Youth Leadership Camp
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The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Youth Leadership Camp (YLC), currently held at Camp Taloali in Stayton, Oregon, United States, is a four-week summer camp program for deaf and hard of hearing high school students. The Camp is an extension of the activities and training offered by the Junior NAD. NAD YLC focuses on the Youth Programs’ mission – developing scholarship, leadership, and citizenship.
This highly popular program has graduated over 2,000 alumni in its 35 years of existence. Many of these alumni have become successful individuals and apply what they have learned from NAD YLC as leaders and advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
NAD YLC offers rich opportunities to develop various skills through activities focusing on literacy; social studies; health; drama; deaf culture, language, and heritage; current issues; group dynamics; team building; outdoor activities, and more.
[edit] History
The NAD Youth Leadership Camp began in a very auspicious manner, it was an idea developed from a banter between friends.
In 1968, Frank Turk, then the national director of Junior NAD, and Gary Olsen, then Junior NAD projects specialist, were driving to the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton to assist with the printing of the biennial Junior NAD Convention procedures. While on the road, Turk and Olsen began a leisurely, but serious, conversation about developing and encouraging leadership in Junior NAD members.
They hit upon the idea of a summer camp for deaf youth, which would focus on personal growth and development in high school students, as well as the Junior NAD mission of "leadership, scholarship, and citizenship."
Turk and Olsen decided that a one-week program would not be long enough to obtain successful results. They settled on a length of four weeks, which would provide more time for campers to make progress on searching for their self-identities, be exposed to successful deaf leaders, and learn about various youth-related concerns.
The first YLC took place at the 44-acre Pine Lake Camp near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, from July 27, 1969 to August 23, 1969, with Olsen as its director. Campers were limited to those who had not attended any previous regional or national Junior NAD activities, so the opportunity to attend the YLC would be available to a greater number of students. In all, 64 freshmen and sophomores from deaf schools across the nation attended the camp, a number that has remained the same for each session held since.
Several traditions were established during the inaugural session. First were highly popular “’around the clock’ bull sessions with invited adults from various occupational fields.”[citation needed] These adults included notable figures like Robert Panara, Jack Gannon, and Dr. David Peikoff. Also, the daily publication,The Daily Drum was first established at YLC that year and has since become a popular, cherished part of the camp program. Campers also went on field trips to nearby locations and held their own governing body for the camp, the Camp Council, later known as the Camp Parliament.
Shortly after the first YLC camp session ended, Turk announced the purchase of the 32-acre Swan Lake Lodge in Pengilly, Minnesota, as a permanent home for the YLC. Starting July 1970 and continuing during YLC’s tenure in Minnesota, two sessions of the YLC were held each summer at the Swan Lake Lodge.
The YLC program included “training in Leadership Skills, Language Arts, Social Studies, Health Education, First Aid, and programs in deaf history, group dynamics, drama, recreation and arts and crafts.” [citation needed]
During the YLC’s tenure at Swan Lake Lodge, the National Association for the Deaf (NAD)became involved in the day-to-day operation of the camp, and thus, it became known as the NAD YLC and the qualifications for applicants were revised - the mandatory Junior NAD membership requirement was dropped, as was the requirement that campers must be students enrolled in residential schools for the deaf.
Unfortunately, shortly after the 1989 session, the Swan Lake Lodge location failed to meet state health- and safety regulations. The YLC program was in danger of being discontinued until the NAD, with the help of Fred Weiner, found new campgrounds in Oregon. YLC then relocated to Camp Taloali, located in Stayton, Oregon, partly “because it is land owned and run by deaf people.” [citation needed]
The NAD YLC relocated to Camp Taloali for the summer of 1990. Since all the camp property was still in Swan Lake Lodge, volunteers and staff had to first travel to Minnesota to pick up equipment that belonged to YLC, such as boats and athletic equipment, and bring it to Oregon.
Tim Rarus, one of the student leaders of the 1988 Deaf President Now movement, served as camp director. The other three student leaders – Jeff Covell, Bridgetta Bourne, and Greg Hlibok – also came to speak to the campers, continuing the tradition of deaf leaders as speakers and role models.
This session was furthermore made memorable when one of the campers got lost in the woods of the Stayton State Park and a major search party including horses, dogs, and helicopters had to be assembled to look for her. She was found 31 hours later. The incident attracted national media attention, as a result, campers began to learn basic orientation and wilderness survival skills.
Since 1997, the NAD YLC has published a yearbook of staff, campers, and camp events. The yearbook has joined The Daily Drum, Camp Council, and Fireside Chats (formerly the ‘bull sessions’) as one of the more popular parts of the camp program.
Also added to the NAD YLC program since its move to Camp Taloali are the Camp Bowl, a daily trivia contest; and the Mr. and Miss NAD YLC pageant.
The NAD YLC remained at Camp Taloali for twelve years until the administrators of Camp Taloali decided to implement a year-round program that would not be able to accommodate the NAD YLC. NAD YLC then relocated to Camp Lakodia, owned by Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD), in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for the summer of 2003.
Due to scheduling conflicts that made further sessions at Camp Lakodia impossible, the NAD YLC moved yet again to 30-acre Sertoma Camp Endeavor (SCE) in Dundee, Florida, for its 2004 session. At Camp Endeavor, the NAD YLC celebrated its 35th anniversary of serving and educating deaf youth. Unfortunately, SCE was severely damaged by three hurricanes in 2005 and they could not guarantee that the site would be back in shape for the 2005 NAD YLC session.
In 2005, the NAD YLC returned to Stayton, Oregon.
[edit] Locations
1969 - Pennsylvania
1970-1989 - Minnesota
1990-2002 - Oregon
2003 - South Dakota
2004 - Florida
2005-present - Oregon
