Camp Quest is the first residential summer camp in the United States for the children of Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists, and all others who hold to a naturalistic rather than supernatural worldview.
Camp Quest was founded in 1996 by Edwin Kagin as a project of the Free Inquiry Group of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. It is now operated by Camp Quest, Inc., a non-profit corporation.
Camp Quest Michigan, founded in 2003 by Len Zanger, continues this tradition, allowing our future leaders to connect, in a place where it is okay to not believe in gods or supernatural things. Camp Quest Michigan is a licensee of Camp Question, Inc.
We currently rent facilities from a very cooperative and helpful 4H camp near Allegan, Michigan. A long-term goal is to acquire land and establish a permanent home for Camp Quest. Our staff is composed of volunteers who are passionate about freethought and providing a fun, safe summer camp experience for children from non-religious families.
Vision
Camp Quest envisions a world in which children grow up exploring, thinking for themselves, connecting with their communities, and acting to make the most of life for themselves and others.
Mission
- Camp Quest provides an educational adventure shaped by fun, friends, and freethought, featuring science, natural wonder, and humanist values.
- The values we teach are integrity, empathy, creativity, critical thinking, and community.
Goals
- Develop supportive communities for freethinking families
- Foster curiosity, scientific inquiry, and critical thinking in young people to enable them to draw their own conclusions
- Cultivate reason and empathy as foundations of an ethical, productive, and fulfilling life
- Provide a safe and fun environment for personal and social growth
- Encourage exploration of the natural world
- Promote open dialogue that is marked by challenging each other’s ideas while treating each other with respect
- Raise awareness of positive contributions made by atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheistic people to our society
- Demonstrate atheism and humanism as positive, family-friendly worldviews