History

The Beginning—Life Fresh Air Fund
Trail Blazers’ decentralized program is the outcome of many years during which ideas from a number of sources evolved into an integrated philosophy. This process began in 1887 when John Ames Mitchell, the original editor of Life magazine, founded the Life Fresh Air Fund to take underprivileged children from the summer heat of city slums to the clean air and sunshine of a country farm. With $1,000 raised through solicitations in Life, Mitchell was able to send 20 children to a 10-acre farm in Branchville, Connecticut, during the summer of 1887. Railroads

cooperated by offering the children reduced rates. By 1918, nearly 40,000 boys and girls had spent two weeks in the country, at a cost of $6.92 each. In 1923, the program received fresh impetus when James Cox Brady offered his family estate near Pottersville, New Jersey, as the site for a second Life’s Farm. At both the Branchville location and the Brady Estate, boys and girls participated in a centralized, departmentalized program.

Pioneering Educator L. B. Sharp Named Executive Director

The present philosophy of Trail Blazers began to develop in 1925, when L. B. Sharp became Executive Director of Life’s Farm. A well-known educator associated with Columbia University, Sharp was a pioneer in the development of modern concepts regarding outdoor recreation and education. Sharp changed the name of Life’s Farm to Life Camps. At this point, the children were segregated by sex. The Branchville property was designated Life Girls Camp, and the Brady Estate became the site for the Boys Camp and was named Camp Raritan.

Sharp and his staff fully grasped the educational potential of the camping environment and immediately began seeking ways to create a more meaningful camp experience. Camp programs were reorganized along educational lines, with the emphasis placed on the individual camper. This is still central to the Trail Blazers philosophy. The new program, while still centralized in approach, stressed out-of-camp, outdoor activities, especially trip camping.

The Concept of Decentralized Camps
It is impossible to say precisely when the idea first occurred, but in 1928 the concept of decentralized camps with small groups of campers was attempted for the first time. As Sharp described:

It was in the mid-season that we tossed overboard the traditional type of centralized camping program and quickly got rid of all forms of regimentation, artificial competitions and the like. With the change there was one theme: that the individual camper should have those experiences in adventure and exploration that are only possible in a wholesome camping environment, and are not repetition of the forms of recreation that are available in the city.

The first step was to establish outposts at both the Girls and Boys Camps. These outpost camps, between 1928 and 1934, were the sites for experiments with two counselors living with a small group of youngsters in a primitive setting. Out of these emerged the standards that serve as a model for decentralized camping.

In the meantime, the other campers participated in a program that was progressively evolving away from the emphasis on centralized activities toward a new focus on natural surroundings. As small–group living units were established in the woods, camper-counselor planning replaced imposed schedules. The natural environment became the basis for the entire program—for food, shelter, conveniences, fire, and daily activities.
In 1931, a second Boys Camp was established on borrowed property in Matamoras, Pennsylvania. This was used to develop an accelerated program for boys between the ages of 12 and 16. Six smallcamps were built, each with a unique structure.

Life Girls Camp Finds a New Home in Sussex County, New Jersey
In order to fully realize the potential of decentralized camping, a larger tract of land was required. The space shortage was particularly acute at the Life Girls Camp in Connecticut. To make it possible for Life Camps to translate its vision into reality, the Doris Duke Foundation made available a 1,000-acre tract in Sussex County, New Jersey, surrounding 55-acre Lake Mashipacong. This was to be the new site of the Girls Camp.

Through the winter, woodsmen and craftsmen constructed by hand rustic buildings suited to the primitive environment in which children would learn about the natural world. Under great pressure, the workmen and administration were determined to meet a deadline that would make it possible to open the Life Girls Camp the following summer. They attained their goal and in the summer of 1939, two smallcamps for girls were launched on the northwestern shore of Lake Mashipacong.

That same year, winter camping was introduced into the program to reinforce the influence of the summer experience on the children’s lives. Rediscovering the outdoor world in a new season heightened the impact of the camp experience.

The National Camp Training Center Opens
L. B. Sharp had a personal vision. He conceived of a program that could be used to train school administrators, teachers, and youth leaders to conduct outdoor education programs in their communities and organizations. This became reality in 1940 when a fourth camp was opened on the Mashipacong property, across the lake from the Girls Camp. This site would later become the location of the Boys Camp.

The new National Camp, as it was designated, was where the concept of education through outdoor living formed its roots. As a graduate training center attended by leaders and educators from throughout the nation, National Camp fostered the idea to make camping and outdoor education an integral part of the public school system. Attendees learned about the Life Camps’ concepts of decentralization. They learned by doing—in camp. The Life Girls Camp served as a laboratory where experiments in outdoor education were carried out.

In 1951, to reflect the new emphasis on education, Life Camps was renamed the Outdoor Education Association. In addition to managing the camps and training center, the association was a membership organization. A journal, Extending Education, was published several times during the year.

Lois Goodrich Saves the Program and Renames It Trail Blazers Camps
In 1953, the financial support for the Outdoor Education Association was discontinued, and at the end of the summer all of the camps were closed. Time, Inc., by then an international firm, decided that it was no longer appropriate to associate with a small local charity. Fortunately, Lois Goodrich, a staff member since 1931 and then Director of the Girls Camp, vowed to keep decentralized camping alive at Lake Mashipacong. Backed by the staff, she sought and obtained permission to use the land. With limited funding, a Girls Camp and that following summer a new Boys Camp were established on the site of the National Camp. Equipment brought from Camp Raritan made it possible to accommodate 50 boys. Goodrich stepped into the position of the Executive Director, and incorporated the Boys Camp into the Girls Camp under the name of Trail Blazers Camps.

Under the leadership of Goodrich, Trail Blazers Camps continued to serve disadvantaged children in a decentralized camp setting. Working closely with social services agencies, the program remained a vital part of the ongoing research in programs for underserved children and their families.

An Award-Winning Program
In 1976, Trail Blazers Camps was honored to receive the Eleanor P. Eells Award for Program Excellence. The award was given by the Fund for Advancement of Camping for skillfully implementing a creative, innovative response to the needs of people through camping.

New Leadership for Trail Blazers
In 1980, after 50 years of devoted service, Lois Goodrich retired, having affected the lives of countless children and young adults. She continued as Director Emeritus until her death in the spring of 1984. Following Goodrich’s retirement, Jani Brokaw became Executive Director, serving in this capacity from 1980 through 1984. Brokaw was instrumental in providing the energy and guidance needed to maintain Trail Blazers Camps’ standard of excellence. During her time as Executive Director, she increased the utilization of in-city programming and implemented the Leadership Training Program for 14- to 17-year-olds.

Trail Blazers Secures a Lifetime Lease
In December of 1984, Judith L. Myers, Ph.D., assumed the role of Trail Blazers’ Executive Director. Under Myers’s leadership, Trail Blazers completed a major Centennial Campaign and branched out to serve more New Jersey children. Myers’s greatest accomplishment came in 1991 when she helped Trail Blazers secure a lifetime lease. Ownership of the property moved from Doris Duke to the Nature Conservancy. With this move, Trail Blazers was guaranteed lifetime tenancy on the Mashipacong property. In 1991, due to financial reasons, Trail Blazers combined the Boys Camp and Girls Camp into one camp on the girls side of the Mashipacong property. Kay Kennedy served as Executive Director from 1991 to 1994. Under her administration, Trail Blazers of Paterson (TOP) was created to work in conjunction with the Youth Services Bureau to reach the youth of Paterson, New Jersey.

Financial Difficulties and Perseverance
The 1994–1995 fiscal year was a time of financial difficulty for Trail Blazers. Pam Gregory assumed the dual role of Interim Executive Director and Camp Director—the first time one person occupied both positions since Lois Goodrich. During this time, the financial situation stabilized. During the 1995–1996 fiscal year, Connie Boson assumed the role of Executive Director. However, Connie’s tenure was short lived and Pam Gregory assumed the role of Executive Director in the fall of 1996. In 1997, a new collaboration was formed with the Inner-City Scholarship Fund. This collaboration allowed Trail Blazers to reopen the Boys Camp and return to single sex camping.

In 2000, Pam moved on to pursue other interests. Mary Anne Killeen served as Executive Director until 2004, during which time she formed a partnership with the New York City Department of Education through Supplemental Education Service program funding and expanded the Leadership Training Program. In 2004, Kate Sullivan stepped in as Interim Executive Director. She assumed the role of Executive Director in early 2005.

Trail Blazers has since expanded its services with the Department of Education in New York and New Jersey, furthered its long-standing relationship with the Nature Conservancy, implemented evaluation tools thanks to a Robert Bowne Foundation grant, formed a relationship with Youth INC and increased camper recruitment by 5% each year. In the future, Trail Blazers hopes to expand their year round programs to include experiential education after-school programming and more leadership training programs.