Motto | Camp Quest provides an educational adventure shaped by fun, friends and freethought, featuring science, natural wonder and humanist values. |
---|---|
Formation | 1996 |
Founders | Edwin Kagin, Helen Kagin, Ed McAndrews, Elizabeth Oldiges, Nikki Orlemann, David Scheidt and Vern Uchtman |
Founded at | Boone County, Kentucky |
Type | Non Governmental Organization |
Legal status | Incorporated company |
Purpose | "To offer a summer camp program designed for children from atheist, agnostic, humanist and freethinking families." |
Headquarters | Columbus, Ohio |
Services | Provide summer camps for youth ages 8-17 in the United States and other countries. |
Website | Camp Quest |
Camp Quest, founded in 1996, is the first residential summer camp in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Norway specifically for the children of nontheistic or freethinking parents (including atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, skeptics, rationalists, and others who hold a naturalistic worldview). Amanda Metskas is Camp Quest's Executive Director.
Camp Quest's mission statement declares that the camp is "dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation of religion and government guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States". The camp intended goal is to offer a space where children who are already nonreligious can feel comfortable and accepted. The UK branch of Camp Quest stated in 2009 that the point of their camp was "not a case of being told what to think about concepts such as God, just how to think" about such concepts.
The camp's logo is based on an idea of Edwin Kagin and the original artwork of his daughter, Kathryn. The letters "C" and "Q" are combined into a sort of infinity symbol. The letters "CQ" are usually accompanied by the Morse Code for those letters, CQ being code shorthand for "Does anybody want to talk?". The name Quest is actually an acronym for Question, Understand, Explore, Search, Test. The camp's slogan is, "Camp Quest. It's beyond belief!"
The camp's programs introduce campers between the age of 8 and 17 to the history and ideas of freethought. Campers also learn about a variety of science topics, critical thinking, philosophy (including ethics), world religions, and mythology.