Culture Campers

Alexandra Loesser

Culture Campers

When picturing summer camp, hiking, swimming, and camp fires may come to mind; but what about dancing a traditional Arabic dance or watching a kung fu performance? The popular trend of culture camps may soon give new meaning to the term summer camp.
At camp Taha in Lapeer County hundreds of children will hike, kayak, and gather around a fire but instead of telling ghost stories they will recite verses from the Michigan camps are now popping up that promote different cultures and religions.Quran and listen to Shi’ite Muslim scholars. Camp Taha was bought this year by a Muslim group with the goal to cater to metro Detroit’s diverse ethnic and religious communities. This idea is catching on fast many Asian, Middle Eastern, and other immigrant groups are setting up new programs across Michigan that allow children to practice and maintain their very important faith and heritage but have typical summer camp fun.
For many immigrants it is very important to pass on their cultural backgrounds to their American-born children and these Michigan camps are probably the best way to do it. As opposed to sitting in a class room with a text book some camps take the children to their native homelands to learn hands on. The Chinese Association of greater Detroit organized summer programs that are held in Beijing and focus on teaching Chinese arts and languages in a fun way. Most kids may have some judgments about an educational summer but the camps are becoming so popular applicants sometimes have to be turned away. Brian Yang,16, of Ann Arbor spent last month in china and said, “It was really memorable, I grew up learning the culture, but it’s different when you go back and see it in person… It helped me fathom it better. When I cam back, I felt like going to China again. I kind of missed it.” For American-born children with strong cultural and religious backgrounds this may just be the best way for them to maintain their history and heritage while having fun at the same time.


Warikoo, Niraj. "Culture Campers." 08 13 2007 08 12 2007 .