a word to hearten all camp directors who are trying to give 

 their best inspiration and leadership to young people in learning to 

 know and love out of doors may not be amiss. The work is so new in 

 its manner, as developed in camps that we have not yet even the right 

 name for it. We do not mean Nature Lore — nor Nature work — nor 

 Wood-craft, rather we mean a good deal of each and even more. It 

 is no wonder we can't find geniuses in these lines graduating by scores 

 from our over-packed colleges. We are quite certain we do not want 

 primarily scientific experts to teach our campers. Even at the thought, 

 I can see bloomered camp girls taking to cover. Just what are we 

 looking for in the persons who are to be the leaders of our campers in 

 out of door life, close and intimate with Nature? It is true we are 

 looking for persons who are learned as to birds and beasts and flowers, 

 who know trees and rocks and clouds and stars, but they must not be 

 erudite at the cost of being human. They must know and love young 

 folks so well that no labor will seem too great in getting the campers 

 to be on joyous, intimate, intelligent terms with the life about them. 



Our Nature leaders, if such we may call them till some one has 

 coined a better term, must have red-blooded enthusiasm for the camper 

 as well as for Nature. They must not have peered through a telescope 

 or a microscope, so exclusively, as to have forgotten how lovely and 

 lively the growing young camper is at his elbow. We are looking for 

 leaders with the naturalist's training and enthusiasm plus the kindly 

 understanding heart toward the young learner — someone who has 

 that glorious gift of leadership that makes young folks love to follow 

 and to hear, learn and to copy him. Our aim is too big to be attained 

 in one, two or possibly ten summers, but if we have, with the help 

 of such leaders as I have indicated, created an attitude in the campers 

 mind toward the world of Nature about us of eager, earnest, curious 

 study, we have done something. If we have made our campers feel 

 that camp life opens to them a great world of life thrilling, delightful, 

 beautiful, mysterious, awful, that they must know and conquor and 

 enjoy and beautify, we have done much. If our campers can go off 

 on hikes or water trips with "eyes that see" and "ears that hear" 

 after many summers at camp, we shall have given them a source of 

 growth and enrichment beyond price. 



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