Why Should You Support Camp Quest?

This is a guest post by Amanda Metskas, the Executive Director of Camp Quest.

Hemant adds: I’m working together with Greta Christina, Jen McCreight, and JT Eberhard to raise more money for Camp Quest than PZ Myers! (It’s almost a fair fight.)

Please donate via the ChipIn widget below and say you came from this site! You’ll be helping a fantastic organization while defeating a wicked, squid-loving, cracker-destroying evolutionist 🙂

The first team to raise $5,000 for CQ (or the team raising the most money by June 1^st) will win all sorts of bragging rights.

Also, when my side wins, I think there’s an unwritten rule that we get to shave off PZ’s beard. He doesn’t know that yet, but let that rumor spread across the Internets!

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The nontheist community offers many programs for adults, but very few for children. To provide a future for our values we need to provide freethinking families with a place for their kids to find community, develop critical thinking skills, and learn ethics and values. Fortunately, that is what Camp Quest is all about. Well, that, and all of the summer camp fun that you can pack into a week.

Fun, Friends, & Freethought

Camp Quest builds a community for children and teenagers from atheist, agnostic, humanist and other freethinking families. We provide campers a place to explore their developing worldviews, ask questions, and make friends in an environment supportive of critical thinking and skepticism. Camp Quest is open to campers from all backgrounds. We encourage campers to think for themselves, be comfortable with who they are, and engage respectfully with people who have different views.

Sound good? You can get involved! Camp Quest needs support from a broad community of freethinkers to be successful. You can donate online through out awesome new website. You can also register a camper or volunteer to be a camp counselor.

Instead of me telling you more about why Camp Quest is a great experience for kids, I want to share some of what the campers themselves say.

“Camp Quest helps me remember that there are other people my age who think like I do.”

“To be kind to others of different beliefs.”

“…to be a leader, about photography, different plants, about the oil spill, and many other things.”

“That it’s okay to be myself.”
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“how to make really good friends in just a week.”

“I’ve learned how to question things better.”

“That it’s okay to be an atheist.”

“So many things I can’t even count.”

Pretty amazing, right? Help us make that happen for more kids. When you donate online, you can make a one-time gift or an automatic monthly donation and put Camp Quest on your payroll. Paypal processes our donations, but you don’t need a paypal account in order to make your gift online with a credit card. You can also mail a check to Camp Quest, Inc., P.O. Box 2552, Columbus, OH 43216. Camp Quest is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Donations are tax deductible. If you have any questions about making a donation, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Here’s how your support helps us bring the Camp Quest to experience to more children:

1. More camp locations than ever before.

   Camp Quest Chesapeake, Camp Quest Montana, and Camp Quest South Carolina are new this year! That brings us to 10 Camp Quest locations in North America, plus our overseas partners in the UK, Ireland, and Norway. By providing support to these new camps, Camp Quest is available to more children and families.

2. More campers attending Camp Quest sessions.

   Registration numbers for several of our locations are higher than ever this year. Camp Quest Minnesota is already full, and has started a waiting list. Several other camp locations are likely to completely fill up this year. (If you’re not registered for 2011 yet, you might want to go do that now.)

3. More help to Camp Quest camps to make 2011 our best year yet!

   At Camp Quest, Inc. we provide all kinds of support to Camp Quest camps to help them launch, and help them improve and grow from year to year. Camp Quest, Inc. provides financial support, publicity, technological services, training, troubleshooting and more to Camp Quest camps. That support makes it possible for our dedicated volunteers to launch, and run amazing Camp Quest camps serving freethinking families across North America.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll be a part of helping Camp Quest grow. For more updates from us, you can friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Remember: If you’d like to help Camp Quest, use the widget below!