Updated May 24, 2022

This information is provided by the Professors & Researchers Special Interest Group of The Naturist Society.  Please discover all of the other wonderful topics available (including much for people of college age) by entering this site through the front door.


The 2003 AANR Youth Camp controversy generated so many documents that the Professors & Researchers SIG archived them in three issues of their newsletter:

# 9 (August 2003)--mostly public reaction and opinions
# 12 (May 2004)--mostly legislative maneuvers
# 28 (February 2008)--mostly legal challenge

As documents about other nude youth camps accumulated, they were archived in another issue:

# 44 (May 2012)--mostly the Farm and Wilderness Camps

Now moved to the end:
    Appendix I--The original Proficiency Requirements
    Appendix II--Attendance and Locations of AANR and TNS Youth Camps
    Appendix III--The 1991-92 FANR Youth Census
    Appendix IV--How Adults Can Kill a Naturist Youth Organization
    Bibliography on all naturist youth camps
    Newsletter # 9
    Professors and Researchers
    Special Interest Group
    The Naturist Society
    August, 2003

    ● Youth Camp Special Edition ●

Contents:
    1.  A History of Naturist Youth Camps in America
    2.  What Can the Camp Experience Do for You and Your Family?
    3.  How to Plan a Naturist Youth Camp
    4.  The Recent Controversy: Summary and Analysis
    5.  Documents
        a.  Invited publicity I: The New York Times story
        b.  Mark Foley's bid for publicity
            i.  Saint Petersburg Times story
            ii.  Foley's letter to government officials
            iii.  Foley's web page
            iv.  Orlando Sentinel / Associated Press story
            v.  Foley's first appearance on The O'Reiley Factor
        c.  South Florida Free Beaches goes into action
            i.  Letter to Foley
            ii.  Request for documentation
            iii.  Invitation to naturist groups
            iv.  Position statement
        d.  Invited publicity II:  The Time story
        e.  The Naturist Society position statement
        f.   AANR position statement
        g.  Republicans snub Foley
            i.  Letter to Foley from Governor Jeb Bush's Office
            ii.  Campaign statement of Gwendolyn McClellan
        h.  Invited publicity III:  The Weekly Planet story
        i.   Naturists meet with Foley
            i.  The Miami Herald story
            ii.  SFFB press release
            iii.  NAC advisory
            iv.  The Associated Press report
            v.  The Palm Beach Post story
        j.  Meanwhile in Virginia...
            i.  The Richmond Times-Dispatch pre-camp story
            ii.  The Associated Press story
            iii.  The Washington Times story
            iv.  The Virginian-Pilot story
            v.  Concerned Women for America web site
        k.  And then in Arizona...
            i.  The Arizona Republic pre-camp story
            ii.  The Arizona Republic camp story
            iii.  Cleveland Plain Dealer sidebar
        l.  Rants, opinions, and thoughtful analysis
            i.  Walfield column on MichNews.com
            ii.  Glidewell column in the St. Petersburg Times
            iii.  Jackson column in the Tampa Tribune
            iv.  Hartstein on intellectualconservative.com
            v.  Marvin Frandsen's response to Hartstein
            vi.  Goodman column in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
            vii.  Woods column on Jacksonville.com
            viii.  Shiflett article in National Review
        m.  The video sideshow
            i.  The Saint Petersburg Times video story
            ii.  Swank column on MichNews.com
            iii.  Foley's second appearance on The O'Reiley Factor
            iv.  Tampa Bay Television News 9 Report
            v.  NAC commentary in The Nude & Natural Newsletter
        n.  Florida refocuses on the camps
            i.  Foley's letter to the editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
            ii.  Tallahassee Democrat report of the Tiger Bay Club talk
        o.  YPB&R public relations report
        p.  Legal fallout
            i.  Orlando Sentinel report on Quinones
            ii.  Proposed Texas law
            iii.  The Nude & Natural Newsletter report

A History of Naturist Youth Camps in America
    by Paul LeValley

    The original version of this history appeared with pictures in Naturally, no. 23 (Summer 1997).  Twenty years later, a thoroughly updated version appeared in Nude & Natural 36.3 (Spring 2017).  The newer version is substituted here.

    Twenty years ago, I wrote a history of American nude youth camps in Naturally magazine.  By now, it has become badly outdated.  This summer is the 25th season of the AANR youth camps and the 10th season of Sunsport Gardens' TNS Youth Camp, and so a good time to revise the history.  (This does not include the hundreds of Boy Scout, YMCA, and Unitarian summer camps that tolerated frequent skinny-dipping through much of the twentieth century.  Rather, we look at camps where nudity most of the time formed a central part of the program.)


Farm and Wilderness Camps  (1939-2007)

    In 1939, Kenneth B. Webb and his wife started the chain of five Farm and Wilderness Camps in Vermont that still operate today.  The couple ran the camps according to Quaker principles of silent thought and tolerance.  In his wonderful book, As Sparks Fly Upward, Webb tells how the nude tradition developed from the very beginning at the first camp, Timberlake Farm for boys 9-14.  Hiking to a mountain cabin, the boys got caught in a warm afternoon rain.  To keep their shoes and clothes dry for the chilly evening, they simply took them off and stored them in their packs.  That spontaneous action started the tradition of each boy making sure he went home wearing a "Timberlake tan" over his entire body.  They swam nude, they hiked nude, they worked nude in the camp's gardens.  In the era of president Roosevelt's "four freedoms," they boasted of a fifth freedom: freedom from clothes. 

    Girls at the sister camp, Indian Brook, also swam nude, but had to be more cautious because their swimming area was partially visible from the road.  Boys and girls skinny-dipped and used the sauna together after graduating to Tamarack Farm for older teens 15-17.  These were eight-week camps, with a four-week half-session available for those who could not afford the hefty fee.  As is usual in long-term camps, the children slept in cabins and ate in a dining hall, but cooked their own meals on frequent wilderness hikes and canoe trips.  At Saltash Mountain Camp, boys in a rugged lumberjack program cooked their own food.  And Camp Flying Cloud for boys 11-14 followed an American Indian theme, with the boys roughing it in tepees and wearing no clothes whatever, except a blanket on the coldest evenings.

    The nude tradition continued for 47 years.  Then new owners made new rules (not always obeyed) that restricted nudity to skinny-dipping and top-free work in the gardens.  That continued for another 35 years.  Then suddenly after the 2007 season, amid howls of protest from campers and counselors, the owners banned all nudity, on the theory they could attract more hispanic and Islamic campers that way.


Camp Hy-Lee Crest (1954-60)

    For six or seven seasons, from 1954 through 1960, Sunny Rest Lodge in Pennsylvania ran a camp (originally called Sunny Crest) for nudist boys and girls aged 7-16.  Camp director Reverend Bill Slater (a Congregational minister) began with three clear purposes: "(1) to provide resident teen-level camp experience for youth, in the naturalness of a sun-air regime; (2) to advance the mental, physical, and moral well-being of youth through an intelligent appreciation of the problems of maturation and character development; (3) to enable youth to discover itself via the democratic process in an environment conducive to thoughtfulness, curiosity, initiative and constructive self-expression." 

    To achieve those goals, the camp produced a program emphasizing Indian lore and sports.  Many photographs of activities contain 12 to 15 campers—all nude except for shoes.  Sessions of one-to-five weeks were available—at the amazingly low cost of $12 for the entire stay, no matter how long. 

    Campers slept on bunk beds in two big tents—one for boys and one for girls.  During the first summer, the kids cooked their own breakfast on a wood stove, retreating to the lodge's restaurant for lunch and supper.  But they wanted more adventure, and in later years cooked all of their own meals over a campfire.

    No one seems to remember if or where the camp took place in 1959 while the club owners went through a divorce.  In 1960, the camp moved to Rev. Slater's own land at Woodstock, Connecticut, for one final year.  Campers hiked the half-mile to Solaire Recreation League every day for swimming.


JWSA Youth Camp (1964-69)

    Regional camps were born in the brain of sixteen-year-old Linda Shockley of Oakleaf Ranch in California.  She got the idea after reading about European teen camps sponsored by the International Naturist Federation.  The Western Sunbathing Association responded to her letter by forming a Junior branch, and appointing the energetic Alice Apgar to  develop and direct a camping program.  The Apgar approach was one of massive organization.  Every year, she rounded up 80 to 100 teens aged 13 to 19 (a bit older than those attending most American camps, but common for nude youth activities in Europe).  They slept under the stars, and sat on the grass balancing paper plates of restaurant food on their laps.

    Each year saw a new location and a new theme: Nautical at Lazy-K Ranch in l964, Greek Mythology at Oakleaf Ranch in 1965, Polynesian at Swallows/Sun Island Club in 1966, and Psychedelic back at Lazy-K Ranch in 1967.  The reason for the moves is that the teens participated in a free work camp, readying the grounds for the adult convention the following week.  The region subsidized the one-week camp by selling photography and publishing rights to  nudist magazines.  After grumbling the first year, the work load was reduced from three hours a day to two.  Afternoons and evenings were devoted to activities popular back then: beauty pageants, clothed dances, and clothed trips to a roller-skating rink.  All other activities were clothing-optional.  There was a JWSA convention on Friday. 

    Teens finally rebelled against the regimentation.  They got into the spirit of the 1967 Psychedelic Fantasy theme by staging a sit-in to discuss their grievances.  The exhausted Alice Apgar had already announced her intended resignation.  Her successor ran far less ambitious programs without themes the next two years, before the idea died out completely.  But the tail had already been wagging the dog since 1966, when the event was billed, not as a camp, but as a convention.


Camp Sun Eagle

    This one probably never happened.  In 1976, Forest City Lodge in Vermont announced an international, bilingual, coeducational naturist children's camp for ages 8-15—with the director none other than Kenneth Webb, newly retired from the Farm and Wilderness camps.  The club put out a marvelous prospectus describing a full eight weeks of aquatics, botany, campcraft, care of animals, construction, crafts, creative cooking, ecology, farming, forestry, games, gardening, hiking, horseback riding, music, pow-wows, and publications.  Cost would be $450, or $250 for a four-week half-session.  But despite the elaborate plans, there were apparently not enough takers.


Co-Ed Explorer Post 2498

    1976 seems to have been a good year for organizing nude youth programs.  That is when we find the only mention of this group aged 14-18 affiliated with the Boy Scouts and Forest Hills Club in Michigan.  The officers were all girls.  If they went camping, we have no evidence of it.


Boy Scout Troop 66 and Girl Scout Troop 746 (1976-78)

    City Retreat Naturist Park (now Eden RV Resort) in Florida chartered the only known nude Boy Scout troop in the country—followed a few months later with the first nude Girl Scout troop.  They began with eight boys and six girls.  Some of the boys came from non-nudist families in the neighborhood, but joined right in the activities.  Scoutmaster Wally Henderson had to walk a fine line between the Boy Scouts' insistence that all activities be conducted in full uniform except recreational periods (which could be stretched through most of the meetings), and the club's strong nudist policies which allowed almost no exceptions.

    On weekend campouts, the boys cooked their own meals, planted trees, took clothed hikes, then stripped down to work on their lifesaving merit badges.  Before long, they could boast of two Eagle Scouts.  An Associated Press story about the troop appeared under more than 25 headlines in newspapers across the country—frequently making page 1.

    Less is known about the Girl Scout troop led by Kathy Walker.  After two years, both groups lapsed when the club owner unexpectedly died, and his widow sold to a new owner with other priorities.


JESA Youth Camp (1978-79)

    With Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts all undressed and no big summer camp to go to, the people of City Retreat decided to put on their own.  To make it big, they invited the Eastern Sunbathing Association to co-sponsor the week.  There was friction from the beginning.  The ESA kept calling it a convention instead of a camp.  Out went the announced plans for canoeing and horseback riding.   Out went the merit badge work.  Out went the Red Cross training in swimming and lifesaving   In came the same kind of meetings that bored the adults, and beauty contests, and sports trophies, and clothed trips to tourist attractions—worst of all, a long police lecture on drug prevention.     

    The next year, with City Retreat and its Scout troops out of commission, Sunsport Gardens, also in Florida, agreed to host the jointly sponsored camp.  Once again, camp director Rich Ross found himself at odds with ESA officials.  Forty children attended in 1979—about half of them going back to their parents at night, the other half sleeping in a dormitory and some house trailers.  Complete nudity was expected both years.

    By 1980, Sunsport Gardens announced they would sponsor the camp alone, and the ESA said they would hold their junior convention in Pennsylvania.  There were not enough kids for both, and they each canceled at the last moment.  Getting enough campers to make the camp pay for itself had always been a problem.  Leaders had raised the fees from $50 to $65 to $75, and lowered the ages: 10-18, then 9-17, then 8-18.  Though the kids had a good time, nothing worked at the adult level, and the poisoned relationship prevented any more regional camps for many years.


Paradise Mountain Juniors Camp (1983-87)

    Paradise Mountain in New York sponsored a youth camp all five years of the club's brief existence.  The age range was wide: 6-18—later raised to 7-18.  The camp ran two weeks, with a program of mostly nature study and a trip to a cave.  A cave photograph taken the first year shows seven children.  At first, campers and counselors all slept in one big tent, but in later years the children brought their own.  Reports mention the kids cooking their first meal on the campfire, but fail to tell how the remaining meals were prepared.  Nudity was expected.  The cost for two weeks was $120.


JFANR Camp (1993-2007)

    When the Florida Association for Nude Recreation formed, Paul LeValley launched a regional camp for older kids 11-17.  Because a youth census showed most children dropping out of Florida clubs at age 14, the program was designed to challenge the growing abilities of a 14-year-old.  Two years of consultation and planning produced a program of merit-badge-like proficiencies in cooking, camping, campfire leadership, survival, nature, reptiles, birds, conservation, swimming, canoeing, rowing, lifesaving, American Indians, nude art, Greek athletics, and meaning in life—plus special awards for mile swim or citizenship.

    But at the last minute, the FANR board lost their nerve.  They could not decide whether to require nudity, but did decide to offer only a watered-down program the first year—with a promise of the full program the next year.

    That never happened.  The second year, under the guidance of Sally DePree and directorship of Jim and Tina Ammeraal, the camp switched from challenging 14-year-olds to entertaining 11-year-olds.  They dropped the emphasis on nature and individual accomplishment.  The new program emphasized team playing, T-shirts and costumes, and trips to theme parks.

    As campers began to outgrow the juvenile program, Mike Winchester caught the original vision, and in 1998 started the affiliated Junior Nudist Leadership Academy for older teens 15-20.  Week-long nudity was a condition for joining.  These older teens engaged in a lot of discussions on topics such as drug-free natural living.

    When the same campers matured, Mike in 2001 started Nude U for students 18-25.  It attracted young people from several regions.  Besides serving as counselors for the younger campers, the students discussed ways to start nudist organizations on their own campuses back home.

    From the beginning, campers slept in three-person tents.  After doing their own small-group cooking the first year, campers have since been fed by a staff-run outdoor kitchen.  Despite heavy subsidizing by FANR, the price jumped from $45 the first year to $90 the next two years, to final rates of $200 for the JFANR Camp and $300 for Nude U.

    The camp operated for 14 years, the longest-lasting youth endeavor in AANR until then.  Attendance remained pretty steady from the beginning: between 23 and 30.  Then new adult leaders came in with totally different ideas for weekend campouts that never happened.


Camp Tallasun (1996)

    When parents in the Tallahassee Bare-Devils (now Tallahassee Naturally) in north Florida sought a youth program for their older children, they decided the best option was the one FANR had dropped.  They liked its original purposes: (1) Develop leadership and self-reliance, (2) Sponsor personal growth through real accomplishment, (3) Develop a philosophy of living naturally in closeness with nature.  They also liked the wide range of rigorous proficiencies kids could work on.

    A back-to-nature club, the unspoiled grounds with otters and egrets proved ideal for camping.  It was the first AANR camp to actually flourish in nature rather than the middle of a trailer park.  And it was the first youth camp also associated with The Naturist Society.  Nudity was expected.  The 6 local kids brought their own small tents, and cooked their meals together over the campfire.  The camp cost $45.  They proved the full proficiency program could be offered the first year.  But families moved, and national advertising failed to bring in additional campers, so the camp operated only one summer.


AANR Leadership Camps (2002-present)

    In 2000, Judy Grisham took over the JFANR camp.  She and AANR vice-president Bill Williamson set to work spreading the concept to all of the regions.  They explained that the purpose of the camps was (1) to educate, inspire, and train future nudist leaders, (2) to provide graduates who will serve as examples and ambassadors to other youth, encouraging a healthy, family lifestyle, and (3) to establish AANR as a premier information source on nude recreation for youth.  The plan was to rotate Nude U around the regions, but eventually have each region sponsor its own Junior Camp and Leadership Academy.

    The AANR West Youth Leadership Camp kicked off in 2002 at DeAnza Springs in California.  Staff outnumbered the 10 campers who showed up, but they all agreed on nudity from the beginning.  Patty and Cyndi Faber have kept the camp going almost every year since then, yet attendance has usually remained small.

    AANR East eased into the idea with a weekend mini-camp at Serendipity Park in Georgia in 2002.  Since then, Mary Williamson has keep AANR's biggest camp thriving in the Eastern region—usually in New York or South Carolina.

    Also in 2002, the Southwestern region eased into the program with a two-day mini-camp at Wildwood Resort in Texas.  Over the next few years, they five times offered weeklong camps.

    Then in 2003, a child-abusing congressman in Florida decided to use the camps in his unsuccessful bid to become a senator.  There was a flurry of publicity—some pro, some con.  Did it hurt?  The next year, camp attendance peaked at 74 across four regions of the country.

    Several things happened at the beginning of 2009.  Judy Grisham resigned, and camp expansion ended.  The AANR board decided the camps were a regional responsibility needing no co-ordination at the national level, and that college students did not belong in a youth budget.  The college groups declared their independence as Vita Nuda.  Others formed a Naturist Society group, Florida Young Naturists.


Camp Soaring Eagle (2002)

    This private camp for boys 9-15 in New Hampshire operated on an Indian lore program.  The 40 boys wore breachclouts, which they removed for swimming.  Five boys and one staff member slept in each tipi.  The camp began advertising among nudists only in 2002.  The director wrote, "Campers and staff have the freedom to wear a simple breechcloth or nothing at all."  The fees were expensive: from $1250 for two weeks, to $3200 for six weeks.  Also in 2002, the camp advertised a 5-day father-son nudist canoeing-camping-hiking trip at $200 a family.  These may have been last desperation efforts, for the camp had vanished from the Internet the next year.


Sunsport Gardens Youth Camp (2008-present)

    When the AANR youth camps petered out in Florida, Sunsport Gardens started their own camp under the auspices of The Naturist Society.  Director Sandy Reamer accepted children as young as 3 or 4 up to 17.  At night, most of the kids go back to their parents, who camp on the grounds and help with staffing.  They eat from the club dining room.

    Though the camp has only small ponds for canoeing or kayaking, the program of developing interpersonal skills has attracted a loyal following of campers from around the country.  Many like the atmosphere free from teasing or hostility.  Outside excursions include Haulover nude beach, and the camp has some years produced a video.

    Most years, this camp has hosted more kids than all of the AANR camps combined.  That is partly because the AANR camps turned secretive after the 2003 uproar, while Sunsport has been open in their advertising—even posting camp pictures on the Internet.  The camp is now in its 10th year, outlasting most nude youth endeavors.


Paradise Gardens Kids Kamp (2012-17)

    This is a day camp for children 6-14 in Ohio.  They bring their own sack lunches, and pay $100 a week or $25 a day.  Nature study blends with scientific learning here.  Themes are important: ancient cultures (including Greek and native American) in 2015, survival in 2015, Leonardo da Vinci in 2016, and engineering in 2017.


    This summer marks the 25th season of the combined AANR youth camps.  (See the July issue of the AANR Bulletin for more details.)  Attendance during the first 24 years has totaled 774.  If we estimate that 1 out of every 2 campers has come for the first time (the national average), those camps have touched the lives of almost 400 young people.

    Starting later, TNS camp attendance has totaled 167.  Using the same formula, we can estimate that this experience has touched more than 80 young lives so far.

    Four times over the years, the Professors & Researchers SIG have compiled youth camp special editions of their newsletter—preserving lots of historic documents (especially on the 2003 political controversy, and the Farm and Wilderness Camps).  You can find them all, plus a complete bibliography, at www.tnsprofessorsig.org.


    What Can the Camp Experience Do
    for You and Your Family?

    This was the beginning section of the Family Information Booklet planned for the first JFANR camp.  FANR leaders instead decided to do all communication by word of mouth.  Though it was never implemented, this statement can remind us of what we set out to do--and provide a measure of how well we have succeeded.

    Camp is fun.  From that first morning whiff of bacon sizzling on a wood fire, to frolicking in the cool waters under a hot sun, to carousing around a blazing campfire at day's end, camp is fun.  You meet new friends from all around the state.  And the adventures are bigger than anything your local club can provide.

    Camp is challenge.  You're not a little kid anymore.  Here is an opportunity to try out your growing muscles and social skills.  Just how tough are you?  Can you sleep on the ground as though it were an ordinary thing?  Can you swim a mile?  Do you have the self-discipline to practice daily in building your body for Greek Athletics?  Can you co-operate with others to feed and fend for yourself?  If you can manage under these rugged conditions, you can handle 'most anything.

    Camp is pride in accomplishment.  There are a wide variety of proficiency awards to keep you busy for the next five years.  Sure, the requirements are tough, and you may have to grow a little more before you can master all of them.  But when you get that award, you know that it was not given to you; you earned it.  And you did it by drawing on your own inner strength.

    Camp is getting close to nature.  Without artificial clothing, you slip into and out of the water as naturally as a frog does.  Away from the confusing hubbub of radio and television, you attune yourself to the timeless calls of the birds, and begin to recognize them by name.  As you gaze up through a pine tree at night counting the stars, you realize that you too are a healthy young animal.  You are part of nature.  You belong here.

    Camp is sorting things out.  Nudism is much more than just some unusual hobby that your parents keep dragging you along for.  In quiet moments, you start to realize that this is the way you want to live your own life for deep reasons all your own.  Yes, you have gotten away from parents for a few days, but during that time, you have strangely grown closer.  You are a little more your own person now, the sort of person your family has been hoping for.


    How to Plan a Naturist Youth Camp

    The internal politics turned ugly for a while.  The first successful JFANR camp had just ended when the giant resorts staged a power coup in FANR.  I happened to catch them in illegal voting.  As punishment for blowing the whistle, the camp was taken away from me the next day.

    For the next few years, the camp floundered without any articulated sense of purpose beyond entertaining eleven-year-olds.  Leaders found themselves spending increasing amounts of time dealing with problems of their own creation.  It pained me to see a good idea falling so short of its potential--though anything remained better than nothing, and I am grateful to the leaders who at least kept the camp alive.  I even directed a camp of my own one year to demonstrate that a thoughtful program could be run with less effort and less expense than a mindless one.

    Thank goodness Mike eventually began to catch some of the original vision.  The reinvigorated program included a lot of sitting around a table debating directly the moral and social issues we had originally planned as side-benefits of a vigorous camp experience.  It's working.  Though I might do some things a little differently, we now have a comprehensive youth program that I can take pride in having set into motion.

    Back in 1998, when other regions began talking about starting their own camps, Georgia Brown, AANR public relations director, asked me to compile the following list.  But Georgia soon left, and I don't think anybody ever paid any attention to my advice.  A few more years would pass before other regions actually opened their camps as carbon copies of the evolving JFANR camp, with all of its strong and weak points.

                                --Paul LeValley


RULE 1:  KNOW THE HISTORY.  A summary and bibliography are available.  The history teaches us three lessons:
        A.  Our initial fears about child molesters and teen sex have never become problems (perhaps because of our vigilance, or perhaps because our fears were exaggerated).  No naturist youth camp ever closed because of scandal.
        B.  Instead, most camps closed when the adults wore themselves out or got distracted with personal problems.
        C.   Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps make better models than conventions do.

RULE 2:  DECIDE EXACTLY WHO YOU WANT TO REACH.  The common reason for starting naturist youth camps is to keep teens from dropping out.  The national dropout age is between 13 and 14.  If kids make it through that transition, they usually stick around.  What can you provide that will challenge the growing abilities of a fourteen-year-old?  Yes, you must have something for everyone, but never take your eyes off the target age.

RULE 3:  DECIDE WHAT YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH.  If your goal is entertainment, you are competing with MTV, and that's tough.  If your goal is to have fun while learning, your competition is the schools, and the job gets much easier.  Besides, the best counselors will not waste their time helping out, unless they can see real growth and achievement.  A recommended set of goals:
    A.  Develop leadership and self-reliance.
    B.  Sponsor personal growth through real accomplishment.
    C.  Develop a philosophy of living naturally in closeness with nature.

RULE 4:  DON'T DEFEAT YOUR PURPOSE.  Immediately rule out things that are counterproductive.  If comfort with nudity is one of your goals, you obviously don't give out camp T-shirts, or awards that must be pinned on.  Nor do you make getting dressed to go somewhere else the highpoint of the camp.  If being natural in nature is one of your goals, you don't hold the camp in the middle of a trailer park.

RULE 5:  DEVELOP A PROGRAM  Program is the heart of any camp.  Take time to develop this right, consulting with experienced Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders.  Don't waste your time on things campers already like; camp is the time for new adventures that they can't do at home.  Be aware that the "cabin method" of everybody doing the same thing at the same time works well only in camps that last a month or more.  A merit-badge-type program of people scattering to pursue individual interests works best in camps that only last a week.  Don't try to slide into the program by doing half a job the first year.  The temporary tends to become permanent.

RULE 6:  PICK A PLACE COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR PROGRAM.  It's hard to create the excitement of high adventure without a lake.  Fancy resorts that make the most luxurious convention sites often make the worst places for a kids' camp--unless they have an area still undeveloped that they are willing to let you use.  Don't hesitate to declare all houses and most buildings off limits.  If you can possibly avoid the adult recreation areas altogether, you will create much more goodwill.

RULE 7:  SET THE EXPECTATION FOR NUDITY.  Make it clear in your literature that nudity is expected.  Yes, you will have to make the occasional exception for health reasons--and sometimes for no good reason at all.  And your staff must set the example at all times.  Fail to do these things, and you will have created a problem that will require most of your efforts for the next several years.

RULE 8:  DECIDE HOW YOU WILL FEED EVERYBODY.  The commonest mistake is to turn this into an adult operation.  Let the kids do it.  The patrol method really works.  Organize them into groups of 6 to 10, let each group elect their leader, and have that person set up a job rotation schedule.  Give each group a cook kit, a place for a wood fire, and a well planned menu; then let them go at it.  (Keep a few canned goods as emergency rations for the rare instance when they totally ruin something.)  There is little complaining about food they cooked themselves.  They will soon whip through the meal and clean-up in the same time it takes to wait in a long food line and listen to speeches.  This is how you develop leadership.

RULE 9:  LET JUNIOR LEADERS LEAD.  Don't expect kids with no experience to tell you what they want in a camping program.  You have to create the structure in which junior leadership will develop.  Then work through those leaders, instead of barking out orders directly to everybody.

RULE 10:  AVOID THE COMMON MISTAKES.  All camps--clothed or not--have to guard against these things:
        A.  Don't get into the heavy equipment business.  Big tents, wooden platforms, cots, stoves, huge pots--these all lock you into problems of storage, transportation, insurance, and adult supervision.  You may have to turn down overgenerous budgets or donated equipment, but keep your inventory down to stuff that kids can handle.
        B.  Creeping militarism is a real danger in camps where kids wear uniforms.  Naturists probably needn't worry.
        C.  Don't turn camp into summer school.  Yes, they should learn--but not by sitting around a table.  Be up, moving, and doing.  There should be no sitting around and waiting for something to happen.  Campers should have half-a-dozen things they want to do whenever they can find a spare moment.
        D.   It's a horrible death to be talked to death.  If you must speechify, keep it short.

RULE 11:  TAKE TIME TO SAY THE IMPORTANT THINGS.  Tell people you appreciate them.  Spend at least half-an-hour during the week talking about the things that really matter.  One way to do this is a truly interdenominational vesper meditation (including Buddhist, American Indian, and all sorts of ideas.)  Another way is with a well planned "thought of the day" by different people.  But don't let this opportunity slip away.

RULE 12:  LOOK AFTER YOUR HEALTH.  A tightly controlled waterfront, shoes when using the axe, and a ban on spray cans will prevent most emergencies.  But whether the kids show any sense or not, you need a good night's sleep if you are going to be worth anything in the morning.  A good leader will make running a camp look easier than it is.  The secrets are junior leadership and months of planning beforehand, so that almost everything falls into place.  If you are exhausted at the end of the week, you're doing something wrong.


    The Recent Controversy: Summary and Analysis
    by Paul LeValley

    This report appeared in two parts in the July and August newsletters of Tallahassee Naturally.

    It seemed like a good idea at the time.  To emphasize the family-oriented nature of its clubs, the American Association for Nude Recreation invited reporters from The New York Times, Time magazine, and the Tampa-based The Weekly Planet to attend this summer's JFANR camp.  Actually it is three camps:  the JFANR camp for kids 11-14, Leadership Academy for high school students 15-18, and Nude U for college students 18-23.  The New York Times article turned out great: good publicity, good journalism.

    Enter one Mark Foley, little-known Republican member of the U.S. House who wants Senator Bob Graham's seat if Graham runs for president.  Foley has positioned himself as a champion of children, and recently pushed to get fast notification of missing children.  (Never mind the national statistic that 96% of all children reported missing are actually in the custody of the other parent.)  Still, Foley's religious right supporters are shopping around for another candidate because he has not been able to answer reporters' questions about whether he is gay.  He needed to change the subject fast.

    Foley announced to the press that he was writing Governor Jeb Bush and the state Attorney General to inquire whether the camp was breaking any law, and if not, to introduce a new law they would be breaking.  He accused the camp of exploiting children to make money--not realizing that the camp has lost money year after year.  He had simply taken a free ride on the AANR publicity budget.  When the Time article came out a few days later, Foley was half of the story.  You could call it balanced reporting.

    Then sensationalism hit.  America On Line in its daily poll asked people if they wish they could have attended such a camp.  Half a million people voted that day, and a surprising 34% said yes.  45% said they wish they could attend a nudist resort now, or already have.  These numbers are higher than in any previous poll.  But things turned ugly in various AOL discussion groups--especially the one on parenting.  Anyone with facts got shouted down.  Pornographers jumped into the fray, trying to peddle their junk.  The planned publicity had spun out of control.

    Until that point, the reporters had gotten it right: the camp was a national story about family naturism; Foley was a state story about opportunism.  Then several television stations around the country reported a badly researched wire service blurb about nudity at some camp in Florida--no mention that it was at a nudist resort, no mention of AANR.  Because that story was unrecognizable, it probably did no real harm.

    The New York Times story had come out on Wednesday, June 18.  Foley made his publicity bid on Thursday.  The story spun out of control as a one-day sensation on Friday.  That might have been the end of it, had the Time article not given the controversy national publicity the next Monday.  If a lesson is to be learned from all of this, perhaps it is to invite only one reporter at a time.  Tuesday, AANR officials hit the national television morning talk shows, doing damage control.

    Foley also got in front of a television camera on Fox network's The O'Reiley Factor.  He no longer focused just on the camp, but wanted to ban everyone under 18 from all nudist parks, resorts, and beaches.  In short, he wanted to outlaw family naturism.  In his talk, he assumed that (1) any two nude teens are engaged in pre-marital sex, (2) nudist resorts are crawling with dangerous sexual predators, and (3) children of all ages are too young and impressionable to make decisions about taking off their clothes for a skinny-dip.  Foley kept using the phrase, "loophole in Florida law," as though any other state interferes in family lifestyle.

    While AANR worried about bad publicity, the Naturist Action Committee of The Naturist Society moved swiftly on the political front.  South Florida Free Beaches immediately requested a meeting with Foley to set him straight on the facts.  As a subtle reminder a few days later, South Florida Free Beaches used the Freedom of Information Act to request the factual basis for the suppositions Foley had been spreading.  He finally agreed to meet with naturist leaders on July 7.

    It took more than a week for both national organizations to issue public statements.  AANR addressed their members, defending their overall publicity record.  TNS addressed the public, pointing out the error of identifying nudity with sex.  The TNS statement also called on Foley to reveal any factual sources behind his accusations.

    Longtime nudity foes such as the Concerned Women for America smelled blood, and it was open season on all nudists.  One television announcer in Orlando took it upon himself to send the AANR promotional video, "Welcome to Our World" to the FBI to investigate for child pornography.

    One web site, intellectualconservative.com, called for an end of such camps because, of all things, everyday exposure to nudity would deprive kids of the sexual stimulus they would later need for a good marriage.  It was the first time conservatives had ever accused nudists of not being sexy enough.  We may never know whether it was written tongue-in-cheek, or whether the woman intended to be taken seriously.  It's a hoot.  This SIG's own Marvin Frandsen responded with a fact-filled plea that politicians leave parenting decisions to parents.

    But Governor Jeb Bush refused to get involved in Foley's election bid.  The governor's office wrote Foley that if he had any evidence of illegal activity, he should report it to the police, effectively telling him to put up or shut up.  The governor's legal counsel added, "The rights of parents to impart their values to their children and raise their children as they see fit are sacred."  Then a black Jewish Republican woman who is running against Foley lambasted him as the real exploiter of children just to get elected.

    The Weekly Planet waited until three weeks after camp closed to publish an editorial comment criticizing Foley, followed by a long glowing report of the camp.  Two-and-a-half of the three planned publicity pieces had turned out fine.

    Foley found conservatives endorsing his campaign, but not him.  And he was getting beat up in the press.  He may have been looking for a graceful way out when naturist leaders gathered at his office, armed with the latest critical article in the Miami Herald.  AANR had withdrawn from participation in the meeting, having decided to lie low and hope the whole thing would blow over.  But the chairman of the Naturist Action Committee flew in from Texas, and the leaders present were able to back Foley down.  That afternoon, he was on National Public Radio, demanding only to know what method the camp used to screen its counselors--a question camp officials could easily have answered at the meeting, had they been present.  He promised to take down his inflammatory web site.

    But the damage had already been done.  A law prohibiting youth camps for nudists was introduced into the Texas legislature.  Three other lawmakers in Florida, one in Virginia, and the Speaker of the House in Arizona threatened to propose even broader laws such as prohibiting outdoor nudity by people under 18.

    The day after the meeting, the Palm Beach Post ran an editorial cartoon of Foley hiding in the bushes with binoculars.  An aide, looking at his watch, asks, "Six hours!  How much longer scoping out nudist camps, Mark?"  The answer turned out to be two weeks.  That's how long it took Foley to find a new cause.  He then demanded that the governor investigate Walt Zadanoff, AANR president from 1990 to 1992 (before the camp opened).  Walt now markets nudist videos, including a few eastern European films of youthful beauty contests.  AANR quit sponsoring such beauty contests about twenty years ago.  An internet opinion writer in Michigan managed to tangle the facts, and wrote that AANR officials are videotaping the JFANR camp and selling the films.  ABC television's talk show, "The View" reported his claim as fact.

    The Florida youth camp was the first of three this summer.  The controversy broke during the second camp in Virginia.  Leaders there had to spend so much time talking with reporters that the program suffered.  The third camp in Arizona strictly limited press access.


    The New York Times Story
    reported by Kate Zernike

    This article appeared on June 18, 2003.  In some editions the headline read, "Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude."  In other editions, the headline read, "Where Skin is Typically Bare, but Lust is Verboten."

    LUTZ, Fla., June 12 - On the third-to-last day of summer camp, the temperature has risen to 98 degrees, and even the troupers have begun to whine.

    "I don't want to play strip volleyball!" complained Jane Jeffries, 13, her sunburned shoulders sagging. "I want to play regular volleyball."

    Halie Nelson, 14, agreed, "Yeah, I'd rather get all the clothes off, and keep all the clothes off."

    Here at the Youth Leadership Camp run by the American Association for Nude Recreation, the dress code for regular volleyball -- and for the pudding toss, mini-golf and campfire sing-alongs -- is the same as it is for skinny dipping.

    Basking in what nudist organizations say is a growing interest in nude recreation, the association has begun a nationwide expansion of summer camps for nudists age 11 to 18. The first began here 10 years ago, in a county north of Tampa known for its concentration of nudist resorts. In 2000, the association opened its second camp in Arizona.  A third is to open outside Richmond, Va., this month, and organizers in Texas are planning a fourth camp there for the summer of 2005.

    Naked summer camp might strike non-nudists as illegal or prurient, or like striking a match to the gasoline of adolescent hormones.

    Anti-nudity statutes in Florida and other states, however, say that nudity on private property is perfectly legal, even among minors, as long as there is no lewdness. And camp rules, drawn up by campers themselves a few years ago, guard against that. "Do not allow nudity and lust to mingle," they state. "No improper touch. Nudity must not be humiliating, degrading or promote ridicule." Even the occasional clothing, worn in the camp's shuttle van, must not be "sexually alluring."

    Nude tourism has grown to a $400 million business this year from a $120 million business in 1992, reports the nudist association, with travel agencies noting a surge in nude cruises and, in May, the first nude charter flight. The association itself is growing, with 30 new clubs, for a total of 267, in the last two years.

    There are still few places, however, for teenagers.   "I've spent my life around nudist resorts; this is the first time I've ever been around kids my own age," said Halie, who had been named Camper of the Day the previous night for participating fully despite a foot swollen by a bee sting.  "It's either 45 and over or 10 and under."

    The campers, many of them alumni of church or scout camps, say they like this better, but not for the reasons most people might expect.

    "I learned to play tennis this morning," Amanda Williamson, 18, said. "I never did that at church camp. I'm getting better at volleyball, too."

    Aside from the obvious, naked camp looks a lot like other camps: campers play Capture the Flag, catch frogs and leap up when the whistle blows signaling seconds for ice cream.  They make s'mores and sing modified campfire songs ("This Land Is Your Land" ends, "This land was made nude and free.") Each camp team writes a song for the annual talent show, with hosts "Sunny and Bare."

    Parents and campers say the camp promotes a healthy body image at an age when confidence can crumble, and better relations between the sexes when awkwardness normally prevails.

    "In gym class, some of the girls will hide in their lockers to take off their shirts in front of other girls," Halie said. "Sometimes I'll say, `Why are you so insecure?' They all say, `I need to lose a few pounds.' I just don't care about that stuff. I accept my body the way it is."

    The nudist association, the larger of two nationwide, sees this as a place to train "youth ambassadors" to what nudists call the "textile" world. (To the question posed by one after-dinner discussion, "I'm a Nudist; Am I a Nut?," the answer, not surprisingly, was no.)

    There are things that set this camp apart. Mosquito bites are more irritating, the sunscreen police more vigilant.  Campers pack lighter, but drag towels, Linus-like, because nudist etiquette dictates using one when sitting. And the discussion groups feature topics like "Is God Mad at Me Because I'm a Nudist?" (Again, no.)

    And everyone is on guard against COG's - "creepy outside guys" - who try to sneak in past the tall fences and security gates, to peek. On Tuesday, when a suspicious-looking man arrived at the pool, counselors quickly herded campers away and guards escorted the unwelcome visitor from the premises.

    "It makes me a bit freaked out that people would think of nudity as a sexual thing," said Michelle Jones, 15, a camper from Texas.

    Pat Brown, president of the American Association for Nude Recreation, said the camps run extensive background and criminal checks on counselors, often college students who have been nude campers themselves.

    Bernie McCabe, the state attorney for Pasco County, where the Lutz camp is, said he had never heard any complaints about it.

    Parents seem to have no worries about pedophilia, speaking of nudist camps and resorts as safe, family-like environments.

    "Everybody keeps an eye on the children," George Jeffries, Jane's father, said. "There are no transgressions by regular folks coming here, and newcomers are watched very closely."

    Still, even parents who have sent their children here for several years do not necessarily tell their church friends or relatives about it.

    "If I'm confronted I will not lie, but it's not something I want to have to explain," the father of two boys, an engineer for a telecommunications company, said. "I worry about my kids being ostracized. I believe in this, but a lot of people don't."

    The father, like others, said the camp discourages some of the less attractive behavior of adolescents: "I don't have to worry about them sneaking around and seeing things their friends are, the girlie magazines and the porn movies."

    Campers agree.  "It takes the mystery out of what the other person looks like, so sex becomes more something you know you're waiting to experience, rather than just a physical thing where you want to find out," said an 18-year-old who gave her name as Jeanene.

    "At school, if you see a person, you just see their clothes," Jane said. "Here you have to actually get to know the people."

    But some things about teenagers, nudist or not, remain true. Boys at 13 still find scatological humor far funnier than anyone else does. Eleven-year-old girls still fight about who gets to dance as J. Lo in the talent show. Even nudist campers coo at the "cute" swimsuits as they pull on clothing to get back in the van.

    Pulling out of one resort during a field trip, a few campers ask the van driver to stop so they can check out the souvenirs. Inside, they finger sarongs and embroidered T-shirts. But they don't buy.

    Too expensive.


    Foley:  The Saint Petersburg Times story
    reported by James Thorner

Nude Youth Camps Cause Stir
June 19, 2003

    LAND O'LAKES - For 10 years, young people ages 11 to 18 have gathered in Pasco and other Florida counties to pitch tents, swat volleyballs and sing around campfires.

    Typical summer camp, save one important distinction: They do it naked.

    U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, one of Washington's leading advocates for missing and exploited kids, doesn't like the idea of a clothes-free camp for teenagers.  After reading a story Wednesday in the New York Times, he decided to raise a fuss.

    Foley, running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Graham, plans to deliver letters today to Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist, singling out Lake Como nudist resort in Land O'Lakes, which hosted a bare-skinned youth camp that ended last week.

    Foley said the camp, sponsored by the American Association for Nude Recreation, appears to exploit children to make money.

    The camps operate under a Florida law that allows people to be nude as long as they're not lewd.  Foley wonders if state statutes should change.  Thus the letters to Bush and Crist.

    "What's wrong with your kids going to Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls or sports camps?" Foley, the West Palm Beach Republican, said Wednesday from Washington. "It's beyond the pale that this is a normal way to bring up a 14-year-old child."

    The adult nudists who run the camps say they teach teenagers healthy lessons about accepting their sometimes awkward adolescent bodies.  Aside from the Pasco camp, others are held in Virginia and Arizona.

    Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the nude association, called Lake Como's camp, which attracted about 25 young nudists from June 5 to 13, "good old-fashioned naked fun."

    "We have always been about a wholesome family-oriented environment suitable for people of all ages," Schuttauf said from his Kissimmee office.

    Foley wonders about the wholesomeness.

    The New York Times article noted that the kids were subjected to the unwanted gaze of a 40-something visitor to Lake Como peeping from a sauna window.

    Lake Como resident Elf Andersen dubbed the man a "COG," which she said stands for "creepy old guy." This particular COG, like all others, was ejected from the 200-acre resort.

    "The kids can spot when somebody is not pure of heart," said Andersen, who stressed that campers are protected by adult counselors and sleep in tents isolated from regular resort patrons.

    Foley, a fifth term congressman, denies that he's raising the nude camping issue to bolster his chances for the Republican nomination for Senate.  As co-chairman of the House's Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, he lobbied for the AMBER network, a way to broadcast missing children's cases across the country.

    He most recently tackled child erotica on the Internet.  He said he was shocked by the newspaper article about the naked camps that have been going on in his home state since 1993.

    Foley suggested the camps force kids to fixate on nudity during their impressionable, formative years.  Normal teen sexual urges can become inflamed by the nakedness around them, he said.

    "It's putting matches a little too close to gasoline," he said.

    But nudists said the camp's goal is exactly the opposite.  Most of the campers have grown up as nudists.  Removing the clothes actually minimizes the importance of bodies, they say.

    "As you know, kids are natural nudists," Andersen said. "It's so cute to see a naked baby and toddlers.  But as we mature somehow that no longer is seen as a wholesome, healthy thing."


    Foley's Letter to Florida Politicians

June 18, 2003

The Honorable Jeb Bush
Governor, State of Florida
PL05 Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

The Honorable Charlie Crist
Attorney General, State of Florida
PL01 The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050

Dear Governor Bush and Attorney General Crist:

    The New York Times today carried an article I found truly disturbing.  Headlined "Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude," it is a story  about a nudist camp for children - ages 11-18  - at the Lake Como Resort in Land O'Lakes, Florida.  

    Pasco County, according to the story, has long been a haven for nudists and nudist resorts. The reason is that, again according to the story, Florida's laws permit underage nudity as long as there is no "lewdness."

    Obviously I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp, but the situation clearly raises legitimate issues that should be addressed given that it involves minor children.  I am also deeply troubled that these "camps" are businesses specifically exploiting nudity among minor children to make money.  

    The New York Times article also clearly raises safety issues concerning these children.  For example, the article told of instances where men have made their way to the camp pool to get a "glimpse" of these naked children.  I am sure this was not the first time someone tried to gain access illegally to this camp and I am sure it will not be the last.  The next time, these children may not be so fortunate: the trespasser may have more on his mind than just peeping.

    As Co-Chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's  Caucus, I'm asking that current Florida law be reviewed to determine if this camp is indeed legal or if it has simply slipped under the radar screen of law enforcement for the past 10 years.

    If Florida law is not sufficient to address these camps, you certainly can count on my support to pursue changes in the statutes. Over the years, while working with John Walsh and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, I have come across many stories of children endangered in even less troubling situations than these camps represent.  I have been fighting for years to eliminate both child pornography and so-called "exploitive child modeling" websites and frankly I would put these camps in the same mold: I believe they may be endangering these children.

    I look forward to hearing from to see what we can do to ensure the safety of our state's children.

Sincerely,

Mark Foley
Member of Congress


    Foley's Web Site

    Vulnerable children in Florida need your help.  Exploiting a loophole in Florida statutes, the American Association for Nude Recreation is running a nudist camp for children 11-18 outside Tampa.  This reprehensible exploitation of children subjects impressionable youths to denigrating and dangerous behavior and could expose them to pedophiles.

    Read a news story on this camp at [Saint Petersburg Times web site].

    As co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, Congressman Mark Foley is appealing to state lawmakers, Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist to immediately close the loophole and put a stop to this outrageous abuse of minor children.

    It's one thing for adults to make decisions to participate in these activities, it's quite another to put children in their formative years in situations that can put them at considerable risk both physically and emotionally.

    Please help by letting the Governor, Attorney General and legislative leaders know how you feel.

    You can contact these leaders right know [sic.] through this website by simply clinking the CONTINUE button below and following the simple instructions.  Add your voice to those committed to protecting our children.  Please send your email today!

    On the next page, there was space for letter-writers to compose their own introductions, and then include this canned message:

    The loophole allowing the operation of a nudist camp for children is outrageous and should be closed immediately.  There is absolutely no justification for minor children to be subjected to this kind of exploitation.

    Please take whatever steps are within your power to correct this unconscionable assault against common sense and decency.  We must protect vulnerable kids from those who would prey upon them!

    Please close the Tampa children's nudist camp today!


    The Orlando Sentinel / Associated Press Story
    Reported by Jill Barton
    The Associated Press

    This appears to be a wire service report, followed by a couple of local interviews.

Official: Nudist Camp is Dangerous:  A Congressman Urged Florida Officials to Investigate a Children's Camp Near Tampa.

June 20, 2003

    WEST PALM BEACH--U.S. Rep. Mark Foley urged Florida officials to investigate a nudist camp for children, saying it subjects the children to denigrating and dangerous behavior and could expose them to pedophiles.

    The weeklong summer camp run by the American Association for Nude Recreation outside of Tampa allows children ages 11 to 18 to get together for games and sports and discussions about their choice to stay in the buff.

    Foley, co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, sent a letter Thursday to Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist, asking them to determine whether the camp was legal and to consider strengthening state statutes against such activities.

    "Obviously I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp, but the situation clearly raises legitimate issues that should be addressed given that it involves minor children," Foley, R-West Palm Beach, said in the letter.

    Bush had not yet reviewed the letter and had no comment, spokeswoman Alia Faraj said on Thursday.

    Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the American Association for Nude Recreation, said he applauded Foley for looking to protect children.

    "We're on the same team.  We're about the same thing, we believe in strong families," Schuttauf said.  "Here, we talk frankly about body parts, about how to respect your body and make sure everyone else does, too."

    Though some trespassers have entered the camp, security officials always have removed them from the private property before they interacted with any children or teenagers, he said.

    Steve Vickers, who went to the summer camp for five years before becoming a counselor, said Foley has the wrong idea about the camp.  He said a strict line is drawn between nudism and sexuality, and no one would consider abusing the distinction.

    "There was a definite split.  When you're nude, it's like family time," said Vickers, who grew up at a nudist resort in Kissimmee.  "And when you're at school, and you see the same people, then you could talk about dating or things like that."


    Foley's First Appearance on The O'Reiley Factor

Should Kids Go to Nudist Camps?
Tuesday, June 24, 2003

    BILL O'REILLY, HOST:  In the "impact" segment tonight, a Time magazine article spotlighted a Florida camp for kids that does not require clothing that has led to some controversy.  Joining us now from Washington, Congressman Mark Foley is running for Senate in Florida.  Mr. Foley is the co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus -- All right, so these camps, what's your concern here?

    REP. MARK FOLEY (R), FLORIDA:  Well Bill, we're talking about kids, impressionable young kids that are being put together in camps that I think are not only degrading to them, but dangerous to their well being. People that are working around these camps, people that are peering through the fences can have significant ill intent.  And so this is like putting a match next to a gas can.  It's sooner or later going to explode and they'll be real dangerous consequences.

    O'REILLY:  All right, now the argument of these camps is look, the parents want them there.  They have parental permission.  You have to sign all kinds of waivers.  It's private property.  The government has no right to intrude on private property.  There's no abuse taking place.  And on and on.  How do you answer that?

    FOLEY:  I don't buy that.  I'm sorry.  Kids deserve protection.  People that are under the age of 18 need supervision by someone who will look out for them.  When these parents are leaving their kids with -- I believe in harm's way at camps where you have a multitude of people -- nobody knows if they've been screened.  Nobody knows their background.  There are not just kids in the camp either.  There have to be groundskeepers, maintenance people there.  So the parents may think this is a normal behavior for their Kids.  I prefer 4-H Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts.

    O'REILLY:  Yes, but you're a conservative kind of guy, Congressman.  I mean, you know, we live in a country that tolerates freedom of expression.  Taking off your clothing is certainly that.  But I share your concern that it would have to be a very regulated situation, and the first time there's any abuse the state is going to be sued, and there's all kinds of liability.  But let the audience decide whether they should have naked camps for -- is the State of Florida going to do anything? I know you led a -- you wrote a letter to Governor Bush,  Is -- are they going to do anything about this?

    FOLEY:  Well, I'm hoping the governor and the attorney general Charlie Crist do, in fact, look at their executive powers and stop this activity from occurring.  Again, if adults want to do it, I have no problem with that.   These camps can operate.  But, when it comes to kids, I think that's where we have to draw the line.

    The second half of the interview went into notorious cases of child abuse, with no further reference to the camp.


    South Florida Free Beaches Letter to Foley

DA:  June 20, 2003

TO:  Kirk Fordham, Chief of Staff
        
        Office of Mark Foley, Congressman
        House of Representatives
        Washington, DC
        E-mail: kirk.fordham@mail.house.gov

FR:  Shirley Mason, Executive Director
        B.E.A.C.H.E.S Foundation Institute, Inc.
        Post Office Box 530702
        Miami Shores, FL  33153

Subject: Summer Youth Camps at Nudist Facilities

Dear Mr. Fordham:

    Please accept this e-letter as a follow up to the conversation you had this morning, Friday June 20th, with Richard Mason, an officer of the Florida Naturist Association.

    The nudist/naturist community, being concerned about the recent media coverage on the subject youth camps and Congressman Mark Foley's remarks and actions with Florida's Governor and Attorney General, believe it is appropriate and timely for a face-to-face meeting, between the Congressman and those national and state associations that represent nude recreation.

    This meeting will give the Congressman an opportunity to meet with the representatives from a major recreation segment that is important to Florida's tourism industry and learn about their existing policies and procedures for providing a most safe and secure environment for its children and adult patrons.  It will also give these association leaders an opportunity hear your concerns on the issue of children in a clothes-free and clothing optional environment.  From that meeting, solutions can be found to alleviate any concerns that Congressman Foley has.

    We value Representative Foley's knowledge, as co-chairman of the House Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.  Therefore, only good can come out of such a meeting of sharing and mutual education.  Naturist/nudists have by custom, always been extra protective of children and have done an excellent job protecting our youth. The record will support this.  However, there are always opportunities for improvements.  You will find these association leaders responsible and open minded about your concerns.

    You can coordinate this meeting through my office at the number below.

Regards,

Shirley Mason, Executive Director
B.E.A.C.H.E.S Foundation Institute, Inc.
Ph:  305.893.8838  /  Fax:  305.893.8823
Email: ExDirBEACHES@aol.com

Cc:   
The Naturist Society
 American Association for Nude Recreation
Florida Naturist Association
Naturist Action Committee
International Naturist Association
International Naturist Federation
Naturist Christians
Trade Association for Nude Recreation


    SFFB Request for Documentation

    On June 26, South Florida Free Beaches invoked the Freedom of Information act to request the following from Foley's office:

    * Copies of any and all studies concerning child exploitation and abuse in a nudist  home or environment.
    * Copies of any and all law enforcement records of the exploitation and abuse of children in a nudist home or environment.
    * Copies of any testimony before your Committee on the Abuse and Exploitation of Children where it concerns the issue of sexual abuse of children in a nudist  environment.
    * Copies of any letters of correspondence with individuals, groups, associations concerning the issue of sexual abuse of children in a nudist environment.


    Invitation to Naturist Groups

DA:  June 28, 2003

FR:  Shirley Mason, Executive Director
B.E.A.C.H.E.S Foundation Institute

TO:  TNS; NAC; AANR; Lake Como; INA; TANR; B.E.A.C.H.E.S.
Cc:  SFFB/FNA; FCN; FQN; GNI;  IMEN; Naturist Christians

Subject:  Meeting Set With Congressman Mark Foley

RE:  Pending Legislative Issues for Nudity, Children and Adults

    As you are aware, B.E.A.C.H.E.S. requested that Congressman Foley meet with the key naturist/nudist organization leaders.  The meeting has been set up with Congressman Mark Foley as follows:

Date:         Monday July 7th, 2003
Time:     9:00 AM
Location:  Congressman Foley's District Office
             4440 P.G.A. Blvd.
             Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410
             Ph:  561.627.6192
             Fax: 561.626.4749
         District Office Manger:  Don  Kiselewski
             District Legislative Aide: Cheryl
             Chief of Staff: Kirk Fordham

    Kirk Fordham has asked that those attending to please fax a brief statement of who they are and who they represent and what is the mission of their group for the Congressman's read file.

    Since most of us will be coming from out of town, it would be my recommendation that we meet on Sunday afternoon, July 6, at a local hotel and discuss a strategy and talking points for the meeting.  I don't think we will get more the 50 minutes from Foley.  It will be important that we all be on the same page and all agree on what commitment we want from the Congressman.

    It's best that we limit attendance to one person per major organization with the exception of AANR, who should be represented by someone in top management and their Florida lobbyist. I stress the importance of having females as our visual spokespeople as much as possible.

    Please CALL to let me know if a representative will attend the Foley meeting.   305-893-8838 (9:30 am to 10 pm)

    Since we'll need a place to meet (in advance of the Foley meeting) and most will be coming from out of the area or state, I recommend staying at the Embassy Suites Palm Beach.  The location is at 4350 PGA Blvd (W. Palm Beach, FL 33410), just one block from Foley's office.  The design and size of these hotel suites and/or other areas of the hotel can easily accommodate a small group without a problem.   Embassy Suites: 800-559-7153.

    NOTE:  The strategy meeting at the hotel is not limited to only those that will sit in on Foley's meeting.  The voices of Florida-based organization leaders are especially needed at this meeting.


    On June 30, AANR withdrew its planned participation.


    SFFB Position Statement

    Chronologically, this position statement followed those of TNS and AANR, but it is included here with the other South Florida Free Beaches documents leading up to the meeting with Foley.

June 28, 2003

    We must applaud Rep. Foley's interest in protecting our children.  But we believe the campaign against AANR Youth Leadership Camps was launched without due diligence to ascertain the facts: according to his letter of June 18th to Gov. Bush and Attn. Gen. Crist, upon his reading a single newspaper article of the same date in The New York Times.  And, this article was no exposé of a secret that AANR sought to hide, but was solicited by AANR, which organization clearly seeks to demonstrate the family values of naturism and the wholesome nature of these youth camps.  While SFFB/FNA
is not affiliated with AANR, we share a common interest in safeguarding the rights, and protecting the reputation, of naturists and nudists.  We believe several comments in Rep. Foley's letter are uninformed, that a number of implications are unfair, and that therefore the record needs to be set straight.

    Florida Law:  Florida statute and case law distinguish between non-sexual nudity, and indecent behavior.  Florida Statute 800.04 provides for felony penalties of up to 30 years in jail for sexual activity directed at a child; however, mere nudity does not constitute sexual abuse.  We thus have the necessary law to jail the child molester; what purpose does it serve to make it criminal for a family to go skinny-dipping together, or to send their children to a nudist summer camp, if that is their choice?

    Family Naturism/Nudism:  AANR was founded in 1933, and is affiliated with the International Naturist Federation (www.inffni.org), which promotes naturism as encouraging "self-respect, respect for others, and for the environment."  The Youth Leadership Camps have taken place for ten years.  The resort at which the Florida camp took place this year has been a family nudist resort for 65 years; Rep. Foley may wish to consult Pasco County leaders regarding its reputation in the community.  Most nudist facilities are family-oriented communities that are members of AANR (www.aanr.com) and/or The Naturist Society (www.naturistsociety.com), and adhere to their standards of conduct.  No reputable empirical study using factual data has shown that nudity in this context poses a danger to the moral development or psychological adjustment of children.

    Evaluation of Risk:  The suggestion that a nudist camp for youth is in itself an invitation to inappropriate activity raises the question of whether a municipal swimming pool where adults and children mingle, with the opportunity for accidental or intentional body contact, also does not pose the identical problem.  The answer is that neither poses such a problem for normal, well-adjusted adults, nor for children, if properly supervised.  Such public venues (the nudist resort camp, or the public pool) are seldom the places where child molestation occurs, precisely because of the large number of witnesses present.  It occurs far more often at home (by parents, relatives, friends and neighbors), by persons in a position of trust with slight supervision (teachers, clerics, child care providers, and others), and by predators taking advantage of unsupervised children in the street and at neighborhood playgrounds.  Preventing promiscuity among youth is first a problem of their moral education, and then of proper supervision by parents, and by adults acting in loco parentis.  We submit that parents sending their children to a supervised nudist youth camp are acting far more responsibly, and subjecting the children to far less chance of adult molestation, or sexual interaction with other youth, than are parents allowing their children to wander the streets without knowledge of their whereabouts.

    Safety and Supervision:  Youth Leadership Camp participants have been raised in a naturist environment, so the nudity of their peers at camp is not an inducement to sexual behavior.  The camps are well supervised, and, contrary to Rep. Foley's implication, some of the children's parents are in fact often present, because typically some of the children's families are resort residents.  However, it would be unusual to have the attendance of all parents at any non-nudist youth summer camp.

    Lack of evidence of nudity causing sexual crime:  There doesn't seem to be any simple connection between simple nudity, and sexual crime and child molestation.   Consider that family naturism is even more widely practiced in Europe, where naturist resorts and beaches are now an accepted part of the landscape.  Yet we believe the record will show that incidents of child molestation are proportionally far greater in the United States, as are incidents of teenage pregnancy.  In South Florida, testimonials from government and civic leaders attest to a reduction in violent crime at Haulover Park, after the creation of the naturist beach there in 1991 by our organization.  The naturist beach has now been included in Haulover Park's Master Plan, unanimously approved by the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners in February 2001; this reflects the positive benefits and lack of negative secondary effects of this facility, now enjoyed by almost a million naturist users each year.

    Convicted child abusers belong in prison:  If Rep. Foley has evidence of the activities of any individual that would be chargeable under FS 800.04, we respectfully suggest that he immediately submit this evidence to the Florida Attorney General.  Since the failure to do so would constitute obstruction of justice, we must assume he possesses no such evidence.  Our organization will support the prosecution of any nudist, or indeed of any person, anywhere, engaging in such activities.

    Guilt by Association:  If an incident should occur anywhere of a nudist molesting a child, such an individual should no more be considered as representing the accepted practice of naturism, any more than the child-molesting priest should be considered as representing the true practice of Christianity.  But we do not suggest that we close the churches and schools, and outlaw the family, because there have been individual child molesters who were also clerics, teachers, or parents.

    Children's Camp Safety:  The safety of children is an important issue.  But any standards for children's camps should apply evenly to all camps, not just to nudist camps.  We would welcome Rep. Foley proposing non-discriminatory standards that may be applied to protect all children at summer camps, at day-care centers, in scouting programs, in the schools, and indeed in all such comparable situations.

Michael Kush, President, SFFB/FNA


    The Time Story
    reported by John Cloud

Nude Family Values
Looking for a healthy escape, more parents join nudist camps.
But are they any place for kids?

Monday, Jun. 30, 2003  [actually available on newsstands June 23]

    LUTZ--Like any boy who has felt the furnace of a June afternoon in the South, 16-year-old James Gordon knows the pleasures of stripping nude for a swim. But a couple of weeks ago at his summer camp, Gordon was nude just about 24/7.  He sang
Kumbayah around the campfire naked, gave a speech to the entire camp naked and played the violin in a talent show naked.  Which is what's expected when your camp is
organized by the American Association for Nude Recreation (A.A.N.R.). Gordon was one of two dozen young people, ages 11 to 25, who attended the camp, which ran from June 5 to June 13 in sweltering Lutz, Fla., outside Tampa, at a secluded place known
as the Lake Como Family Nudist Resort.

    All the campers had, like Gordon, been raised in families that routinely visit — or reside at — places like Lake Como (there are 259 A.A.N.R. resorts and clubs). Gordon says he has been a nudist since he was 2, "and now we come out [to the local nudist
resort] every Sunday after church." (Gordon and his parents attend a conservative Christian church, and because it's a congregation that may not welcome nudists, we
have changed his name.) Despite his religious background — in fact, partly because of it — Gordon sees nothing wrong with nudism. "God created all of us," he says. "He made our bodies, and we shouldn't be ashamed."

    Gordon is old enough to know that many people disagree. Some even think he — or, rather, A.A.N.R.--should be not only ashamed but also investigated. Congressman Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who is planning a run for the U.S. Senate, bitterly attacked the A.A.N.R. youth camp last week.  "I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp," he told Governor Jeb Bush in a letter.  Nonetheless, Foley asserted that the camp was "exploiting nudity among minor
children to make money." He worried that the campers were in danger of sexual abuse.  And he asked the Governor to help determine whether the camp is legal.

    Though the summer camp was in its 11th annual incarnation, Foley hadn't heard of it until last week, when he read a story in the New York Times.  As it happens, I attended the Florida camp, as a (fully clothed) reporter invited by A.A.N.R.  The group hoped to publicize its effort to expand nudist camps for kids across the U.S. A weeklong camp for young nudists opened last week in Ivor, Va.  (Conservatives in the state, including the attorney general, promptly criticized the camp and promised to monitor
it.)  Another A.A.N.R. youth camp is set to start in New River, Ariz., in July; yet another is planned for Texas as early as next summer.

    In some respects, Foley is right to be worried, but he's also less informed than he could be.  Foley seemed to fear that adults would see the young campers naked, but nudist adults see naked kids — their own and the children of other nudists —all the time.  All three A.A.N.R. camps this summer are being held on campgrounds of larger resorts full of adult nudist visitors — RVers, foreigners, locals — many with their own nudist kids.  There's a fair amount of intermingling.  At Lake Como, for instance, A.A.N.R. campers used the same pool as regular Lake Como visitors.  For the most part, there were no problems.

    That said, there were two Peeping Tom-type incidents during the A.A.N.R. camp at Lake Como.  One adult nudist leered at the kids as they swam in the pool; another allegedly asked two girls to pose suggestively for photos. Both men were
ejected. A.A.N.R. officials say the first man was placed on its do-not-admit list, which goes to all member clubs. The other man was reported by the girls to camp authorities, who confiscated his film.  It turned out he had not taken inappropriate photos, according to Susan Weaver, A.A.N.R. p.r. chairwoman. "These incidents are always acted upon immediately," she says.

    The Florida camp had 24-hour sentries, a well-lighted security fence — and no reports of child abuse, according to the Pasco County sheriff's office.  It was perfectly legal under Florida law, which — like most other state codes — doesn't prohibit anyone
of any age from being naked at home, in locker rooms, at nudist resorts or in any other areas where nudity is expected.  Lewd behavior is outlawed in public and private, say
Florida legal experts, but not mere nudity.

    Still, Foley has a point.  One reason A.A.N.R. is so attuned to preventing sexual abuse is that it knows that pedophiles are a rare but persistent problem in nudist America.  Every nudist resort has policies in place to protect potential victims, and every
nudist parent I met watches for suspicious behavior.  Members of both nudist resorts I visited, Lake Como and Cypress Cove Nudist Resort & Spa, in Kissimmee, Fla., said they have had to keep an eye on creepy men.

    So why would anyone want their kids in such an environment?  The answer begins with nudist demographics.  Two years ago, A.A.N.R. paid the marketing firm Claritas Inc. to analyze the membership of the 72-year-old group.  Claritas found that the cluster most likely to renew A.A.N.R. membership is a group it labels "God's Country"--primarily executives from the exurbs who tend to be Republican.  Their key issues are tax reform and terrorism; they like Golf Magazine and GMC Safari vans. And
most have kids at home.

    This demographic picture often shocks those new to the nudist world.  Four years ago, Florida state senator Victor Crist, a Republican, was redistricted into an area that includes Lake Como.  At first, he says, he was apprehensive about having so many naked constituents. "So I went out there for myself. I think the most surprising point was that the majority of these people are just regular people ... I don't promote this lifestyle, but some people that are active nudists are individuals you would never expect — some of our most prominent lawyers, doctors, judges, policemen ..." His list continues for some time, painting a positively Rockwellian picture.

    Children are a quotidian feature of nudist America.  Swingers who think they will find like-minded libertines at nudist clubs will, with a few exceptions, face disappointment. In fact, most nudist clubs are so dominated by married parents that
A.A.N.R. occasionally fields calls from singles claiming discrimination against them.

    If the world of nudists brims with surprises, perhaps the biggest is that it is a propitious moment for nudism in America.  Membership in A.A.N.R. has climbed from about 40,000 a decade ago to nearly 50,000 today.  A tourism official in Pasco County, Fla., says more than 100,000 tourists a year visit its five nudist resorts, of which Lake Como, founded in 1947, is the oldest.  In 1992, Forbes estimated nudism to be a
$120 million-a-year industry. A.A.N.R. claims that with all the nudist resorts, clothing-optional cruises (seven this year) and other enterprises (there was a nude passenger flight to Cancun not long ago), the figure is nearing $400 million.

    Why the growth?  One reason may be that at a time of crushing global uncertainty, nudism thrusts its devotees back to basics.  In surveys, the No. 1 reason nudists offer for going around without clothes is relaxation: as confining garments fall
away, so do the worldly responsibilities that they signify.  Many nudists — especially women — also argue that the nudist subculture prizes body acceptance, meaning they don't have to stop eating carbs or fat; there is little Botox here.

    But contrary to what you might think, American nudism is not rooted in the hippie '60s.  A 1988 history, Family Naturism in America, credits German immigrant Kurt Barthel with organizing the first nudist outing in the U.S. in 1929. Barthel trumpeted the
presumed hygienic benefits of light and air on the body.  Within a decade, the American Sunbathing Association — which later became A.A.N.R.--was founded.  It was run by
Baptist minister Ilsley Boone, who for decades enforced a family atmosphere by refusing membership to clubs that sold alcohol.

    Nudists have long been preoccupied with whether the lifestyle is healthy for their children.  In 1959 naturist author Donald Johnson wrote a pop sociology called The
Nudists.  It extolled, in common naturist refrain, "the nudist child's freedom from sexual
curiosities ... The unsatisfied desire to see that which is customarily forbidden incites many children to unwise or immoral acts ... Nudist children spend much of their free time at the park with their families; they are therefore less likely to join motorcycle clubs."  One still hears such quaint sentiments today.  It's common for nudists to claim, without evidence, that nudist teens are less sexually active than nonnudist kids.

    In 1986 a nudist press published the results of a five-year study of children raised by nudists.  Growing Up Without Shame concluded, rather expansively, that "the viewing of the unclothed human body, far from being destructive to the psyche, seems to be either benign or to actually provide benefits"--typically indifference to such inevitabilities as puberty, sags and wrinkles.  Dr. David Fassler, a fellow of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, says such claims haven't been validated by independent psychiatric researchers.  But a visit to the camp yielded anecdotal support.  An 11-year-old girl described — in disarming detail — how she was prepared for her breasts to grow and menstruation to begin.  At another point, a group of adolescents listened to a 62-year-old explain why she'd undergone breast reduction. There were no giggles — in fact, most of the kids seemed bored.  Nudists believe such frank talk frees their kids from the body-image worries that rack teenage girls and, increasingly, boys. "America's young people, as early as 9 or 10, their goal is to look like Britney Spears," says A.A.N.R. president Pat Brown. "We need to learn body
acceptance."

    But kids in the throes of puberty can see their developing bodies as horribly inelegant.  At the camp, pubescent children covered themselves more often than older boys and girls — though even the pubescent children were nude most of the time.  The
campers were never required to be naked, but most nudist resorts mandate nudity in pool areas. That can be difficult for some kids.  A 15-year-old girl from Texas who has
been a nudist since age 3 says she only rarely felt awkward during puberty.  But when she did, she didn't always want to be naked — even though her club requires nudity unless it's cold or you have a sunburn. "I found a loophole in the rule," she says proudly. "  They won't stop us from wearing a towel.  So I would just wrap that around myself."  But should kids have to find loopholes to feel comfortable? "Yes, there's a coercion of sorts with the pool," admits Dean Hadley, 55, who owns the Cypress
Cove resort.  "But they have a choice of getting into the pool or not."

    There was little sexual behavior on display at the camp.  A typical observation came from Gordon, the 16-year-old: "With girls on the outside, you get to know the clothes, not the person.  If I am looking for a girlfriend, being a nudist is actually better"--better from a moral standpoint, he clarifies--"because I think [nudism] is less sexual than trying to get attention with certain outfits."  Nudists as moralizers?  There's more.  The presence of so many kids at nudist resorts has resulted in a proliferation of rules governing naked behavior.  Nudists may ignore the No. 1 precept of human interaction since Adam and Eve, but they have overlaid their world with other strictures. One cannot walk around clad only in underwear, which is considered titillating. At Cypress Cove, nude dancing is forbidden.  Nudists are supposed to carry towels to cover seat cushions.

    On the last night of camp, the kids held a talent show called "Sunny & Bare." They sang a nudist rendition of a Garth Brooks classic--"I got sand in low places"--as well as a straight version of the G.O.P. standard God Bless the U.S.A. The next day there were tearful end-of-camp goodbyes.  Most of the kids were returning to areas where they have few nudist friends, and most nonnudist pals wouldn't understand the lifestyle.

    I wondered how the kids would turn out.  The 11-year-old camper who was so frank about her incipient puberty also said that a visitor to the Lake Como resort twice touched her leg in the pool.  (Camp wasn't in session; the girl had been visiting a relative who lives at Lake Como full time.)  The man was thrown out.  Says the girl's mother: "Kids here are taught to talk about it. They immediately tell." But might the man have been emboldened because he saw the girl naked?  As America's nudists continue
to thrive, they will have to grapple with that question.  They may have learned to see the naked body as mundane, but most people haven't.

Sidebar:

The Bare Facts
--Combined membership of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR)
and the Naturist Society
'93 -- 58,000
'03 -- 75,000

--AANR clubs and resorts, all of which are in North America
'93 -- 200
'03 -- 259

--Number of nudist summer camps for kids in the U.S.
'93 -- 1
'03 -- 3


    TNS Position Statement

June 25, 2003

    As an organization dedicated to the principle of body acceptance through nude recreation, The Naturist Society is keenly interested in recent news stories about a nude youth camp in Florida.

    We welcome these stories, viewing them as an important tool in educating the public on the family-friendly character of modern naturism.  Unfortunately, most of these stories do have one drawback. In searching for opposing points of view, they almost invariably repeat widespread misconceptions about the true nature of recreational nudity.

    The most problematic assumption advanced by critics of the Florida nude youth camp is the notion that nudity and sexual activity are all but inseparable.  Using this erroneous assumption as a starting point, some critics have hastily concluded that nude youth camps are nothing more than a front for the sexual exploitation of children.  This critique is being advanced most aggressively by Florida U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, a Senate candidate, who has called for a ban on such camps.

    While only Foley knows whether this call is prompted by conviction or opportunism, we can say with certainty that the congressman is operating under a false premise.  Nudity and sexual activity are not one and the same.

    Indeed, a more compelling argument is that nudity reduces sexual curiosity and acting out among young people by eliminating the mystery and titillation that the fashion, entertainment, and advertising industries so skillfully exploit.  It is a virtual truism that the provocative beach clothing young people are given to wearing these days is more sexually arousing than simple nudity.  Yet Foley would be rightly dismissed as a crank if he were to call for a ban on suggestive beach apparel.

    The simple truth that Foley seems not to grasp is that nude recreation helps put the human body in perspective. We are all sexual beings, of course, but we are not exclusively so. By presenting the human body in a calm, respectful, non-judgmental manner, the kind of social nudity The Naturist Society endorses helps young people realize that there is more to nudity than sex.  There is also self-acceptance and its corollary, body acceptance.

    Nude youth camps, properly organized and supervised, can do a great deal to advance this end.

    Rep. Foley's assumptions notwithstanding, The Naturist Society is unaware of any recent objective studies of youthful nudity and sexual behavior, although studies from the Å’70s and Å’80s suggest that children raised in a nude-friendly environment tend to be more comfortable with their bodies and their sexuality.

If Foley is aware of more recent studies that can corroborate his assumptions, we would appreciate hearing about them.  But until he can cite something more authoritative than personal hunches about nudity and sex, his critique will remain unconvincing.

    Meanwhile, a few points are worth underscoring.

    Much has been made by Foley of the presence of a COG, a  "creepy outside guy," attempting to ogle young people at the youth camp in question.  It should be remembered that when the COG was spotted, he was promptly rousted, and that in any event COGs are hardly unique to naturist settings.  Shocking reports of new Boy Scout sexual abuse scandals and the Roman Catholic Church's continuing trauma over priestly abuse of minors show that sexual predators hardly need rely on nudist venues as a source for young victims.

    If anything, children are comparatively safe at nudist venues.  Aware of the widespread conflation of nudity, sex and child exploitation reflected in Foley's statements, nudist clubs and resorts are constantly on the lookout for sexual predators. It is in their interest to remain vigilant; if they aren't they run the risk of community censure and closure.  The effectiveness naturist venues have in spotting and dealing with potential predators is reflected in the fact that Foley has not been able to cite a single specific instance of abuse.  This despite the fact that Florida has numerous family venues for naturists, and despite the fact that AANR has been sponsoring nude youth camps for a decade.

    "Family values" are not the exclusive property of certain politicians and self-described Christians.  Nude recreation has historically been a family activity.  Indeed, parents are often among the supervisors at nude camps.  Naturists recognize, however, that nude youth camps are not for everyone.  No one should be forced to attend, and those who do should have some background in nude recreation.

    Finally, we can only guess at Foley's motives.  He may be sincere.  But one needn't be a cynic to question his motives.  It is well known that Foley has been seeking a "family values" issue to bolster his image among social conservatives in his campaign for a spot in the U.S. Senate.  Naturists may be justified in wondering whether it is Rep. Foley who is in fact exploiting Florida's children for his own political ends, and at the expense of naturist parents' freedom.

Nicky Hoffman
Judi Ditzler
Directors
The Naturist Society


    AANR Position Statement

June 26, 2003
To: All AANR Clubs, Regions, Trustees, Officers, Members, and Friends
Re: An immediate direct threat to (and opportunity for) family nude recreation.

Dear Friends of AANR and Nude Recreation,

    As Executive Director for the American Association for Nude Recreation, I appreciate this opportunity to present you with some very important recent
developments.

    Our members and clubs know well of AANR's mission to "promote, enhance, and protect, in appropriate settings, nude recreation and nude living in the Americas."  In furtherance of its responsibility to promote nudism, AANR substantially stepped up public relations efforts as 2002 closed.  These efforts included making a change to YPB&R, an aggressive, talented PR firm with a strong reputation for serving such major players in travel industry as Disney and FLA USA.

    Drawing on strong leadership from PR Chair Susan Weaver and with a clear vision and plan in place, AANR sought its goals with a newfound zeal.  The results were incredible: Woodall's Campground Management had already elected to do a cover story on the success of nudist RV parks in late December, 2002.  By mid January, The Wall St. Journal was touting the praises of the nude recreation industry in a full page, full color cover story of its Marketplace section.  Forbes online soon followed, joined by yet more mentions in The Wall St. Journal, Reader's Digest, then Elle, Esquire, and Forbes again. In the month of May, 2003 alone USA Today carried no less than three separate stories touting the nudist industry prompting favorable coverage from the CNBC business television network on Memorial Day weekend.

    I do not have sufficient space here to thank each and every one of you who did so much to make this success possible.   It earned us substantial respect and has already made it much easier for clubs to demonstrate the viability of the nudist market to bankers, financiers, or even just local media and public officials with whom they speak.

    Despite such impressive accomplishments, however, there was an important element about what AANR does that was lacking the coverage and attention it needed. A number of you reminded us of it from time to time:  We did not have solid, in-depth material from a credible third party publication explaining the appropriateness of nude recreation for families and, especially, youth.  This left a gap when it came to assisting those facing child custody issues associated with nudism, and even our work to attract new families.

    With that gap in mind, some months ago YPB&R began working with us to approach a couple of prominent, credible, and influential media with the idea of spending more than a cursory visit with one or more regional youth camps. The hard work and investment shown by FANR to its program over the last ten years, echoed by recent work in AANR East and AANR West had produced outstanding camp programs. The caliber of young men and women graduating from these camps was so mature, so talented, that they epitomized what nudism contributes to a healthy mind, body, self image, and sense of personal responsibility. We knew that time amongst these outstanding young people would make a powerful impact on the press.

    In fact, this was not to be the first mainstream media coverage of a nude youth event.  (Last year JAANR and JFANR Youth Chair Judy Grisham did an interview with CNN from JFANR's camp held then in the West Palm Beach area.)  Few could have imagined that The New York Times and Time Magazine would respond with offers to do feature stories on this year's FANR camp.   An incredible amount of planning and work went into getting things right.  The results speak for themselves in the articles enclosed.  I think you will agree that, while balanced, they are both very positive pieces---and genuine because the youth and their conduct spoke for themselves.  Frankly, we couldn't have pulled the wool over the eyes of experienced journalists for days and those writers knew it.  (They also noted that calls to local state's attorney's officers showed nothing illegal---and nary a complaint---about our camps.)  The writers' eyewitness accounts detail the wholesome, non-sexual atmosphere of family nude recreation.

    The appearance of The New York Times article on Wednesday, June 18 prompted what could only be described as a "referendum" on family nudism with the American public.  America Online prepared a "welcome screen" story greeting all AOL subscribers with the news and an opportunity to cast a vote as to whether they would have benefitted from attending a nude camp as a teen.  An absolutely incredible 530,000 + people voted and MORE THAN 34% said they would have attended and benefitted from such a program if they'd had the chance to go.  More than 45% said they would like to visit a nudist resort as an adult or had, in fact, gone.  Predictably, among the public there's also those who either haven't given this subject much thought or are against the idea.  One of those people is U.S. Congressman Mark Foley.  And on Friday, June 20 he wrote Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida Attorney General asking for an investigation into whether Florida law would prohibit the camps and, if not,
what should be done.  Mr. Foley took every opportunity to publicize his letter, creating a wave of media debating (often in ignorance) the pros and cons of what we do.  Put on the spot, the Attorney General's office of Virginia noted that the AANR East camp to be held there "raised grave concerns" but is not illegal absent any lascivious element.  The fact is, that whether we like it or not, the debate about family nude recreation has walked squarely into the living rooms of America.  From CNN to Fox, CBS (The Early Show), ABC (Good Morning America) and beyond, there are questions to be asked and answered, and statements too compelling to ignore.  We simply must be fully prepared to defend our wholesome way of life.

    After consultation with AANR President Pat Brown, our Trustees and other leadership, AANR presents the following:

    1.  As there is neither anything illegal or untoward about AANR's regional youth camps and its support for those camps, we will not be cowered into closing them by the specter of public debate or Mr. Foley's unfounded conjecture that our youth are at risk or that they cannot control themselves in the presence of other nude bodies;

    2.  As Executive Director, I have requested that AANR General Counsel Jawn Bauer and FANR General Counsel John Calendar work with me to politely explain our sound legal position in this matter to the Florida Governor's office.  We have, in fact, had factual conversations with that office and have offered to assist in any way we can with the worthy aim of protecting children and providing a wholesome atmosphere to persons of all ages---something we have always supported to our very roots to 1931;

    3.  Working with YPB&R and Chair Susan Weaver, AANR have provided a measured response in those media where we believed we could generate the maximum, fair, coverage of what we do and why we do it.  In many cases, that involved allowing now-adult graduates of our nude youth programs to speak for themselves, as they have done so successfully to date.  We have, and will continue to, refrain from all personal attacks against Congressman Foley in such media recognizing that, while we strongly disagree with his misunderstood assessment of what our camps must be like, we can applaud his commitment to protect youth;

    4.  We will apprise our coalition of friends in Washington DC and various states of recent developments so that they can assist us with monitoring events as well as be aware; In Tallahassee, we will continue to work with FANR's professional lobbyist on the optimum strategy he recommends.  While that strategy may change, for now, it involves watching for which sector opposition may come from;

    5.  Frankly, nothing less than the future of family nude recreation in at least three states is at potential risk.  Many of you have contacted this office asking what you can do to help.  Maintaining your AANR membership is the most important place to start. There is strength in numbers, and each of you are vital for AANR to meet this challenge.  Please also consider taking this time to make an additional donation to AANR...even $1 per member provides additional reserves we can use to maintain your right to not only participate in nude recreation, but raise your families in the environment you have chosen.  Finally, please be at the ready to direct your letters, faxes, and telephone calls if, and when, we determine it is most productive to use them after consulting the professional guidance your dues make possible.

    As you might imagine, the daily operations in the AANR office have been far from routine.  Because of this recent media inundation, answering your requests for additional information on the AANR Tomorrow Reorganization plan were put on hold, along with some other general requests.  We appreciate your patience, as our staff has stepped up to this challenge, working long hours to meet the current crisis while maintaining the crucial programs that keep AANR running.  We will continue the very important mission of promoting, enhancing, and protecting nude recreation for all ages.  And we can only do it with your help. For that I remain,

Sun-cerely Grateful,

Erich E. Schuttauf, JD
Executive Director


    Letter to Foley from Governor Jeb Bush's Office

June 27, 2003

The Honorable Mark Foley
United States House of Representatives
104 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0916

Dear Congressman Foley:

    Thank you for your letter to Governor Bush and Attorney General Crist dated June 18, 2003. The Governor shares your concern for the well being of  children in the state of Florida, and is troubled by the potential that exists for inappropriate or illegal behavior involving children who are nude in the presence of non-parental adults.

    The Department of Children and Families is reviewing existing records to determine whether there have been any reports of criminal acts or child abuse related to these activities. As of this writing, we are unaware of any reports alleging child abuse, neglect or exploitation related to the camp, but the Department will continue with their fact-finding. Current Florida statutory provisions regarding nudity require a showing of intent to engage in lewd or lascivious conduct; it does not criminalize mere nudity. (See Fla. Stat. SS. 800.03 -.04, 39.01(63)(f), 827.07). Should there be evidence of criminal activity or of criminal exploitation, it should be reported to local law enforcement officials or the State Attorney.

    Governor Bush supports solutions to protect children from sexual and financial exploitation, and encourages members of Congress and the Florida Legislature to consider legislation that would prevent solicitation by these establishments using interstate commerce if inappropriate or illegal behavior is occurring.

    The rights of parents to impart their values to their children and raise their children as they see fit are sacred.  But these rights require responsibility. The state has a duty to ensure that adults, including parents and those with whom parents associate, do not exploit children or put them at risk of physical, emotional, or psychological harm. The state's interest in protecting children is enhanced by local communities, which are in a stronger position to regulate activities that take place in their jurisdiction.

I trust that the above comments provide the information that you requested.  As the Department of Children and Families gathers information in the relevant districts, we will inform you if new information comes to light. On behalf of the Governor, we thank you for your ideas and for your offer to help in addressing this issue.

Sincerely yours,

Raquel Rodriguez
General Counsel to the Governor


    Campaign Statement of Gwendolyn McClellan

July 5, 2003

Exploitation of Our Children:  Nudist Camps or Congressman Mark Foley

    Congressman Mark Foley was on O'Reiley Television Show on Monday, June 23, 2003 informing the listeners about a caucus that he has informed on exploitation of children.  Furthermore, Congressman Foley is calling for an investigation into a nudist camp for youth.  I also noted on O'REILEY's websites the number of national organizations that are supporting Mark on his efforts on working with children and his Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.  Yet, the real person that is exploiting our youth is Congressman Mark Foley and other government officials like him when they use our children in their efforts to run for a political office.

    My name is Dr. Gwyndolyn McClellan and I am also running for the United States Senator's position for Florida-2004.  The issues that I am running on are: Children Rights, Elderly Rights and Animal Rights.  I hold a Ph.D. in Education Administration, M.A. and B.A. in Speech Pathology and Audiology.  The majority of my life has been spent on working on issues related to children.  Yet, now Congressman Foley claims that he is concerned about our children when, in reality, he is using our children as an issue to advance himself in the race towards Senator for Florida-2004.

    Last January or February (I don't have the exact dates in front of me), I contacted the majority of the national television talk shows, radio shows and newspapers sharing with them information about a series of books that I was putting out on children abuse and neglect to try to help combat child abuse and neglect. I asked to come on the television programs to discuss my book with the listeners.  Also at that time I had planned to introduce to the audience a concept that I have developed for the federal government involvement with children, "the total child."  Yet, I never even received a courtesy call to even say that they would not be able to have me on their shows.  Yet, every time I look up, Congressman Foley is on the national television shows exploiting children and lying about what he has been doing to fight terror.

    Nudist Camp for children is not an exploitation of them.  Instead, the nudist community is trying to teach their children the same set of values that they have about their body.  Exposing children to the naked body does not mean that they will have sex.  These children have been exposed to the nudist body at home.  I am sure that the nudist community has done an outstanding job of making sure that the curriculum reflects values of respecting the artistic quality of the body and not the sexual orientation to the body. I am also sure that the nudist community has done everything possible to ensure the safety of their children.  Nudist parents are doing nothing no different than other unorthodox parents, i.e. gay couples, etc. who expose their children to a set of values that our society "considers to be outside the realm of our superimposed value beliefs."

    Congressman Foley has been in some type of elected position since 1991. Yet where was Congressman Foley when Lucus Ciambrane was beaten to death by his foster parents?  Where was the voice of Congressman Foley for the millions of homeless teenagers that are walking the streets having no place to live? Where has Congressman Foley been when children have been beaten and starved by people who are suppose to be loving him?  What right does Congressman Foley have to say that he cares about children when he is willing to support the partial abortion bill or to have not once spoke out on any issue related to children except for when he started running for the Senator's position?  (Yes he has voted on a bill but he has shown no leadership voice until now while he is running for Senate).  Tell me how many radio programs did Congressman Foley try to get on the air to address the issue of child abuse and neglect--after all, everybody is giving Congressman Foley the money and pampering to his every whim? Yet, I am told that my chances of winning the Senator's position is 0 because I am a Black woman, Republican and Jewish.  And every effort that I have made to work on an issue finds no support from the people of Florida yet we are told that we are living in a society where race makes no difference. When did Congressman Foley ever pick up a newspaper and cut out the article about a child who has been beaten to death?  How many sleepless nights has Congressman Foley had over being concerned about the 40,000 children that could not pass the FCAT exam?  Where was Congressman Foley when children have been lost in the foster system of Florida? When did Congressman Foley attempt to have a Safety Toy Fair to make sure that parents understand the danger of toys?  Has Congressman Foley ever written to John Walsh begging him to air information about a government and community mistreating children?  Yes, I have tried to do all of this and more even before I even thought about running for the United States Senator's position and I have never even been acknowledged.

    Point blank, Congressman Foley doesn't care about our youth at all.  He is exploiting them by using them as an issue to cater to get more votes for the race for the Senator's position...not because he truly cares about our youth.  Our mistreated children have enough to deal with and we have enough wrong people in key level positions claiming that they are advocates for children when they are only advocating for themselves.  I disagree with O'REILEY when he said he didn't care who did it (help our children).  I think that it makes a difference because it Congressman Foley wins the election of Senate then how can you be so sure that he is going to continue to work on the issues of youth when he is only working on these issues because he is running for Senate?

    All of you have given money to Congressman Foley, television time to Congressman Foley and sponsorship to Congressman Foley, and Congressman Foley is not interested in children other than what he can get out of them.  The only reason that Congressman Foley got involved with children's issues because he knew that I was involved.  It saddens me to have to write this article and it saddens me even more to know that our youth are never going to be treated fairly because Congressman Foley is no better than our priest who has raped our children and getting away with it. I have to also say that I honestly also believe that O'REILEY does really care about children.  (I don't agree with too many things that O'REILEY has to talk about.)

    Thank you. I hope that you will come to the Safety Toy Expos in Florida during the month of November in five different locations across Florida--that is if I can even get people to exhibit.  I don't need Affirmative Action.  I work hard for what I get, yet what about all  of the people who are taking sides and saying that I don't have a chance to win the Senate because I am Black, Jewish and a woman?  Isn't Affirmative Action for their benefit and not the Black person/Minority benefit?    My website provides the information.


    The Weekly Planet Article
    Reported by Nano Riley

    This was the cover story.

Naked Without Shame
Families Enjoying a Classic Pastime Endure a Desperate Politician's Campaign
July 5, 2003

    Editors Note: Newspapers, Time magazine and television talk shows have had a field day with a Florida Congressman's attack on a nude summer camp in Lutz, just north of Tampa.

    Two weeks ago, conservative Republican Mark Foley -- who is gearing up for a tough U.S. Senate race next year, and who has admitted he wants to shift attention from undisputed recent news reports that he's gay -- attacked the camp as immoral, a possible haven for pedophiles, sex-crazed teenagers and perverts.

    No matter that the summer camps, as well as other family nudist activities, have been operating for years; or that other conservative politicians, less skittish about their own sexual secrets, have seen nothing wrong with them.  The camp organizers and their national organization are now in a media
spotlight, and on the defensive.

    As it happens, only three news organizations actually attended last month's youth camp at Lake Como Family Nudist Resort: the New York Times, Time, and us.

    Here's our eyewitness report.

    Lake Como Family Nudist Resort is a slice of old Florida. Wood-frame rental cabins, recycled from World War II-era barracks, overlook a small lake lined with cypress trees. Across a gravel road, rows of mobile homes look as if they haven't left their moorings in decades. In winter and early spring, the RV section is nearly always full. There are volleyball courts, of course, and a small sandy beach with a few sailboats, a swimming pool, an unimposing clubhouse, a screened-in "Butt Hut" down by the lake with a bar and a newer athletic complex with well-groomed Har-Tru tennis courts.  This rustic setting, on 200 acres just north of the Hillsborough County line, may remind baby boomers of the homespun vacation spots they visited as children, before the advent of theme parks and time-shares.

    A first-time visitor to Lake Como during the week will find that everything you've heard is true about nudist resorts. It isn't that visually stimulating. Sagging bellies, mottled buttocks and varicose veins far outnumber the fit and the nubile. Which is fine. For the whole point of nudism is to be comfortable in your own bare skin, without shame or self-consciousness.

    Generations of families have come to Lake Como, which claims to be the oldest nudist resort in Florida, formally organized in 1947. It is run today as a co-op, with 100 equal shareholders.

    Grandparents and children share the space still. On a mandatory tour of the premises that all visitors must take (so that park leaders can size up the attitude of potential guests), one encountered a trio of girls, ages roughly 8 to 14, walking toward the clubhouse for ice cream. Only an outsider would find this remarkable: Except for tennis shoes and towels draped over their shoulders, the three girls were as naked as the day they were born.

    The wide open space of Lake Como is one reason why the American Association for Nude Recreation youth camps have settled here, rather than at one of the posher resorts like nearby Paradise Lakes, which has condominiums and a disco.

    In mid-June, more than two dozen campers pitched their tents in an open field apart from the rest of the resort, where they were monitored 24/7 by chaperones. As with any other youth camp, they had campfires and games, discussion groups and talent shows.

    Most of these kids have always been nudists. Their families are nudists, so they find nothing strange about running around with their friends in the buff. In fact, it would be stranger if these kids were made to wear clothes in this rural setting. For them, nudity is completely natural, evoking no thoughts of indecency. And the camp teaches unprejudiced values that would make most Christian preachers proud.

    Take George and Debbie Jeffries from Alabama, who drove eight hours just to bring their 13-year-old daughter Jane to Lake Como. On the last night of camp, they were waiting in line to enter the clubhouse, where there would be dinner and a talent show put on by the campers, as well as an award ceremony honoring some of the campers for their special achievements. They each had a towel draped over their shoulders, a requirement since nudist etiquette dictates that you sit on a towel, wherever you sit.

    "Jane's been coming to nudist resorts all her life," said Debbie, a retired doctor who practiced family medicine for many years. "She's been to Girl Scout camp, but she likes this much better. It's a big thing for her, and she really gets excited. We have three daughters and they've all been raised as nudists."

    "I really like it because I'm able to see people my own age," said Jane. "At the camp we usually go to on weekends there are no kids my age, but here I have friends, and I make new ones."

    "We like it for the people," said George. "Right now we're staying at Paradise Lake, which is right next door, so Jane can do her thing with the kids. We're just here tonight for the talent show and award ceremony."

    About 200 people had joined them -- parents and grandparents, residents of Lake Como and Paradise Lakes. The kids bustled to and fro with the traditional camp dinner-paper plates of (what else?) spaghetti, Italian bread and salad. The boys wore aprons while they served, and the young ladies wore sarongs, or pareos as most of the crowd calls them. These colorful cloth wraps worn in the Pacific islands are popular with the women.  At dinner, some people were fully dressed; others wore T-shirts or beach jackets, and some were completely nude. It was a free world here, as long as you had your towel.

    Some of the campers scampered around "backstage," making sure everything was ready for the big show. The makeshift curtain was decorated with colorful stenciled pictures of blue dolphins, pink hands and dancing people.  Multi-colored Christmas lights ringed the area and the tables were decorated with paper flower centerpieces. The atmosphere was typical for a summer camp. The kids were excited. During dinner, one small child in a pink and white pareo -- obviously too young to attend the camp (you must be eleven) -- danced alone, turned cartwheels and plainly wished she could be part of the official entertainment.

    Backstage, Jenny, who at age eleven was attending her first camp, took time to talk. She was dressed in the evening's tropical theme, wrapped in a colorful pareo and sporting a flower behind her ear. She also wore a pink armband to signify she would talk to the press, but only in the presence of Susan Weaver, the public relations chairperson for the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR). Weaver said the group is very protective of the youngsters. They didn't want anyone bothering them or asking them inappropriate questions.

    "I've been a nudist for about four years," Jenny said. "I've been coming here with my parents, but this is the first time I've come to camp because now I'm 11. I like it because I get to hang out with other kids my age."

    But, she added, she tells only her "very best friend" about coming to Lake Como. At her age, many children would misunderstand, and though Jenny enjoys being a nudist, the teasing at home would most likely be cruel.

    Eighteen-year-old Amanda, however, was an old hand at the summer camp. She looks forward to it every year, she said. This year she's going on to White Tail Park in Virginia, where her grandfather, long-time nudist Bill Williamson, will be director of the first Junior AANR camp held there.  [Wrong.  He was the camp planning committee chairman.]

    "I love to come," Amanda said. "My grandfather, my parents and me -- we're all nudists. My brother and sister are too. My brother would be here, in fact he intended to come this year, but he had an accident and burned himself."

    Amanda's older sister used to come, but she's a young mother now and busy with her new baby so she doesn't have time. But Amanda herself said she was looking forward to becoming a camp counselor. Next year she can attend "Nude U," for those 18 to 25. Those campers help the adult counselors with the younger groups, the Junior Florida Association of Nude Recreation (JFANR) Exploration Camp, for ages 11-15, and the JFANR Leadership Academy for ages 16-18.

    Amanda gave a straightforward explanation of what she's learned at the camp over the years.

    "People here don't judge me by my clothes," she said. "When we're in school, everybody looks at your clothes. They want to see what brands you're wearing. Here at camp they just see me, and they get to know me. If you don't wear the right clothes, some people don't want to know you."

    'I don't mind if anyone knows I'm a nudist. I don't hide it from anyone.  Back home in Alabama I do volunteer work, and I work part-time at a funeral home, and they all know," she said. "It's so hot down here, I'm really glad I don't have to wear clothes. I don't see how anyone can wear clothes in Florida. Yesterday we went on a field trip in the van, and it was so hot we all wanted to take our clothes off."But that's a big no-no. The youngsters at the camp are strictly supervised. Anytime they leave the grounds of Lake Como, counselors go with them, and everyone must wear clothing that is not provocative. A list of camp rules includes stringent instructions to both campers and counselors. And they are just as strict -- perhaps more strict -- than ordinary summer camps. Counselors and staff members are not to be left alone with kids. Two adults are required, preferably one male and one female, to stay with kids who are ill. There is no touching by campers to counselors or staff and no cruelty or battery is tolerated towards counselors/staff. Counselors must follow the same rules as campers. The list goes on, noting all the regulations set out by FANR.

    "We really protect our kids," said Susan Weaver. "This is one of three youth camps around the U.S. right now. This is the oldest one, started 11 years ago. There is one in Virginia at White Tail, and one in Arizona at Shangri-La. The youth themselves put the curriculum together, and it's all about empowerment."

    The program has "really evolved," Weaver went on. "It used to be just crafts and games, but as the kids grew older, they wanted more. Now they learn a lot about leadership skills, like writing resumes and essays, and how to do interviews. Judy Grisham, who is a traveling nurse, helped a lot with the camp's evolution.

    "In years past, mothers often didn't talk about the changes a teen's body goes through. Now we have classes in body changes and body maintenance. The older girls discuss these things with the younger girls, and the boys also have discussions. Then they come back together and tell each other what they learned. It helps settle the uncertainty teens have with their bodies at this age. For the younger ones entering puberty, it teaches them what to expect."

    This candid approach prevails among nudists. As a family activity, these children are used to seeing all types of bodies, both young and old. They see the physical changes as people age, and they understand that it's a natural part of life. Their parents believe they're better for it, because they are not superficial or judgmental.

    After directing the Lake Como youth camp, Judy Grisham went on to Virginia to work as a counselor at White Tail Park, a family nudist resort not far from Washington D.C. She talked by phone one early evening, surrounded by campers playing a rousing game of capture the flag. There were periodic interruptions, while she listened and tried to respond to the kids at the same time. ("I don't have the bug spray," she hollered. "Just sit down, honey, I'll be with you in a minute.")

    Grisham said she's been a nudist for years and raised her family that way.

    "I bring a mother and grandmother approach to the camp," she said. "I know what teens go through. This is a healthy environment that promotes a healthy interaction between peers. The youth camps have been going on in Florida for 11 years, and I've been involved since 1999. My husband was president of FANR (Florida Association for Nude Recreation) so I wanted to work with the kids. I'm a licensed registered nurse, and I've worked with muscular dystrophy camps, Girl Scout camps and church camps. I'm Lutheran, and my husband was a Lutheran minister.

    "The first FANR youth camps were only for kids up to age 18, but some of those kids wanted to stay with the camp. So in 2000, I went to the board and we invented "Nude U," for ages 18 to 25. They provide leadership and act as counselors for the younger campers. This is the first time for this camp here at White Tail, sponsored by AANR East. We have 23 campers, and 19 are juniors."

    And they really protect the kids. "We never leave the kids alone," Grisham said. "There's always a male and female counselor with them at all times.  Only our staff is allowed in the camp area, and they're all banded. We also do background checks on all the counselors, even ones who have been with the camps before. And it's all volunteer. Most of us like to spend our vacations this way. My hat's off to all the counselors. At the end of July there's a youth camp at Shangri-La Ranch in Arizona sponsored by AANR West, and next year they plan on opening one in Texas."

    At the talent show, it was obvious that the kids were not shy about their bodies. Called "The Sunny and Bare Show," it used just about every old wheeze you've ever seen at a camp show. One girl sat on the floor in front of the stage with cue cards for the performers. She also had signs reading "Applause," for the audience. Some of the kids knew their lines, while others needed to read the cards, although most became so giggly they were unable to read. The first act, called "Lords of the Ballet," involved four young men wrapped in sarongs from the waist down. They leapt from behind the curtain to do a ridiculous ballet, complete with pirouettes. Two wore silly wigs, which the other two tried to grab as they twirled around the stage.  The whole dance broke down as sarongs went awry and other mishaps occurred.  One lift ended with the dancer falling down, laughing, and the ballet concluded with all four leap-frogging off the stage. The audience was helpless with laughter.

    The rest of the show was as light-hearted. There was karaoke, more dancing, lots of nudist jokes. A young man played "Orange Blossom Special" on his fiddle, and the whole group sang a parody of "This Land Is Your Land," with a new set of words:

There were no Polo's, there were no Nike's
No DKNY's, FUBU or Tommy's
No Armani's, only our birthday suits,
This land was made nude and free.

    The only thing missing was the ever-popular Three Stooges-style skit where an operation happens behind a back-lit sheet and the audience sees the surgeon in silhouette, using saws and other strange instruments while the patient usually howls.

    Always a favorite at Scout camps.

    Europeans first took up nudism, or naturism as it was more properly called, at the turn of the 20th century. In 1903, a group of Germans founded Freilichtpark (Free Light Park) in Lubeck, Germany, to promote a healthy Spartan lifestyle of vegetarianism, daily outdoor exercise and sunbathing au naturel. Raw foods formed the major diet as these Europeans rebelled against the pollution brought about by the Industrial Revolution. By getting away from the cities and into a rural setting, they went "back to nature," frolicking naked and without sin, comparing their lives to Adam and Eve.  Many called themselves Adamites, after a medieval religious sect that wanted to return to the state of bliss enjoyed in the Garden of Eden. These German health enthusiasts brought the lifestyle to more puritanical America a few years later, where there were a few arrests before a New York court ruled social nudity between men and women was permissible as long as it was not lewd. Soon health aficionados embraced the nudist movement and by the 1920s and '30s, resorts were springing up around the U.S. The AANR was founded in 1931. By the mid-1930s, nearly eighty nudist camps were spread across the country. Most followed the healthy regimen and philosophy devised by the earlier nudists. That has changed over time, but still the majority of camps are family nudist resorts that stress healthy values. Today there are 259 clubs that belong to AANR alone, and all welcome families. In Florida there are 9,000 AANR members, giving the state enough to have its own regional association, while in AANR East, which encompasses 20 states, there are 13,000 members.

    In Pasco County there are seven resorts, making it the epicenter of nudism in the United States. According to Mary Jane Stanley of the Pasco County Economic Development Council, Paradise Lakes Resort, a clothing optional resort that abuts Lake Como, is the second largest generator of tourist tax in Pasco. She said it is very popular with the county government.

    "It's a self-contained community," said Stanley. "They have their own water, they maintain their own roads, and they pay property and tourist taxes. They have a 70-room hotel and upscale restaurants, and they do a lot of civic work and they belong to the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce."

    At the Pasco County Board of Tourism, Diane Jones said the resorts are a positive contributor to Pasco's economy because of the tourists as well as the permanent residents.

    "They're very discreet," said Jones. "I've been to Lake Como on business, and I found they are not flamboyant at all. I had a different idea, but they changed my mind."

    Strict rules govern everyone who comes to Lake Como, said Elf Andersen, the resort's marketing director. There's no touching, no immoral conduct, no gawking or staring at anyone, no undue attention to another's children, no fondling of oneself or someone else and no physical violence. Folks are asked to leave for violating these rules.

    Andersen also explained "nude resort" versus "clothing optional": "Some clothing is very sexual, so that's why we are a nudist resort. We don't allow anyone to go around in their underwear, and they must be nude in the pool and hot tub."

    A visitor asked Andersen why she was wearing a long T-shirt.

    "The office is air-conditioned, and it's cold!"

    Probably the first question everyone asks about the JAANR Leadership camps is this: How can you trust nude teen-agers of both sexes together?  Isn't that a recipe for disaster?  Asked if he was curious about girls, one blasé 16-year-old male camper responded, "You seen one girl, you seen 'em all."

    And that may be the best way to sum up the thoughts about nudism for most of the youthful campers. They've been raised among naked people for most of their lives, so it's nothing new. The values their elders instill are real.

    "The camp helps them get a good body self image," said Deb Jeffries. "They're just a typical bunch of kids. They become more confident in themselves because the camp is totally natural. Clothes are more sexually stimulating than being naked."

    "People in the United States are preoccupied by nudism," Jeffries continued.  "Last year we went to France, to the Riviera Naturist Resort on the Mediterranean. It's in a town called Cap D'Adge, and the whole town is nude.  You can go anywhere in town nude. We loved it, but it was chilly. Never got above 70 in the middle of June the week we were there."

    Bill Williamson, the Virginia youth camp director, is a retired vice president of the College of American Pathologists. "Teens today have so many problems," he said. "If they get into trouble at this age it can be a lifelong millstone around their necks. We're big on anti-drugs, and even though I still smoke, I don't do it in front of the kids.

    "At these camps, we do a background check on all of the counselors and staff and look for anything that might lead to criminal behavior. We don't have the incidents of teen-age pregnancy that there are in the "textile" world (as nudists refer to clothes-wearing people), because our kids don't have to put themselves in compromising situations out of curiosity."

    As far as religion goes, Williamson is a Baptist who "feels closer to God out on the creek bank looking up at the sky than in a regular church."

    "One of my main goals is tolerance," he continued. "People must understand there's no stigma to being nude. Every type of person may be a nudist. We had a Catholic priest at the camp to address the kids, and in Virginia we have two ministers coming. People are surprised to know that most of our membership is middle to upper middle class, college educated, and fifty percent degreed, with incomes of 50 thousand and up."

    So, if nudists represent such a mainstream demographic, why are people like U.S. Rep. Mark Foley so opposed to the teen-age youth camps AANR sponsors?

    "Oh, this is not the first time someone's spoken out," said George Jeffries.  "It's simply ignorance. They see child porn on the Internet and read about child abductions, and they jump to conclusions. A lot of this is the result of media publicity where there's been a bad outcome. They don't know what we do. We know there are really bad guys out there, so that's why we're extra protective of our kids."

    Jeffries's daughter Jane said she'd seldom encountered anything that made her uneasy, though she's been taught to recognize such behavior.

    "Just one or two times ever," she said. "I just tell mom and dad and stay in the trailer until it's taken care of."

    "Foley said we are exploiting the children to make money," said Judith Grisham. "We don't make any money on these kids -- we pay for everything. We pay for the food, the pots and pans. We provide the tents they sleep in, and the tiki torches. Everything is provided from the tuition they pay (about $200 per child for the week) and we don't turn anyone away. We provide scholarships for those that want to come but can't afford to. We pay for the field trips, we rent the vans ... anything they need is paid for."

    "You just can't judge something until you see it for yourself," she said.

    On the last night of camp, after the talent show, the campers and their counselors returned to the field where their tents were, to enjoy one final campfire. An adult circled the fire cautioning everyone not to sit downwind of the smoke."Pass the mosquito repellent," somebody else yelled.

    Some of the campers were teary-eyed. They had made friends they wouldn't see for another year.

    After a moving rendition of (what else?) Kumbayah, accompanied by a counselor on the guitar and a loud chorus of frogs from nearby woods, a lantern was passed around in what is called the Circle of Friends. As on previous nights, each person, teen and adult, was asked to answer a group question. Tonight: "What have you accomplished this week? And what didn't you accomplish that you wanted to?"

    Mister Mike, one of the young adult counselors, said: "I made some really great friends." A younger camper said: "I met many inspiring people -- I want to come back and bring a friend."

    A young woman named Jill said she came to Lake Como not knowing anyone, but now she had lots of new friends. A sixteen-year-old boy said he learned a lot about his body, and "now I feel more comfortable with it."

    Others said much the same: They learned a lot, made friends and felt they accomplished something. John, one of the older campers, offered: "I managed not to throw any kids in the lake to be eaten by the gators."

    Amanda Williamson said, "I learned to play tennis, and I got to hang out with my Grandpa. He knows everything."

    Though on previous nights the curfew had been 11 p.m., on this night the conversation, already nostalgic, went on way past midnight.

    Picture captions:

    [Rear view of couple]  BACK TO NATURE:  Two teenaged campers walk the nature trail that rings Lake Como.  All photographs in this story were taken with parental permission.
    Opposite page: Fun with a hula hoop.

    [View of campsite]  A PLACE APART:  The youth camp was set up in a field some distance from the main center of the resort.  Campers could use the complete resort, but the only adults allowed inside the campground were staff members.

    [Adults and toddlers]  FAMILY FUN:  All ages seem represented in the casual atmosphere of Lake Como.

    [All ages on lawn]  GROWING UP NUDE:  Many youth campers say they've grown up in nudist families, so being with other naked people--of all shapes and sizes--doesn't seem strange to them.

    [Tents]  TENT CITY:  Camp officials set up a 24-hour security detail where the youth campers slept.


    The Miami Herald Story
    Reported by Peter Wallsten

Nudists: Foley's Attack on Camp Is Malicious
July 7, 2003

    In his quest for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Rep. Mark Foley has rankled a  group that is barely covered in most elections: nudists.

    Foley, of West Palm Beach, has hit the national TV and radio talk-show circuit in recent weeks to bash a Tampa-area summer camp not unlike most camps -- except that the boys and girls, ages 11-18, are naked.

    Foley, a Republican hoping to replace Sen. Bob Graham, says that letting naked teenagers play together is immoral and potentially dangerous.

    But "naturists" who say the camp exposes their children to a perfectly healthy and wholesome education see something more calculated: A candidate with a reputation as a social moderate on issues such as gay rights and abortion has found a convenient target to boost his reputation among conservatives who decide GOP primaries.

    A group of camp representatives and officials of the American Association for Nude Recreation is scheduled to meet with Foley today in West Palm Beach. "We're going to tell him that what he's doing is irresponsible and malicious," said Shirley Mason, a Miami naturist and former association board member. "The fact is these children are naturists and have grown up with naturists."

    Foley began his tear last month after reading a feature story about the camp in The New York Times.

    The story included interviews with children and camp officials touting the experience as healthy but noted an episode in which a stranger had been seen trying to peep and was led away.

    The camp is at Lake Como in Pasco County, which has been a haven for nudists for years.

    "This seemed to me to be beyond the pale of something that would be lawful," Foley said in a telephone interview last week.

PART OF BID?

    Foley, co-chairman of a congressional caucus created to advocate for missing and exploited children, denied that his rail against the camp was related to his bid for the Senate.

    The campaign pits him against the socially conservative former Rep. Bill McCollum and possibly other more conservative contenders who have yet to enter the race.

    It just so happens, he said, that network television producers and others in the media view the issue as interesting. He said he has not sought out the interviews that he's landed with the likes of Diane Sawyer on ABC's Good Morning America, Harry Smith on CBS's Early Show and Bill O'Reiley on Fox's The O'Reiley Factor.

    "This might be an important issue that conservatives want a solution to, but I'm not doing this to energize the base," he said.   'I'd be pursuing this with the same vigor as I would if I were just seeking reelection."

    After he read The Times article, Foley sent a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush asking how a camp allowing naked children to play together could be legal.

    The governor directed the issue to the Legislature, which might take up a bill to address the camp this month when it convenes for a special session to address medical malpractice insurance rates.

    For years, Foley has faced criticism from Christian conservatives -- a key voting bloc in the Republican primary -- for supporting gay rights and for opposing the overturning of the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

CONSERVATIVE ISSUES

    Also in recent months, Foley and his advisors have sought out issues to help cast him as a conservative, touting his support for gun rights, pushing for further restrictions to child pornography on the Web, and calling for greater limits on illegal immigration.

    By targeting the nudist camp, said Nicky Hoffman, president of the Wisconsin-based Naturist Society, "He's trying to blur some issues.  "He's trying to take the focus away from himself and put it somewhere.  That's the way politicians do things."

    Hoffman said nudist activists took notice recently when Foley demanded that the media respect his privacy regarding rumors about his sexual orientation.

"ASKING FOR PRIVACY"

    "We're all parents, and we're just asking for the privacy to raise our children in the way we want to," Hoffman said. ``Turnabout is fair play."

    The naturists plan to invite Foley to visit the camp and judge it for himself -- an invitation Foley said he plans to refuse.

    "He's uneducated," said Marion Hofmann, a St. Petersburg naturist whose three grandchildren, ages 16, 11 and 11, attend the camp.

    "These kids come home more mature and comfortable with who they are.  If (Foley) wants to see it for himself, he's more than welcome."


    SFFB Press Release

NATURISTS TO CONGRESSMAN: RESPECT OUR PRIVACY OR INVESTIGATE ALL SUMMER CAMPS
Coalition cites reports of sexual assaults at traditional summer camps and notes U.S. Rep. Mark Foley isn't investigating them

    PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLA--A coalition of groups representing recreational nudists today asked U.S. Rep. Mark Foley to cease his harassment of a single summer camp program for children of families who enjoy the recreational, nonsexual nudist lifestyle.

    The coalition appealed to the five-term Republican to truly uphold the conservative values he espouses and to show respect for the right of these families to privacy.

    "It's a fundamental freedom in this country to make such personal choices," said Shirley Mason, executive director of the B.E.A.C.H.E.S Foundation Institute, a group that supports clothing-free beaches in South Florida.  "It's clear this baseless attack on our freedom of choice and our privacy is mostly meant to help the congressman win votes in his Senate race," Mason said. "Well, the congressman can keep his shirt on."

    Foley, a five-term Republican from south Florida, is seeking to replace U.S. Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat running for president.  Foley has gained publicity for his Senate run by attempting to create controversy over a Florida naturist summer camp.  He had Gov. Jeb Bush open a state inquiry into the camp after reading in a newspaper that camp managers had promptly ejected a man who cast unwanted gazes at children attending the camp.

    Rep. Foley said he was concerned that the children were without parental supervision and questioned why parents would send their kids there. "What's wrong with your kids going to Boy Scouts or sports camps?" The St. Petersburg Times quoted Foley saying.  

    Rep. Foley apparently is unaware most parents do not accompany their children to camp.  Rep. Foley, who is co-chair of the House's Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, also apparently was unaware of the tragic number of sexual assaults on children occurring year after year in church-sponsored, sports, and Boy Scouts camps.

    Members of the coalition directed the congressman to the Camp Safety Project Web site at www.campsafetyproject.org where a lengthy and incomplete listing of articles on child sexual abuse in camps around the nation can be found.  (The Web site also offers excellent tips on prescreening camp counselors and staff.)

    The question arises: With so many real sexual abuse cases occurring in summer camps for children, why is Rep. Foley drawing attention to a single camp for recreational nudists?

    To prove to the public that he is not merely looking to gain sensationalized headlines in a bid to win the Republican Senate nomination, the coalition asked the congressman to write a second letter to Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist asking them to expand his original request to include a DCF inquiry into ALL Florida summer camps identical to the one the governor ordered into Lake Como's and make the findings public.  We support any effort to protect and nurture children.

    There are effective rules of behavior in place to govern activities at private nudist resorts. The expectation and monitoring for proper behavior toward children is high.   The sheriff in the county where the camp is located has reported no problems.  The governor's general counsel said the resort is in compliance with state law.

    Rep Foley no doubt means well, again, we wholeheartedly support efforts to protect America's children.  But enough is enough.  You can't judge a youth summer camp by the clothing.  

    It's true we naturists enjoy the feel of the air and the sun on our skins.  But, like you, we also support family values.

    Groups attending the meeting included the Naturist Action Committee, Central Florida Naturists, Florida Naturist Association, Seminole Health Club Nudist Club, B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation Institute, South Florida Free Beaches and Naturist Christians, as well as several naturist families.


    NAC Advisory
    by Bob Morton

DATE: July 7, 2003
SUBJECT: Naturists meet with Rep. Mark Foley
TO: All naturists

Dear Naturist,

    This morning a coalition of naturists met with U.S. Rep. Mark Foley on the matter of his public posture and comments concerning youth camps at naturist facilities. The meeting, which took place in Rep. Foley's Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, district office, lasted close to an hour. It was followed by a well attended press briefing and interview availability session presented by the naturist coalition in a meeting room of a nearby hotel.

BACKGROUND

    Based solely on a New York Times newspaper article that appeared on June 18, the Congressman has labeled youth camps at nudist facilities to be a "reprehensible exploitation of children," and he has called for the immediate closure of what he calls a legal "loophole" that "subjects impressionable youths to denigrating and dangerous behavior and could expose them to pedophiles."

    Naturists, of course, take vigorous exception to this vile misrepresentation of one of the ways in which naturist parents may involve their children in their family recreational and lifestyle choices.

    The youth camp featured in the Times article was put on by the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) and the Florida Association for Nude Recreation (FANR), a regional affiliate of AANR. The newspaper article itself was the result of a recent media blitz by AANR and its hired public relations firm.

THE COALITION

    The Naturist Action Committee participated in this morning's action in close cooperation with a coalition that included B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation, South Florida Free Beaches / Florida Naturist Association, Central Florida Naturists, Sunsport Gardens and The Naturist Society. Also in attendance was a representative of the Christian naturist community, as well as a youth who had attended a recent nude youth camp, and the boy's grandmother.

    Coordination for the collaborative activity was provided by Shirley Mason of B.E.A.C.H.E.S.

    AANR and FANR were both invited to be a part of the coalition facing Foley directly on this issue.  Both AANR and FANR declined to participate.

THE MEETING

    Naturist participants met with Foley in his office at 9 a.m. and immediately let the Congressman know that they were displeased with his characterization of them and the irresponsible accusations he had tossed about. The meeting remained civil, but there was a definite edge to it throughout.

    Naturists pointed out that nude youth camps have an enviable record for protecting the children involved. In fact, if one were simply looking toward the protection of children, instead of trolling for a campaign issue, there are many other types of youth camps that are statistically far more deserving of attention and scrutiny. Naturists challenged Rep. Foley to use his influence to improve the safety of children at all camps generally, rather than focusing on nude youth camps as a target for his unwarranted attacks.

    The participants promised to provide Rep. Foley with additional material to assist his further education on the topic. Foley committed to a review of his inflammatory rhetoric, and he agreed to an immediate modification of his web site.

    Recognizing that chances were slim that Foley would comply, naturists nevertheless demanded that the Congressman send a followup letter to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, reflecting the new understanding he'd acquired as a result of this morning's meeting.

COMMENT

    Mark Foley was polite and attentive. He certainly was generous with his time.  As a result of this morning's meeting undoubtedly had his eyes opened to some facets of this issue. However, it's not clear how much he's willing to back off.

    Indeed, much of the damage has already been done.  A state lawmaker in Texas has already filed a legislative bill to outlaw nude camps for children, and a Florida lawmaker has threatened to do the same.  Both are direct results of the frenzy whipped up by Mark Foley with his unresearched and overblown reaction to the New York Times article.

    Even if Rep. Foley appears conciliatory at the moment, we must not lose sight of the fact that Mark Foley has not suddenly become a friend to naturists.

WHAT CAN I DO?

    This is an Advisory. The Naturist Action Committee is NOT asking for your action at this time.


    The Associated Press Report

Nudists Ask Leader to Butt Out of Camp
July 8, 2003

    WEST PALM BEACH -- U.S. Rep. Mark Foley asked organizers of a nudist summer camp for children to strengthen their background checks of employees Monday after meeting with leaders of nudist organizations who were defending the camp.

    A coalition of groups representing recreational nudists asked to meet with Foley, appealing to him to respect the  privacy of the families who send their children to camp.

    Foley called attention to the camp last month when he asked Gov. Jeb Bush to investigate whether the summer program was illegal.

    Bush's staff said that they found no indication of illegal activity, but that they would check to see whether any complaints had been filed.

    The weeklong summer camp run by the American Association for Nude Recreation outside of Tampa lets children ages 11 to 18 get together for games and sports and discussions about nudism.

    "I want to make sure that they're properly regulated, properly secure, and that they're not going to have kids come in contact with undesirables," said Foley, a West Palm Beach Republican who's running for US. Senate.

    Nudists who met with Foley said they wanted him, to stop harassing the camp now that state officials said it was legal.  "It's a fundamental freedom in this country to make such personal choices," Shirley Mason, executive director of BEACHES Foundation Institute, a group that supports clothing-free beaches, said in a statement.

    She accused Foley of trying to gain publicity for his Senate run.

    But Foley, co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, said his concern is for the children's safety.


    The Palm Beach Post Story
    by Emily Minor

    Foley's home town newspaper ran an editorial cartoon against his nudist obsession the day after the meeting, but held back this report for two weeks--probably trying to correct some of its inaccuracies.  It is doubtful that the confused reporter ever met an AANR official, because the camp's sponsoring organization declined to participate in the meeting or the press conference that followed.

Naturists Bare Truth About Nudist Camps
Tuesday, July 22

    The whole way there I'm thinking, I can do this, and I'm thinking that because I am a grown woman.

    Then I walked into the press conference, called by the American Association for Nude Recreation, and suddenly, without will, I imagined all the people without any coverings, whatsoever. In a lame attempt for self-control, I stopped to take a quick gander at their reading materials, including an article, "The Art of Nude Protest!" with a picture of naked men and women making a peace sign in the sand, top sides up.

    Then I giggled.

    Forget that dumb Hillary book. This summer I vow to read "Nakedness and the Bible."

    And then I said something stupid.

    "How long have you been a naturalist?" I asked the man standing before me.

    "It's naturist," he said. "Darwin was a naturalist."

    Oh. I knew that.

    What I didn't know was how many nudists walk among us.

    According to the association, nude tourism has grown from a $120 million industry 10 years ago to an amazing $400 million this year. The association has added 30 clubs in the past two years, for a total of 267 nationwide.

    PTAs should sprout so readily.

    That's a lot of nude constituents, all of whom are fuming right now at Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. About a month ago, Foley read a story in The New York Times about a nudist youth camp the association holds once a year in Florida. This year, it was north of Tampa. Last year, it was at Sunsport Gardens in Loxahatchee.

    We're talking nude volleyball, nude tennis, nude swimming.

    "You're not even allowed to wear a suit in the pool," fumed Foley aide Chris Paulitz.

    And that was that. Foley, who is eyeing Bob Graham's seat in the U.S. Senate, hopped aboard the oh-my-goodness bandwagon, saying the camps are "denigrating," "reprehensible" and "could expose (campers) to pedophiles."  Foley asked Gov. Jeb Bush to investigate, but Bush's office said later they'd found nothing illegal.

    Monday, the naturists -- who suggest Foley is making this fuss to bulk up support with conservatives -- met with Foley in person, and then held their press conference, which Foley did not attend.

    "We'd like an investigation of all youth camps -- church, Boy Scout," said Shirley Mason of Miami, a past association board member.

    "I suggest that he go to the largest nudist library and get educated," said Marion Hofmann of St. Petersburg, whose three grandkids have gone to the summer camp.

    "It taught me to control my body," Hofmann's grandson, Kyle, 16, told Monday's small crowd.

    The handful of naturists, including someone from Naturist Christians, asked Foley to redirect his ire. Their kids are healthy, and well supervised.  Better yet, they feel good about their bodies, they said.

    "We call on him to find a real issue on which to run for office," Mason said.

    But Paulitz said the meeting didn't change Foley's mind.  "Of course not," Paulitz said.  And their fight against full disclosure continues today, with Foley scheduled to discuss nude youths on The O'Reiley Factor.  [That interview was canceled.]

    The naturists said Monday they're most insulted at Foley's ignorant assumptions about their lifestyles.

    "We are doctors and lawyers and teachers," said Michelle Watson, who runs Sunsport in Loxahatchee.

    "And, yes, we are even Republicans."


    Virginia: The RichmondTimes-Dispatch Pre-camp Story
    by Bill Geroux

Happy (nude) campers heading to Southampton
Jun 20, 2003

    IVOR - A nudist park in the woods of Southampton County is preparing to open the nation's newest nude summer camp for adolescents.

    White Tail Park in Ivor plans to welcome 30 boys and girls ages 11 to 18 tomorrow and Sunday for a weeklong camp that its owner says is traditional in every sense except that the campers will wear no clothes.

    The list of activities includes volleyball, swimming, first-aid classes, even an introduction to firefighting skills.  Days begin at 7 a.m. with calisthenics and end with singalongs around a campfire, said Robert Roche, who owns and manages White Tail Park.

    Roche, president [wrong] of the American Association for Nude Recreation, a national group, said the nude summer camp will be one of only three in America.  The others are in Florida and Arizona.

    The Florida camp near Tampa had grown so popular, Roche said, that he decided to open the camp at White Tail Park, which he has operated in Ivor since 1985.  The 30 available slots filled up quickly, drawing young campers from as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    The unique nature of the camp has allowed it to attract nudist professionals from around the region to lead groups and teach seminars on such topics as nudity and the law, Roche said.  The gist of the latter class is that nudity, while prohibited in public, is legal on secluded private property such as the camp, Roche said.

    Southampton officials describe White Tail Park as a good and law-abiding corporate citizen.  But the camp has always raised eyebrows in conservative circles of Southside Virginia.  A spokesman for one local church, who did not want to be identified, said the church "stays withdrawn from what happens there" at the park.  A church employee, asked if she had heard about the nude youth camp, exclaimed, "Oh, my goodness!"

    Roche said he recognized that some outsiders would question the wisdom of bringing together 30 adolescents to camp nude for a week.  But lewd behavior has not been a problem at the other nude youth camps, he said, and it will not be a problem at White Tail Park.

    For one thing, Roche said, the campers are children of nudists, accustomed to the company of other naked people, including other adolescents.  They consider going without clothes natural and healthy rather than sexually provocative, he said.

    Further, Roche said, the camp will be carefully supervised by counselors, all of whom have undergone background checks.  The ratio of adults to campers will be roughly 1½-to-1, he said.

    Roche said nude summer camps will become annual events at White Tail Park, which has been prospering since it opened 18 years ago on 45 acres off U.S. 460.  The park now includes 150 campsites and 30 lots on which people live year-round.

    The park's recreational facilities include two large swimming pools and an amphitheater.  It has its own fire department and 17 full-time employees.  On a typical summer weekend, Roche said, as many as 1,200 nudists visit the park.

    He said the park welcomes visitors and normally offers a free one-day admission to those who want to see what it's like, but the camp watches whom it admits.  For example, Roche said, a married man wanting to visit the camp would be required to bring his wife.


    The Associated Press Story
    reported by Bob Lewis

    This report probably appeared first in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  The Associated Press picked it up, and many southeastern newspapers ran the same story.

Some Youth Attending Nudist Camps
Monday June 23, 2003

    RICHMOND, Va. -- Activities for kids this summer at Camp White Tail: swimming, volleyball, arts and crafts, splattering a fellow camper's nude body with pudding.

    White Tail, a nudist park in southeastern Virginia's Southampton County, opened its first summer camp for the 11-to-18 age group Saturday -- only the third such au naturel camp for juveniles in the nation, according to the American Association of Nude Recreation.

    Bob Roche, who manages the camp on 45 bucolic acres, said the weeklong get-together is no big deal for the 30 children who signed up, most of whom were raised in nudist families.

    State and local officials, however, are alarmed by a summer camp intended to bring unclothed teens together for a week.

    "Sure, it could be a magnet for pedophiles, but we don't let it be," Roche said.   "We screen everyone thoroughly and, thanks to the governor, we can check online to see if someone's a sex offender."

    A searchable database of sex criminals is available through the Virginia State Police Web site.

    Nor are special youth activities novel at White Tail, Roche said.  Each summer features "Junior Fest" weekends chock full of activities for the children of the camp's regulars.

    The summer youth camp, however, is different in that parents don't have to be present.  Roche likened it to summertime retreats that churches run for boys and girls.

    There are also activities uniquely suited to nakedness such as the pudding toss.

    "We give each camper a cup of pudding and a spoon and just let them plaster each other," Roche said.

    About 30 kids are expected to attend another camp next month at Shangri La Ranch, a clothing-optional resort in New River, Ariz.

    Danielle Faber, 16, will be among them. "It's basically just like any other kids' camp.  Just without the clothing," Faber said.


    The Washington Times Story
    reported by Patrick Bagley

Teenage Nudist Camp Raises Concerns of Safety, Propriety
June 24, 2003

    Bug spray — check.  Sunscreen — check.  T-shirts and shorts — not necessary.  The packing list for Camp White Tail is slightly different than those at most camps because the 30 adolescents converging there this week are nudists.

    "All of them are children who are already at peace with their nudity," said Bob Roche, manager of the Ivor, Va., camp.  "What we're trying to teach them is
social interaction with other people."

    The campers will play volleyball, swim, tie-dye shirts, take workshops and participate in other typical camp activities.  But critics fear they could also be subjected to pedophilia.

    Such gatherings are legal in the state as long as they take place on private property and include no lewd behavior, said a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore.  However, law enforcement officials will keep an eye on the camp, he said.

    "We understand there are folks who pursue a lifestyle like this," said Tim Murtaugh, the spokesman.  "We also understand there are some very real concerns for children to be in that environment."

    The southeastern Virginia camp is in its first year and follows successful nudist camps for 11- to 18-year-olds in Arizona and Florida.

    Another is in the works in Texas and could open in the next couple years.

    Richard Grizzard, commonwealth's attorney for Southampton County, where the camp is located, said he has no plans to pursue questions of legality.

    "Nudist camps as such are not prohibited by law," he said.  "If parents drop off their children there, there isn't [anything] I can do."

    Mr. Grizzard also said the sheriff's "hands are pretty much tied."  "Unless somebody's breaking the law, there's nothing he can do," he said.

    In Florida, U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, Republican, wrote last week to Gov. Jeb Bush, Republican, and the state's attorney general asking them to determine the legality of the original nudist camp and to consider more rigid statutes against such activities.

     Mr. Foley's letter stated, "Obviously I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp, but the situation clearly raises legitimate issues that should be addressed given that it involves minor children."

    He also stated that there are reported instances  of men making their way to the camp pool to look at the children.

    Mr. Roche said the counselors, who are ages 19 to 25, are well-trained.  He also said there are 1½ counselors to each camper and that each goes through a background check and has to be recommended by a national administrator.

    Susan Weaver of the American Association of Nude Recreation said there have been few instances of outsiders trying to sneak looks at the children and that camp officials are always prepared to remove them.

    "We want [the adolescents] to have a very safe and enjoyable experience," she said.  "That means doing everything from making sure they have enough sunscreen on to making sure the environment is as safe and secure as at any other camp or at their own homes."

    She said the 73-year-old nudist organization has offered to meet with Mr. Foley, who is co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, to give him details of what goes on at the camp.


    The Virginian-Pilot Story
    reported by Linda McNatt

Youth Nudist Camp at White Tail Raises Questions
June 26, 2003

    SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY--A crowd gathered around the campfire in a "circle of friends" in rural Ivor on Tuesday night.

    The teenagers and pre-teens were asked to describe themselves in a single word:
    Outgoing.
    Outspoken.
    Fun.
    Nude.

    About 30 campers, ages 11 to 18, started arriving Saturday at White Tail Park, off U.S. 460 near Ivor.  In many ways, it's like any church or Scout camp, said Judy Grisham, who has directed a similar Florida camp for years.

    In one way, it isn't:  This is a summer camp for nudists.

    Campers arise at 7 a.m. for morning exercises.  There's volleyball, swimming, tennis, crafts.  Watching TV isn't usually on the menu, but Monday night, the campers were allowed to watch MSNBC to get an idea of the attention they're getting.

    "If this were France or anywhere in Europe, it wouldn't be a story," said Ian Brown, a counselor and father of three campers.  "As a father, I feel much more secure having my kids here than I would having them in a textile environment"--a nudist's term for clothes.

    But in America, it is a story.  A national story.

    Especially after U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., the co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, asked for an investigation into a camp in Florida.

    The American Association for Nude Recreation has run a successful summer camp for teens near Tampa for a decade.

    So, officials said, the time has come to expand to other states.

    White Tail Park is 45 acres of Southampton County woodlands, a year-round home for 30 families, and a vacation spot for many more.

    The park's popularity has grown since it opened on Memorial Day 1985, as has the popularity of baring it all, said Robert R. Roche, White Tail's manager and president of the eastern region of the American Association for Nude Recreation.

    The park recently received county permits for a 144-unit motel and a restaurant.

    Campers from several states from Florida to Ohio to Pennsylvania, paid $200 to $225 for the week at White Tail.  For every two campers, there are three counselors, several of them college-age graduates of "Nude U," a course that teaches them to work with younger children.  All have had criminal background checks, and some are parents, teachers, medical professionals.

    "Our kids are exposed to all kinds of people--all colors, shapes, handicaps," said Kate, a Girl Scout leader and a nudist who asked to be identified only by her first name.  "Accepting diversity is something I see as very valuable."

    Southampton County Sheriff Vernie Francis has concerns about the teen program at White Tail.  For 18 years, the park has been a fairly peaceful corner of this county, he said.  But the teen camp--which ends Saturday--is raising some eyebrows.

    "I think it needs to be under the microscope," Francis said.  "Being a nudist is an adult decision.  These are kids."

    How can these people judge nudism without trying it?" one 13-year-old said.  "On TV, the kids were trying to explain how they felt, and the reporter kept cutting them off."

    "When he sees a baby pop out in a pair of Levi's jeans, he can say we're all supposed to have clothes on," said another teen.

    White Tail officials won't allow the young campers to be identified, even by first names, and they won't allow photos of the children until 18 to be taken.  They're protected here, Roche said.

    "There's no curiosity left fort these kids," he said.  "With nudism, you get to know the person inside, as they truly are.  Skimpy bathing suits tend to arouse sexuality.  There's more eye contact in the nudist movement."

    Still, the notion of nude adolescents has some concerned about the youngsters' safety, and their libidos.

    But if the teens have grown up around nudity, there is likely no need to worry about the sexual implications, said Dr. Richard R. Brookman, chairman of the division of adolescent medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.

    "Teens who have been raised in nudist families, where there is a de-sexuality about nudism, should remain pretty unaffected," Brookman said.  "If it's a kid who is used to our normal hush-hush society, they wouldn't be able to handle it.  For a nudist, nudity is not a sexual inducement."

    The campers are housed in tents in a central location.  Counselors' tents are mixed in.  Adults working security are on duty 24 hours a day, in four-hour shifts.  The teens aren't allowed to leave the compound without reporting to an adult and taking a "buddy."

    There are few differences between this summer camp and any other, the youngsters say.

    "It's self-confidence," one of them said.  "When you don't have clothes to hide behind, you are who you really are."

    "The fear is on the outside, not in here," said another.

    At White Tail, and at other nudist campgrounds across the country, nudism is a family affair, Roche said.  All of the teen campers are from nudist families, some third- and fourth-generation nudists.

    It's like a family environment for Steve Vickers, a 22-year-old college student from Orlando, Fla., and a counselor.

    "Coming here and hitting on somebody would be like going to a family reunion and hitting on somebody," Vickers said.

    Camp workshops teach the youngsters everything from body image to self-expression.  No one is forced to do anything they're uncomfortable with, the youngsters said.

    "Like, I don't like meditating," a 14-year-old said.  "So they let me mop floors.  I love to mop floors."

    They wear clothes if they choose, if the sun is too hot, the morning too chilly.

    And, yes, they wear clothes in winter.

    "We're nudists," one said, "not idiots."

Headline on the continuation page:

Teens: For Most Campers, Nudism is Part of Upbringing

Picture caption:

Teens pass a lantern during a "circle of friends" nighttime event, part of the youth camp for nudists at White Tail Park in Ivor.


    Concerned Women for America Web Site
    reported by Martha Kleder

Teen Nudist Camps Increasing
July 2, 2003

    Lakes, pine forests and deer come to mind when one hears the name Camp White Tail, a 45-acre camp located in Southampton County in southeastern Virginia. But when about thirty 11- to 18-year-olds arrive there this week for some summer fun, they will shed their clothes—all of them. That generates an entirely different mental picture.

    While this nudist camp for teens is a first for the state of Virginia, it is the third nationwide, as similar camps already exist in Arizona and Florida.

    Bob Roche, manager of White Tail, which opened in 1984 as a nudist park, says this first summer camp is nothing out of the ordinary for the campers, as all were raised in nudist families.

    “All of them are children who are already at peace with their nudity,” Roche told The Washington Times. “What we’re trying to teach them is social interaction with other people.”

    The Ivor, Virginia, facility normally attracts about 1,200 guests at any given time, and about 30 families live on the premises. All guests and residents must undergo background checks and abide by strict rules against lewd behavior.

    A nudist summer camp for juveniles attending without their parents has raised concerns among state officials and lawmakers.

    “We’re very concerned about this development, an atmosphere like that is very clearly an invitation to pedophiles,” Tim Murtaugh, press secretary to Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, told The Charlotte Observer.

    But while concern is high, the hands of law enforcement are tied.

    “Nudist camps as such are not prohibited by law,” Richard Grizzard, commonwealth’s attorney for Southampton County, told The Washington Times. “If parents drop off their children there, there isn’t [anything] I can do.”

    Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, based in Lynchburg, Virginia, doubts that there is no recourse for law enforcement.

    “This is private property, but this camp is also a public accommodation,” Glover told Culture & Family Report. “Our Kings Dominion amusement park is private property, too.”

    “You can’t convince me that there is no law in this state prohibiting people from stripping minors naked and throwing them together in some sort of private party,” Glover added.

    “I think the problem is with the Attorney General’s office,” he added. “Attorney General Jerry Kilgore doesn’t want any high-profile conservative Christian causes on his desk. With an election looming, we have seen him give up strongly held legal ground on issues of concern to conservatives; I feel this case is no different.”

    Recently, Glover says, the Attorney General has backed away from enforcing the state’s definition of when life begins, in order to avoid a fight over the taxpayer-financed distribution of the morning-after pill, which can function as an abortifacient, at state colleges and universities.

    Most recently, the Attorney General has also refused to uphold Virginia’s sodomy statute despite legal differences between the Virginia law and the Texas law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last week.

    “Given those circumstances, I am not surprised that the Attorney General is not more pro-active on this matter,” Glover added.

    Murtaugh maintains that state law enforcement cannot act unless there is lewd behavior.

    “To be illegal, the line that has to be crossed is lascivious intent,” he told The Charlotte Observer. “Rest assured that law enforcement will be very aware and vigilant about this.”

    Teen nudist camps similar to the one in Virginia are already operating in Arizona and Florida. Another is scheduled to open in Texas within a couple of years. Florida Rep. Mark Foley (R), a member of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, has written a letter of concern about the Florida camp to Gov. Jeb Bush.

    The letter encourages the governor to take a closer look at the issue and consider enacting stronger statutes.

    “Obviously, we have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp, but the situation clearly raises legitimate issues that should be addressed given that it involves minor children,” Foley’s letter said.


    The Arizona Republic Pre-Camp Story

    The newspaper gave full credit to the Associated Press story from Virginia, though quoting from it only in the opening lines.

Nude Summer Camp Draws About 30 Kids
June 20, 2003

    Parents sending their kids to one Arizona summer camp won't have to worry about outfitting them in the latest fashions.

    Campers will be in the nude.

    About 30 kids are expected to attend the camp next month at Shangri La Ranch, a clothing-optional resort in New River.

    Danielle Faber, 16, will be among them. Last year, she attended nude summer camp in California.

    "It's basically just like any other kids' camp. Just without the clothing,"  Faber said.

    Faber's mother, Patty, is also the camp's director.

    The camp is an effort of the American Association for Nude Recreation.  The organization is tapping into the increasing popularity of clothing-optional activities and is sponsoring summer camps across the country for nudists aged 11 to 18.

    Parents say such venues promote a healthy body image for their children at an age when confidence can crumble.

    In addition to typical camp activities, workshops on body image confidence-building are part of the program.

    But there are critics.

    "That (camp) sounds like a colossally bad idea," said Marlo Archer, an Ahwatukee Foothills psychologist.

    Archer said a youngster's increasing awareness of sex combined with pubescent hormones and nudity make for a dangerous mix.

    But Horst Kraus, who has owned the 44-year-old Shangri La Ranch for the past seven years, disagreed.

    "We provide a wholesome place that caters to nudist families," Kraus said.

    Leaders also point out that most of those involved, from camp counselors to campers themselves, have been raised in a nudist family.

    "To me, that makes all the difference in the world," said Lee Spencer, a psychology professor at Arizona State University.

    Danielle Faber said that unlike many of her non-nudist friends, she is very comfortable with her body and her mental self-image.

    "I've seen for myself that no one has a body like Cindy Crawford.  It's just not reality."

    Sessions begin July 26.


    The Arizona Republic Camp Story
    by Karina Bland

    The Associated press distributed a shortened version of this report.

Youth Nude Camp Faces Criticism from Politicians
August 1, 2003

    NEW RIVER - Naked kids gather around a swamp cooler at the Shangri La Ranch as if it were a campfire, talking about taking a swim and tonight's pizza party.

    They are slathered in sunscreen and protected by a security fence from the controversy nationwide about this and other weeklong camps for nudist children run by the American Association for Nude Recreation.

    The furor started last month when Florida Congressman Mark Foley, a Republican planning a run for the U.S. Senate, asked Gov. Jeb Bush to investigate a nude youth camp there.  He said the children were being exploited and in danger of sexual abuse.

    Here in Arizona, Speaker of the House Jake Flake said he would encourage the county attorney to investigate the camp, which is about 45 minutes north of downtown Phoenix.

    "I have to think they are breaking some laws somehow, indecency or something," said Flake, R-Snowflake.  State law allows nudity on private property, even among minors with parental permission.  Lewd behavior is against the law.

    There was nothing lewd going on at Shangri La Ranch on Thursday.  There were naked people, adults and kids, but it was pretty mundane, with people sunbathing, playing cards and visiting on lawn chairs in the shade.

    Camper Danielle Faber, 16, naked except for pink flip-flops on her feet, is sporting tan lines from a field trip Tuesday to Waterworld, where the campers had to don bathing suits.  Faber has grown up a nudist.  Her grandfather, Horst Kraus, bought the Shangri La Ranch, a nude resort with rental units, RV and camping space, in 1997. Her mother is camp director.  Shangri La has existed as a nudist camp since 1959.

    At an age when girls throw T-shirts on over their bathing suits and boys worry about the size of their biceps, Danielle is happy with her body.

    "I'm not the one in the locker room, hiding behind my T-shirt or standing on the scale saying, 'I need to lose 10 pounds,' " she said.  "I've grown up knowing that I don't have to look like Barbie or a supermodel."

    And she is more comfortable around nudist boys than the boys at her high school, who tend to be more suggestive or goofy about things sexual.

    The 15 campers, ages 11 to 17, all have been raised in nudist families and come from California, Oregon, Texas and Canada.

    "Our youth camps are for our children," said Pat Brown, president of the American Association for Nude Recreation, at a news conference.

    The camp, which is not open to the public, costs $200.  Congressman Foley's attack has brought much media attention to the nude association's expansion of its summer youth camps.  The first opened near Tampa 10 years ago.

    This is Arizona's second nude youth camp.  Another camp opened in Virginia last month, and a fourth camp will open in Texas by 2005.

    In New River, campers sleep in tents, cooled by huge swamp coolers.   Besides taking part in regular camp activities, the kids attend hourlong seminars on positive body image, leadership and nudism.

    The youth camps are on campgrounds at nudist resorts where adult nudists also live and visit.

    Foley and Flake are concerned that adults see the young campers naked.

    But Kraus said adult nudists see naked kids, theirs and those of other nudists, all the time.  He said the kids are safe.

    Anyone in a nudist resort who displays inappropriate behavior is thrown out and placed on a "do-not-admit" list that circulates to nudist groups nationwide within 24 hours.  There are 15 staff members watching over the 15 campers.  There are strict rules about adult contact with campers and who enters their quarters.

    But Flake said, "If it's not the parents themselves, that's not enough chaperoning for me."

    Counselors and camp staff must clear background checks and present recommendations from their home nudist group.

    In 10 years, Kraus said, there have not been any incidents of child abuse or unwanted teenage pregnancy at a youth camp.  A check of court records shows no complaints against Shangri La Ranch.

    Still, Flake said, "These are teenagers when the passions run high and the adrenaline flows."

    Kraus said nudists are often conservative, politically and morally, and nudist children typically are less sexually active than other kids.

    Jesse Ferrier, 18, a camp counselor who lives at Shangri La Ranch, said campers are respectful of one another's bodies. Nudity is not about sex, he said, but of freedom and comfort.

Picture caption:
Shangri La Ranch camper Danielle Faber (left) and counselors Steve Vickers, 22, (center), Jesse Ferrier, 18, participate in a camp for children of nudist families.


    The Cleveland Plain Dealer Sidebar
    Reported by Michael Heaton

    As a sidebar to an article on Green Valley Club, the newspaper summarized the national controversy:

Legislators Sound Alarms on Nudism, Children
August 8, 2003

    In June, Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, asked Gov. Jeb Bush to investigate one of that state's nudist camps for children after a report about it appeared in The New York Times.

    Foley expressed concern that the children were vulnerable to possible sexual exploitation.  Foley is chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.  He is also planning to run for U.S. senate.

    Governor Bush's office responded with a letter stating that Florida's Department of Children and Families was reviewing records and saying, "We are not aware of any reports alleging child abuse, neglect or exploitation related to the camp."

    Last week, Jake Flake, the speaker of the Arizona House, expressed concerns about children at a clothing-optional resort near Phoenix.  "I have to think they are breaking some laws somehow," Flake told the Arizona Republic, without offering any evidence.

    Nudists say the nudist youth camps and camps that include youths and adults are run with the same precautions as any other recreational camp.

    "You have to remember these are nudists' kids from nudist families," said Caroline Hawkins, public relations coordinator for the American Association of Nude Recreation.  "They have grown up with this and want to be at these camps.  They are well-supervised, and they are trained with seminars to be on the lookout for any inappropriate behavior."

    Green Valley in Medina County, which includes many nudist families, follows the association's guidelines.

    "We monitor all of our visitors here at the camp [club], and there's a one-year probation period for any prospective members," said Mary Ann, Green Valley's president since 1998.

    "We photocopy the driver's license of anybody who comes in here for the first time.  All new members are watched pretty carefully.  It doesn't take more than one or two visits for us to determine if we think a person is not acting appropriately.  If they aren't, then we ask them to leave, and they are put on a do-not-admit list," she said.


    Walfield Column on MichNews.com
    by Paul Walfield

    This column is included--not because it introduces any facts or ideas--but just to preserve a complete record.

Nude Camping; It’s Not Just for Adults Anymore
Jun 20, 2003

    “It makes me a bit freaked out that people would think of nudity as a sexual thing,” said Michelle Jones, a 15 year old nudist from Texas.  Michelle is among a number of girls and boys, ages 11 through 18 who are happy little campers at one of America’s nudist camps for kids.  According to the New York Times article entitled, “Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude,” children running around nude playing volleyball, pudding toss, mini-golf and a campfire sing-along, is like any other “family-like environment.”

    The Times points out that parents who enroll their pre-teen and teen age kids to the nation’s growing number of nudist camps geared for that age group aren’t very concerned about it and in fact find it a wholesome and safe environment.  Actually, according to the Times, “‘The Nudist Association, the larger of two nationwide, sees this as a place to train ‘youth ambassadors’ to what nudists call the ‘textile’ world.”’  Apparently, there is a movement to convert or at least desensitize us all to nudity.  Perhaps they even want us all to be so desensitized that we also stop seeing the connection between nudity and sex.

    So just how long do you have to be nude to start believing that being clothed is what brings out a person’s sexuality?  Not to be glib, but if the kids who are enrolled in nudist camps and the parents that send them see no connection, perhaps not liking clothes is just a symptom of a far greater difficulty.

    While most people would like to believe they have something special about them, something unique that places them far away from the maddening crowd; the nudists seem to be the maddening crowd.

    The Times article explains that up to just recently, preteens and teens had no place to express their abhorrence for clothing, at least not in groups and out in the open.  Not anymore though, Haile who was named “camper of the day” because she braved a bee sting on her foot can now say, “I've spent my life around nudist resorts; this is the first time I've ever been around kids my own age.”  It has to warm the cockles of your heart to know that young teenage girls, especially brave ones can now romp in the fields and dance in the meadows with others her own age, boys included, nude and free from any heretofore human realizations or understanding of why that is not a good idea.

    It seems the nudists view themselves as “progressives” in a prehistoric, pre-civilization kind of way.  You see, people were not confined or controlled by the “textile” industry tens of thousands of years ago.  They were free to frolic with the mammoths and giant sloths, never having to worry about catching their cuffs on a tusk or fang. Though, they probably had other things to worry about.

    The bottom line is that there are large numbers of people who have children that think nothing of placing those kids in summer camps so that the kids can parade around sans textiles, with other teens.  Not being a prude by nature, it is especially difficult understanding why these nudists are incapable of seeing the accident just waiting to happen.

    In fact, why is it that the attorney generals or state legislatures are oblivious to the potential and very real distorting of the mindsets of these young people by their mothers and fathers who apparently don’t have the parenting skills of ally cats?  Though, Congressman Mark Foley of Florida is an exception and is in the process of trying to stop the insanity of a clothes free camp for teens.

    More importantly, this doesn’t have to be a question of morality, but rather of child safety and child endangerment.  What parent of a preteen girl would like to see their child prancing around nude in the woods or bouncing around a volleyball court with a bunch of teenage boys who are also so attired?  The folks from the skin-only side of the playing field would like you to believe that because they hate clothing, they are above human impulses and desires.  It may be possible that some are in actuality quite to the contrary of their ranting, and now seem to be bringing children into their world and throwing that fact into everyone else’s face.

    Not being a libertarian, the notion of allowing people to be who they want to be without governmental interference or even private interference, so long as they are not hurting anyone, is still usually a good one.  However, in these circumstances, where children are involved, someone else is getting hurt and it should be stopped.

    While some of the teens involved may find it not harmful, even wholesome to be running around nude with other teens and supervised by adults, “watching” their every move; it is not.  If anything, the fact that a group of teenage boys think the idea of a camp full of nude teenage girls is where they want to spend their summer vacation, only adds to the reasons why it is not a good idea.


    Glidewell Column in the St. Petersburg Times
    by Jan Glidewell

June 22, 2003

    Shaky economy?  Erosion of civil liberties in the name of national security?  War?  Terrorism?  A health care system that is such a shambles that many sick people can't afford doctors and many doctors can't afford to take care of them?

    Think these are issues a busy member of Congress ought to be thinking about?

    How about kids getting naked at a nudist camp?

    U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, who is running for the U.S. Senate, wrote a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist saying he found a New York Times article about a summer camp for kids 11-18 at Lake Como in Land O'Lakes to be "truly disturbing."

    While admitting he doesn't know that anything illegal is going on, he says he thinks the issue is whether the camp is "exploiting nudity among minor children to make money."

    Would that be something similar to exploiting a 10-year tradition of closely supervised recreation for children, who already come from nudist families, to make political hay?

    "It's ridiculous," Lake Como manager Van Bradley said of Foley's complaint, adding, "It is a well-supervised, sell-structured camp.  Children are as safe here as any child can be.  This is just way off base."

    Bradley enrolled his own 12-year-old grandson in this year's camp.  "He had a great time and came away more grown up and with a better outlook on life in general.  He can't wait to go back."

    What seems to bother Foley is that Florida's laws make nudity legal as long as no lewdness is involved.

    Believe it or not, people can get naked without getting lewd, and, for that matter, they can get lewd without being naked.

    As a nudist myself, I don't come to this situation with an unbiased attitude, but neither do I come with an uneducated viewpoint.

    I have been spending time every summer for the past six years at a clothing-optional campground in Colorado.  Children are always around, and so are plenty of adults to make sure they are safe.

    The one thing you don't see is many adolescent children because, their parents tell me, they go through a phase of feeling uncomfortable with the changes in their bodies.

    I think anything that allows them to get over that in a structured environment under adult supervision is much healthier than having them think they are the only ones going through it.

    Lake Como, founded in 1947, is the oldest of Pasco County's five nudist resorts, and nudism is big business in Pasco with tens of thousands of visitors every year making a major economic impact.

    Criminal behavior is extremely rare.  In 30 years I can remember one murder at Paradise Lakes 13 years ago, the result of a marital conflict, and one drug raid, 26 years ago at Lake Como, that was conducted with much media hooplah and that turned up a marijuana plant and a handful of pills that later proved to be vitamins.

    One guy was convicted 12 years ago of videotaping children in lewd poses at the Riverboat Club.

    In each instance it was the management and guests of the resorts who brought the criminal activity to the attention of authorities -- quickly.

    The average Wal-Mart requires more police service than all of the nudist resorts combined and more children by far, maybe Foley should note, have been sexually exploited in their homes and in schools than at nudist resorts.

    Foley has long been an advocate of missing and exploited children, an admirable effort in cases where children really are exploited.

    Recently, in response to public questioning about his sexual orientation, he has also been an advocate of people's rights to live their private lives without government or media interference.

    That includes people involved in the legal activity of patronizing nudist resorts.
Florida's laws outlawing lewd conduct by clothed or unclothed people are sufficiently specific, and because Foley says he doesn't know if any are being broken, perhaps he should look first and pontificate later.


    Jackson Column in the Tampa Tribune
    by Tom Jackson

June 26, 2003

    Bare skin is much among us these days, these days being mostly hot and intensely muggy, conditions plainly unconducive to bundling.  That is not to suggest there's newsworthiness in the prevalence of shorts and sundresses, even when they're worn to church.  We scarcely are as prudish as that.  After all, Florida pretty much made its name on friendliness toward public near-nudity.  Pushing that dare-to-bare atmosphere a logical step forward, the state's governing statutes reflect residents' indifference to nakedness on private property, including minors, with a certain complicated wrinkle:  The nude must not at the same time be lewd.

Welcome to the Razor's Edge

    This legally prickly arrangement has produced, at Lake Como in Land O'Lakes, 11 years of Youth Leadership Camps operated by the American Association of Nude Recreation.  The camps, for nudists ages 11 to 18, operated below the national radar until the arrival of a combustible combination: the New York We-Are-Not-Making-This-Up Times and an issue-seeking candidate for U.S. Senate.

    Having discovered the camp in the Times on June 17, GOP Congressman Mark Foley, the Senate hopeful from West Palm Beach who's a hawk on exploited children, fired off letters to Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist seeking review of the legality of the weeklong getaway.

Rude and Crude, Not Lewd

    "I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp," Foley's letter to Bush conceded.  Nonetheless, Foley sniffed a rank odor raising "legitimate issues that should be addressed" including the exploitation of "nudity among minor children to make money."

    A couple days later, Pasco's naked culture took another fascinating twist when County Judge Marc Salton tossed misdemeanor lewd conduct charges against 10 exotic dancers.  Eyewitness accounts of undercover deputies were insufficient, the judge wrote, since the legal essence of lewdness involves "intrusion on the rights of others."  Therefore, the "protected  class must be unsuspecting members of the public at large" and not undercover deputies.

    Distilling rulings from the circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court, Salton concluded that lewdness eludes firm definition.  Anything shy of an ambush lap dance on a citizen is pretty much out of the reach of law enforcement.  Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis replied, essentially, We'll see about that.

In Search of Community Standards

    Is this our going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket moment?  Salton says lewdness is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholders can't be cops.  The state says it's OK for naked adolescents to frolic within the confines of nudist resorts.

    Plainly, local governments must do what they can to regulate the growth and location of so-called adult businesses, not because of the commerce unfolding inside, but because of the spinoff activity affecting the community at large.  However, Salton's ruling suggests complications ahead.

    Additionally, the Legislature should, at minimum, hold hearings on youth nudist camps, to ensure to every reasonable degree the safety of youngsters in attendance.  Whether the whole thing sounds nutty, or creepy--it's both--is insufficient grounds to barge in on the child-rearing decisions of otherwise responsible parents.

    What a week.  Sort of makes you impatient for the well-layered clarity of frigid January nights.


    Hartstein on IntellectualConservative.com
    by Esther Hartstein

Ban Teen Nude Summer Camps
July 4, 2003

    Teen nude camps are child abuse of a pernicious sort, and ought to be banned.
 
    Recently, Florida congressman Mark Foley (R-FL), a leading advocate for children, decided to broaden his humanitarian efforts to where they must rightfully be directed: teen nude camps. Legal under Florida State standards of "nude but not lewd," nude camps for teens have been operating full force there for at least ten years.

    Should consensual teen recreation in the nude be considered illegal?

    Yes, and with good reason. Sending a teen to a nude camp is child abuse. In those formative years where romance and sexual feelings begin to develop, a constant and conditioning exposure to casual nudity in ordinary settings can forever damage one's ability to perceive eroticism.

    Some claim that nudism involving minors is not sexual abuse, and most nudists claim that this behavior is not sexual in nature. "We have always been about a wholesome, family oriented environment suitable for people of all ages," said Erich Schuttauf, executive director for the American Association for Nude Recreation this past week in a statement made to The Ledger, a Florida newspaper. True to form, nude resorts and enterprises tend to claim a non-sexual, platonic environment where suggestive behavior is discouraged. However, this is precisely the problem. After enough time in a nude camp, a male may not associate the term "women's breasts" with Pamela Andersen, dark excitement, or any aroused emotion whatsoever. Instead, the term may conjure up a sagging camp director, a counselor singing "kumbaya" or the annoying tennis instructor.

    If nudism is "not sexual," then nudists must be arguing that the human body suddenly becomes enticing when two nudists are alone together. This would require the persons involved to abandon every memory of the naked bodies in the pool, at the campfire, in the bunkhouse, playing volleyball, etc., and come to the revelation that the human body is somehow an interesting novelty. Research would show that this is hardly possible. The Nobel prize winning Physiologist Ivan Pavlov proved that if you ring a bell before feeding a dog enough times, with time the dog will salivate at the sound of the bell alone. Similarly, if a young person sees nudity enough times and does not feel arousal, with time the concepts of arousal and nudity will be somewhat divorced from each other in his or her imagination.

    Hence, with the human body stripped of any significance as far as intrigue, excitement and sexuality are concerned, romantic relations take on a European cast, with physical intimacy merely a thoughtless biological  urge to be "taken care of" in private, much like using the restroom. During the 1950's, the image of Marilyn Monroe with her skirt billowing around her was enough to sell millions of posters. Today, with nudity a feature of nearly every movie and TV series, appearing in ads and popups on the Internet, Playboy is reporting a decline in sales as more hard-core labels such as Hustler attract customers looking for something to excite them. In Denmark, one of the most liberated countries in the world, the mode fantasy among women is cheating on their partners -- one of the few things which they may experience disapproval for doing.  The message of these findings is clear: when something is made cheap and commonplace, it ceases to be of interest, and sexuality is no exception. It seems the nudists have done what Catholics and Puritans have unsuccessfully attempted: making eroticism obsolete.

    Teen nude camps are child abuse of a pernicious sort, and ought to be banned. Inability to feel desire when looking at nude people, as teenagers at nude camps are being conditioned, is an emotional deformity. Those who promote it, however well-intended and rational, can be objectively categorized as assailants. Just like the physical and sexual assailants and medical malpractitioners who fill our prisons, these people are harming the development of the vulnerable. They should be treated no differently under the law.


    Marvin Frandsen's Response to Hartstein
    by Marvin Frandsen

Don’t Ban Nudist Youth Camps!
Government should leave the parenting of nudist children to nudist parents.  
A response to Esther Hartstein's July 4th column.

July 9, 2003

    The first nudist resort was planted in central Europe exactly a century ago in 1903.  Before many years had passed nudism also became an American phenomenon with nudist camps and resorts springing up throughout the country.  Today hundreds of nudist camps and resorts exist in the United States.  Over 60,000 Americans are card carrying members of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR), the largest and oldest of several nudist associations.  Beyond the traditional camps and resorts, a burgeoning nude travel business has sprung up which offers nude ship cruises, nude beach tours and even nude airplane rides.  In a success story as American as apple pie, U.S. entrepreneurs are satisfying public demand for nudist recreation to the tune of about $400 million a year in nudist clubs alone.

    Recently while reading the New York Times, Rep. Mark Foley of Florida learned the astonishing fact that nudists have children and raise their children to become nudists.  Rep. Foley read this story because for several years AANR has realized that nudists needed to better inform the American public about nudism.  The problem is that, in spite of the growing nudist market, too few people know anything about nudism.   In the nudist view this is bad because nudists get tired of bad jokes, bad laws and trying to explain it all to non-nudists.

    After the usual period of more talk than action, on the hundredth anniversary of modern nudism AANR swung into high gear and actually got the media to publish a few widely distributed stories.  One of those stories was a story about wholesome youth doing wholesome things in the century-old setting of a nudist camp.

    A few weeks before he discovered nudism in the New York Times, the Honorable Rep. Foley, a self declared conservative and candidate for the U.S. Senate, had a political problem.  Some folks who said they had reason to know said that Rep. Foley is a homosexual.  Rep. Foley’s response was that he would not dignify such an accusation with a response except that they should mind their own business.  Rep. Foley’s response was a great response.  He should have left it at that. But he did not.   Instead Rep. Foley had a Eureka moment and embarked on a crusade to protect his endangered candidacy by persecuting a group more vulnerable than homosexuals -- families.  In this case, nudist families.  As a Florida Republican voter, I don’t care whether Rep. Foley is gay or not.  But I do care about a couple of other issues.

    First of all, as far as I can tell Rep. Foley has never married and has never fathered or raised a child.  As a married heterosexual parent I am occasionally amused or annoyed by certain single people who believe they have found the absolute truth about marriage and parenting by theory alone, without having any actual experience.  Usually this is a temporary phase that ends when theory collides with experience and no real harm is done.

    Unfortunately Rep. Foley, as a single man, doesn’t just believe he knows better than parents how to raise their children.  Rep. Foley wants to force his theories on parents with all the power of the government.  Rep. Foley justifies his crusade to have the government parent nudist children rather than the parents of these children with the famous “Theory A” of why nudism must be bad.  Theory A posits that nudism is bad because nudity inevitably causes sexual thoughts and feelings.  Because nudity equals sex, and the combination of sex and teenagers is bad, therefore nudist youth camps must be bad. QED.

    The problem with Theory A is that in the technical jargon it is pure bovine excrement.  The only people who believe in Theory A are people who have no firsthand experience whatsoever with real life nudism.  Real life nudists know that real life experience is exactly the opposite.  That is why real life nudist parents take their real life nudist children to real nudist camps.  They know that what they and their children will experience will be fun, family friendly innocent freedom and a chance to relax and recreate.  Sex is not a part of this picture.

    American psychologists -- those who actually study nudism instead of just talking about stuff they don’t know about -- have known that nudism is not erotic for a very long time. The first American psychologist to figure this out was the prominent Dr. Howard Warren of Princeton University exactly 70 years ago.  Dr. Warren went native among the nudists to perform professional observational science and concluded a number of things, including (1) It is amazing how fast people get over the nudity taboo, and (2) that “social nudism does not in any way foster eroticism -- that it tends if anything to promote a saner sex outlook and more natural relations between men and women, even during the years of early sexual maturity.”  (Rep. Foley, note that last conclusion.)  A few years later, a research team led by Professor William E. Hartman of that not exactly bastion of liberal secular humanism, Brigham Young University, studied nudism with modern scientific statistical methods, wrote a thick book, and concluded the same thing.  A surprising number of people understand very well that common nudity does not foster
eroticism.  Since some of these people think that, regardless of the facts, nudism must be bad anyway, they create “Theory B” as to why nudism is bad.

    Theory B is exactly contradictory to Theory A, and more than a little bit weird.  Theory B posits that because nudism is not sexual, nudists will lose their sexuality. Theory B predicts that nudists will get so turned off by seeing too much nudity that they won’t want sex anymore.  In other words, nudists will become a bunch of asexual drones.  Because turning an innocent teenager into a sexless pod person is bad, therefore nudist youth camp is bad. QED.

    Unfortunately Theory B also suffers from a collision with the facts.  One of those facts is that nudists -- including nudists who grow up as nudists -- get married, have children, send them to nudist youth camp, and thereby offend the people who believe in Theory A.  Hundreds of thousands of nudists past and present have not experienced the prediction of Theory B that they will become sexless pod people.  We fall in love, get married, have sex, and produce children at absolutely normal statistical rates.  No psychological or sociological study has ever found that nudists become asexual.

    The boring truth is that although nudism is not erotic, naked people are neither sex fiends nor sex drones.  We’re just normal.  Please retire both Theory A and Theory B.  (Well, OK, research does show that nudists are psychologically healthier, less likely to commit sex crimes and more likely -- especially nudist women -- to live by conservative family values than other people, but that is another story.)  That brings us back to Rep. Foley and parenting.  At this point, let me describe my parenting.  I am a nudist.  My wife is a nudist.  My daughter is a nudist.  This year we almost sent our
daughter to the famous nudist youth camp that bothers Rep. Foley, which is not too many miles from our home.  Instead we decided to sign her up for a Shakespeare play and maybe a summer camp at Kennedy Space Center.  Next year maybe she will do the nudist youth camp thing if the government hasn’t stamped out freedom by then.

    We highly resent Rep. Foley’s belief that he knows better than we do what camps our daughter should attend.  These kinds of private decisions are our business.  Neither Rep. Foley nor the government has the wisdom or the right to dictate who our daughter will associate with or the conditions of her association.  That is my and my wife’s job as parents.  Rep. Foley might also recall, however dimly, that this land is governed by the U.S. Constitution.  A long time ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parents have the right to decide how their children will be educated, not politicians with a campaign problem.

    If we don’t like how the nudist youth program is run then we will pull her out of it.  If some butts need kicking, we will kick them.  If perchance criminal charges ever need to be filed then we will make sure they get filed.  In the meantime we have full confidence in the people who run the nudist youth camp.  If we ever change our minds then it will be by our judgment.  We don’t want or need Rep. Foley or the government’s crusading do-gooder “help” to run our lives.  Thank you but no thank you.

    That brings me to the second issue that bothers me about Rep. Foley.  Rep. Foley is Catholic.  I personally don’t care about Rep. Foley’s religious affiliation but it matters here in two ways.  First, Rep. Foley happens to belong to the church that is experiencing the worst child abuse scandal in United States history.  Oddly Rep. Foley is not calling for investigations or special laws to stop child abuse in the Catholic Church.  Why not?  The churches, schools and the youth organizations Rep. Foley likes best are where my daughter is most in danger.  Not nudist camps.  Second, in the Bible Rep. Foley’s God commanded him not to judge others when there is a mote in the other person’s eye but a beam in his own.

    Rep. Foley should obey his God and stop judging and crusading against other people when he needs to fix his own house.  Whether or not his own house ever gets fixed, Rep. Foley should leave the parenting of nudist children to the nudist parents.  Neither he nor his government are qualified to do my job as a parent.

    Marvin Frandsen is a physicist living in Melbourne, Florida.  Marvin is a Republican who votes in all elections. Marvin does not plan to vote for Rep. Foley.  Marvin’s daughter plans to run for President in 2028 so she can stop the adults from doing all the stupid stuff they do in government.


    Goodman Column in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
    by Howard Goodman

Foley's Fears About Camp Barely Worth Mention
July 8, 2003

    For someone trying to change the subject from sex, Mark Foley has a funny way of going about it.

    You'll recall that the Republican congressman from Palm Beach Gardens was the subject not long ago of rumors he is gay.

    In reaction, he called a news conference to say that, on the subject of his sexuality, he had nothing to say.

    Now Foley, a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. senator, is making headlines and getting national TV interview time for a crusade to save teenagers from the evils of nude camping.

    Apparently, the zone of privacy that Foley invoked in declaring his personal life out of bounds to reporters and constituents doesn't apply to legally sanctioned campgrounds and resorts where an American subculture gathers to play volleyball and wax endlessly about family values while in the altogether.

    Foley has been vocal for years on issues involving missing and exploited children. He launched his latest jeremiad last month upon reading a New York Times article about a weeklong camp north of Tampa for about two dozen unclad young people ages 11 to 18.

    According to the article, the camp run by the 50,000-member American Association for Nude Recreation, based in Kissimmee, entailed a lot of skinny-dipping, s'mores and campfire songs -- but not a lot of lust.

    "It makes me a bit freaked out that people would think of nudity as a sexual thing," one 15-year-old girl told The Times.

    But the story freaked out Foley. He promptly demanded that authorities investigate or, better yet, shut the place down because he feared the potential for child abuse.  Foley wrote Gov. Jeb Bush that the camp "was exploiting nudity among minor children to make money" -- while conceding he didn't know whether illegal behavior was taking place.

    Foley should have kept his shirt on.

    The nudist camp as a threat to children is a boogeyman that even the Bush administration in Tallahassee won't uphold.  In a reply to Foley, Bush's general counsel, Raquel Rodriguez, said the Department of Children & Families is "unaware of any reports alleging child abuse, neglect or exploitation related to the camp."

    Ditto the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and state attorney, who told reporters they knew of no cases of child abuse at the 11-year-old camp.

    But reporters for The Times and Time magazine did cite two cases in June in which "creepy outside guys" -- COGs -- had to be escorted out. One leered at kids swimming in the pool. Another tried to take two girls' photos.

    Chris Paulitz, a Foley spokesman, said that's reason for concern right there.

    "How do you know next time that the camera won't be a knife?" he asked me.  "We don't feel we should wait around until there's a tragedy."  Paulitz said Foley's past work with exploited kids has made him keenly aware of how pedophiles operate. How they look for opportunities. And how naked children, relatively unguarded, would be prime targets.

    Foley met with a dozen nudists Monday to bare -- if not all -- at least their differences.

    In the end, he sounded a conciliatory note, asking organizers to strengthen their background checks of summer-camp employees.

    Foley might be sincerely interested in children's safety. But this campaign, with its suggestions of Puritanism, smacks of politics aimed at pleasing the conservative Republican flank he's alienated by taking relatively liberal positions on the environment and abortion rights.

    Paulitz says politics did not factor into Foley's thinking.

    "Anyone who knows Mark knows he's had an extensive record on these issues for eight years," he said.

    I get uncomfortable when politicians embark on moral missions. This one, aimed at people whom most of us dismiss as weirdos, seems a particularly cheap shot.

    With all the actual pedophilia and child abuse that goes on, do we really have to look for imaginary threats to clean up?


    Woods Column on jacksonville.com
    by Mark Woods

More to See at Camp These Days
Friday, July 25, 2003

    My childhood is getting more boring by the day.

    Sure, my parents sent me to camp each summer.  It was a nice camp out in the woods, with canoes and campfires, songs and s'mores.  But there wasn't any public nudity, unless you count the time when a bunch of us from Cabin 8 ran down to the lake at midnight and went skinny-dipping.

    I think we did it hoping that one of the girls' cabins would join in.  Alas, each year it was just us and the snapping turtles, which is another story for another day.

    The point of this story is that there was no nude softball, no nude arts and crafts, not even a nude talent show.

    I mention this because all of these are part of something that has been in the news lately:  summer camps for nudists, age 11 to 18.

    According to the American Association for Nude Recreation, which includes a chapter in Northeast Florida, nude tourism is a booming business, growing from $120 million 10 years ago to $400 million this year.  Nude beaches have become almost mundane.  Now there are nude ski slopes, nude cruises and even, making its debut this spring, a nude charter flight.  (Possible slogan: "We love to fly and it really shows.")

    But these are primarily for adults or families.  So organizers apparently asked themselves:  What about the kids?  Shouldn't they have a place to get away from parents, shed their clothes and play Capture the Flag?

    Honest. There is such a camp.  It was in The New York Times.  No, really.  The story wasn't written by Jayson Blair [notorious for faking stories].

    For a decade, the association has been holding a weeklong camp in Florida, often north of Tampa.  Now organizers are planning a nationwide expansion.  So the Times sent a reporter to the Florida camp, which sounds pretty much like every other summer camp except for that one recurring detail.  The kids don't wear T-shirts that say things like, "Coed Naked Volleyball."  They play co-ed volleyball naked.

    Campfire songs also have been modified slightly.  For instance, This Land Is Your Land ends "this land was made nude and free," a change which, unfortunately, made me picture all kinds of historical events being done in the buff.  The Boston Tea Party, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere's ride...

    U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from West Palm Beach, read the Times article and quickly jumped all over the issue, getting national attention after firing off letters to Tallahassee, asking Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Christ to determine whether the camp was legal -- it was -- and to consider toughening state statutes against such activities.

    The media reaction around Florida to all of this has been interesting.  For the most part, it has focused on this being a blatant attempt by Foley to jump out from the crowd hoping to replace Bob Graham in the U.S. Senate.

    I have a slightly different reaction.  It's not that I buy Foley spokesman Chris Paulitz telling reporters: "This is not somebody trying to make political points."

    It's just that I buy that as much as the quote from a 16-year-old boy who, after attending the camp for the first time, said that when he sees a naked girl's body, he doesn't see it is "as a sexual thing."

    I know 16-year-old boys.  I once was a 16-year-old boy.  And, trust me, most 16-year-old boys can look at a 16-year-old girl's fully clothed shadow and see it as a sexual thing.

    So my first reaction to the camp story was two-fold: A) Where were these camps when I was 16 years old?  B) How do I get rid of this image of Ben Franklin flying a kite naked?


    Shiflett article in National Review
    by Dave Shiflett

    Though this article predated some of the above, it is placed here because it focuses on the Virginia camp, rather than the one in Florida.

Naked Came the Teenagers
Winning the Culture Wars by Embracing Public Nudity — for Kids!

June 27, 2003

    Here in Virginia we seldom find ourselves ahead of the curve.  But times are changing.  Indeed, we have jumped ahead of the curve this summer, or perhaps one should say "curves."  Virginia is hosting one of the nation's largest nudist campouts — for adolescents.  It's in session this week, in Southampton County, where Nat Turner led an earlier rebellion.  The only other official nudist camps for kids, we learn from the Richmond Times Dispatch, are in Florida and Arizona.

    The site of the camp is Ivor, a small town on Route 460, which is perhaps best known as a speed trap.  Yet this week it is home to 30 naked kids aged 11 to 18, most of whom are children of adult nudists.  The compound is called White Tail Camp, which apparently doesn't refer to the campers but the local deer population.  Indeed, the sun [has] been bright this week, and those little butts are surely nut brown by now.

    To be sure, we've been getting naked in Virginia for many years, both before and after the arrival of the white-tailed masses.  George Washington got naked when necessary, as did Madison and Monroe, though none of these gents got naked nearly as often as Thomas Jefferson, or so we have been led to believe.  Woodrow Wilson, another of the state's prominent sons, is thought to gotten naked a time or two, though his wife reportedly admonished him and ordered him to return to his books.

    Yet there has been some concern about the naked children at Camp White Tail.  A few churchgoers have been quoted in opposition to the idea, and child-protection types — who make a practice of turning people in for taking pictures of their naked babies — worry aloud about sexual exploitation.  Robert Roche, camp director and reportedly a famous nudist, says these fears are misplaced.  Counselors have received thorough background checks.  Indeed, the camp is said to be a hotbed of Platonic behavior.  Each day starts at 7 A.M. with exercise and ends many sun-drenched hours later with campfire singalongs.  The Dispatch adds that additional activities include "volleyball, swimming, first-aid classes, even an introduction to firefighting skills."

    Did someone say "weenie roast?"

    Well, making jokes at the expense of nudists comes easily enough, and many of [us] cannot help but be amused by the idea of anyone paying for their kids to get naked with other kids.  After all, as kids we used to do that for free, as often as possible.  We also chuckle over reports that "nudist professionals" are being brought in to teach the kids how to be properly naked.  One wonders what it takes to become a pro.

    But the fact is that we might learn a few things from the nudists, who truly seem to be of a philosophical bent.

    We will have disagreements, to be sure.  They argue that being naked is "natural" and therefore there's nothing wrong with being natural around your friends, family, and willing strangers.  We might counter that many "natural" phenomena — including breaking wind and taking a leak — are nonetheless best experienced privately.  Indeed, shielding others from such phenomena is a hallmark of civilization — as is shielding them from our deepest inner thoughts.  And there's no disputing that after a certain age the human body is increasingly hideous to behold.  Clothes are our friends — sometimes our best friends.

    At the same time, Mr. Roche makes an interesting point when insisting these young campers will not be sexually stimulated by one another's nudity.  Why?  Because they are so accustomed to nakedness it has become old hat.  If this is true, and it certainly seems reasonable, we can imagine vast implications, especially regarding the worlds of advertising and popular culture, which rely on nakedness, or near nakedness, to move about 85 percent of their product and 90 percent of their tickets.  If nakedness loses its punch, creative types will have to come up with something new.  They'll have to use their brains again.  And the culture will probably improve as a result.

    Of course, it is quite possible that the nakedness is already losing its punch due to overuse by Hollywood and Madison Avenue.  But traditionalists might want to help the process along by getting behind the White Tail movement.  Indeed, they may want to start enrolling their own kids to nudist camps.  Just don't forget to send along the camcorder.


    St. Petersburg Times Video Story
    by James Thorner

    This report was picked up by the Associated Press, and widely printed in Florida.

Nudist Selling Nude Kid Videos
The former organizer of Pasco nude youth camps claims the tapes are "a genuine nudist product."
July 25, 2003

    LAND O'LAKES - The former president of the nudist group that sponsored a controversial summer camp for teenagers runs a business that sells videos featuring young nude girls.

    Land O'Lakes resident Walt Zadanoff served as president of the American Sunbathing Association, the former name of the 50,000-member American Association for Nude Recreation based in Kissimmee.

    The 68-year-old nudist defends the sale of the videos, which include full-frontal shots of elementary-school-age girls at beauty pageants in Europe, as "information and entertainment for a legitimate nudist."

    "I sell it in good faith as a genuine nudist product," Zadanoff said Thursday of tapes he distributes over the Internet through a company called Sun-Dressed Marketing.

    U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who campaigned last month against a nude summer camp in Pasco County, considers the videos fodder for a less savory element.

    The West Palm Beach Republican is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Graham and has specialized in child protection issues in the U.S. House.

    "These videos are nothing more than a fix for pedophiles," Foley said in a written statement e-mailed to the St. Petersburg Times.  "They serve young children on a platter for America's most depraved."

    Foley said a local nudist faxed him information about Zadanoff's Web site.  Last month, Foley criticized a camp for naked children aged 11 to 17 held at Pasco's Lake Como nudist resort. It was sponsored by the nudist organization Zadanoff led from 1990-92.

    The American Association for Nude Recreation disavows the video sales.  After inquiries from the Times, the nudist group asked Zadanoff Thursday to remove a link from his Web site to its site.

    American nudist resorts don't hold beauty pageants for nude children, association marketing official Debra Peterson said.

    "We saw the Web site and said, 'Whoa!'" Peterson said.  "While the video content may be fine, the focus on the child element to sell it was not appropriate."

    Zadanoff said he sells one or two pageant videos a week and that they represent a handful of his 100 video titles.  He makes most of his money from guides to international nudist resorts, he said.

    Supplied by producers in Russia, the Czech Republic and France, the videos are categorized as "teen" "junior teen" and "junior miss."

    Generally, the younger the girls, the more expensive the video.  One 55-minute junior miss tape sells for $99.95.  The sales caption reads: "Judging based on beauty, personality, poise and grace.  Resolution rating - GREAT."

    But the sales don't appear to break the law, which delineates between non-sexual nudity and lewdness, said Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe. Not that he approves of Zadanoff's Web site.

    "There's no question it's probably getting into the hands of folks who aren't just enamored of being a naturist," McCabe said.  "So is it feeding some other desire that we find not appropriate?"

    Zadanoff accused Foley of being a publicity-hungry "laughing stock" whose mind is "in the gutter."  Zadanoff said the videos include no posing, genital closeups or sex.

    Zadanoff said he's concerned there could be pedophiles among his customers, but said it's not anything he can control.

    "We can't read what's in people's minds," he said.  "If they want to take the Sears Roebuck catalog and turn it into something erotic, we can't control that."

    Foley's office said his goal is more to shame Zadanoff than to punish him.   Resurrecting the summer camp issue, the congressman said the videos prove the need for watchfulness on the part of nudist parents.

    "When a company like Sears markets to potential buyers, it doesn't charge nearly $100 for its catalog.  And it doesn't limit its catalog so most don't even see it," Foley said.  "These excuses hold as much water as a slotted spoon."


    Swank Column on MichNews.com
    by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

    This web site seems to specialize in opinions without clear facts or ideas.  Add complete distortion.  Here is their second offering on the camp topic:

Nude Kids: A Conscience Seared
July 28, 2003

    When life is a nudist camp, conscience can get warped -- at least a teeny bit for teeny boppers in the buff.  Not healthy.

    James Thorner, reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, let the cat out of the bag when he relates that one of the chiefs in the nudist camp industry has taken pix of naked youths, girls, that is, to sell.  There's no obscenity in this, the fellow contends. Yet others are not quite sure.

    Walt Zandaoof [sic.], president of American Sunbathing Association, the name for the prior American Association for Nude Recreation, is The Man.  He's into videoing teenagers without clothes.  He, 68, claims there's no harm in what he's doing.  Others may have their minds "in the gutter," but not Walt.

    He states that the videos are primarily for persons into nudism, hence the lack of harm done to anyone.  "I sell it in good faith," he says.

    US Representative Mark Foley says that he concludes the videos to be damaging, hence his campaign against nude summer camping -- period.

    Foley contends that such viewing provides ready takes for pedophiles.   Therefore, Walt should not be doing business.  "They serve young children on a platter for America's most depraved," Mr. Foley told the press.

    It was Foley who shot on the headlines a camp for naked children ages 11 through 17.  It is the same organization Walt led from 1990-92.

    Walt says that he makes most of his dough from selling guides to worldwide nudist resorts, not videos of naked girls.  Producers for the fare are in Russia, the Czech Republic and France.  The videos are categorized as "teen," "junior teen" and "junior miss."

    With society compromising its virtues right and left these days, Walt seems to fit in quite appropriately.  With the national library association championing no filters on their computers, such indicates a mindset "out there" which okays Walt's material.

    One wonders with same-sex marriage in the offing, nudist camps popular and Walt's product making hay while the sun shines, if this western culture is getting more and more damaged while it concludes it is getting more and more state of the art.

    If such compromising of morals continues, the next generations will look upon all this as daily acceptance.  It takes only one generation to move an entire genre into another category.  The young grow up with whatever and assume it has always been here.

    The only force that can change the mindset is a continual reminder of what ought to be, hence the abundance of moralistic organizations broadcasting their philosophy far and wide.  Sometimes the morally-based public tires of having to keep the battle on the front line; but the alternative is frightening.

    Therefore, "keeping on keeping on" is strategic to maintaining a semblance of societal decency, no matter the cost.

    Many people wrote in with corrections.  Three of them used bad language, which Swank used as the topic for his column two days later.  He ignored the corrections.

Nudists Get Under My Skin?
July 30, 2003

    I'm not quite sure what¹s going on here.  But whatever it is, I may be getting skinned alive.  And that ain¹t summer fun and games.

    I wrote a bit about nudists.  That is, one of their number is into photographing young girls naked.  Frontal and all.  He makes these available via videotapes.

    Well, St. Petersburg Times reporter wrote up the whole truth about that li'l caper, then I picked up on his frequencies with several posts on various sites.

    Did my emailbox get loaded or what?  Sure thing.  I could hardly carry home all the mail that came in after that harmless piece of journalism hit cyberspace.

    I don¹t mind a full box.  But I do mind being tarred and feathered, especially by those in the buff.

    [He gave examples of rude language.]

    ...Then my eyes roved over a sentence in which I was told that my mind was obviously "in the gutter" for writing about a fellow who takes frontal nudity [sic] of young females.  After all, if I were truly pure of mind, I would see those pix for what they are, just nice photographs of youths, female in specific, who happen to be standing there frontally without any benefit of cover-up....

    Yet I do wonder what kind of a public it is that can resort to such language hoisted on a total stranger?  What kind of naked mortals really enter through those awesome gates at a nudist colony?  And what do they do for an evening of culture?  Shakespeare readings perhaps?  Or is ogling enough refinement for those who use such terms in emailing a scribe?

    One thing is for sure: I won't let any of this get under my skin.  Not worth it.  Would you agree?


    Foley's Second Appearance on The O'Reiley Factor

July 29, 2003

    BILL O'REILEY:  In the "Back of the Book" Segment tonight, a few weeks ago, we  told you that the State of Florida had OK'd a nudist camp (search) for children.  Well, now a new wrinkle.  Seems a guy promoting nudity was selling videos of naked girls on his Web site.

    Joining us now from Boynton Beach, Florida, is Congressman Mark Foley who's following the case and broke this story.

    It's a little bit complicated, and I want to be very fair.  The camp involved, which is sponsored by the American Association for Nude Recreation, all right, was not affiliated with this Walt Zadanoff, all right.

    Now you found out about this Zadanoff guy.  Who is he, and what was he doing?

    REP. MARK FOLEY, R-FLA.:  Well, Walt used to be the president of the association that you just mentioned. It was known as the Sunbathing Association 10 years ago.  He was their leader.  On his Web site, he still has a link to the current organization.

    The concerned nudist parent actually contacted us anonymously and made us aware of the site that he had on the Web.  We went into the site, and we were completely disturbed by its contents.

    Children, as young as 8, 12, 14, both boys and girls, you were able to buy from Walt, 68-year-old man, former president of the Sunbathing Association, videos of children doing beauty pageants and other things, playing soccer and football.

    So we were not only disturbed but completely taken aback that these things would be legal to sell on the open, if you will, Internet.

    O'REILEY: All right. Now Zadanoff left this organization about a year ago.  The organization, which sponsors the nude camp for kids, says he had nothing to do with it.  But my question is where did he get the shots of the kids?  Where did the shots of the kids come from?

    FOLEY: He describes these shots, if you will, made in Europe.  He says they're not made in the local camps.  He defends them and says it's really for nudists who enjoy the nude recreational activities that are displayed here on this tape.

O'REILEY: That's a bunch of crap.

    FOLEY: Now this is very, very strange, Bill.  It doesn't make any sense at all.  One of my concerns has always been what happens if they're, in fact, filming on location?  The kids and parents are unaware, which I believe would be the case.

O'REILEY: All right.

    FOLEY: I met with a number of people that are involved in this activity, and they're not promoting this.  They don't sanction it.  They're disgusted by it, as I am.

    O'REILEY: OK, you were right in this whole thing.  In the beginning, you said the potential for abuse exists in camp settings that have underage kids there naked, all right.

    Now we don't have any proof that the Florida camp is, as you said, in these videos.  However, what we do know is that the former president of the organization that sponsors this camp today, the former president, trying to make a buck by selling videos of naked kids.  So certainly, the potential for abuse exists because this proves it.

    Now what's the state of Florida going to do about it?

    FOLEY: Well, fortunately, Jeb Bush has contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and ordered an immediate investigation, first to see if it's legal what he's selling, which I don't think it is, secondly, to find out if any of this activity's taking place in Florida.  So, finally, we have the full focus and attention of the governor of our state to hopefully supervise these situations.

    And I've told parents, if you think this is good for your kids, fine, go to the parks with them, supervise them, be there for them, but I don't think it's right for them to be going to these parks unaccompanied by a parent who can at least look out for their safety and well-being.

    O'REILEY: Right. So you're saying that a family nudist camp where kids under 18 were supervised by their own parents would be acceptable, but just sending your kid away to a naked camp isn't?

    FOLEY: Right.  I've always said from the beginning of this debate in conversation that I have no problem with the nudist lifestyle, nudist beaches, whatever people want to do who are adults.  They have every right to do it in the United States.

    My trouble came from kids, 11 to 18, being allowed to go to these camps alone. The parents said, oh, they're supervised, they have camp counselors, they have custodial people there to watch out for them.  Well, again, several cases have come to my attention where the camp managers themselves have been arrested, charged with pornography.

O'REILEY: Yes.

    FOLEY: Some of the pictures on the Internet have actually been taken at nude beaches.  So parents just be careful. These aren't healthy...

    O'REILEY: You bet. Well, let us know if this Zadanoff guy gets arrested and what the state does to this guy in particular because he ought to be taken care of.

    Good work, Congressman. We appreciate you staying on the story for us. Thank you very much.

FOLEY: Thanks, Bill, very much.


    Tampa Bay Television News 9 Report

Politician Continues Criticism of Nudist Children Camps
Friday, August 1st

    Foley has been a harsh critic of Lake Como.  Rep. Mark Foley is leading an attack on the Lake Como Resort nudist camp in Land O¹Lakes, saying the nude summer camps for children are harmful.

    "I think we've got a problem," said Foley.  "And I hope parents realize it's a serious problem."

    Last week, someone gave Foley heavy ammunition.  A source told Foley a previous leader of the group that sponsors the camp is making money by selling videos of naked little girls in beauty pageants.

    What critics find even more shocking is that in Florida, having and selling pictures of naked children is completely legal.

    "This is absolutely a pedophile's fantasy, not a boy's fantasy," said Chris Card of Hillsborough Kids, Inc.  Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe says the pictures and videos only break the law when they show a child involved in sexual conduct, or a close-up of the child's private parts.

    Some videos showing nude children are actually legal.

    The law is stricter for some convicted felons.  When a sexual offender is on probation and a court has ordered him not to look at nude pictures, such web sites or videos are illegal but once he's off probation, the rules change.  Card says that children who pose for any nude pictures, legal or not, are vulnerable to emotional scars when they grow up.

    "You begin to understand the range of things people could do with your image," said Card.  "You become very concerned."


    NAC Commentary in the Nude & Natural Newsletter
    by Bob Morton

Candidate Foley Seeks to Exploit a New Nude Issue:  Congressman Attempts to "Shame" Former ASA President Over Sales of Nude Videos.

August 2003

    Using the same sort of innuendo, inflammatory hyperbole and politically motivated disregard for the truth that marked his alarmed reaction to nude summer camps for the school-age sons and daughters of American nudists, Congressman Mark Foley (R-Florida) has found a new focus amid what some military analysts might call "a target-rich environment."

    Currently at the center of Foley's crosshairs is Walt Zadanoff, a former president of the American Sunbathing Association (ASA).  ASA changed its name ten years ago to become the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR).

    Zadanoff operates a small marketing company and a web site through which he sells, among other things, European naturist videos.  Included are tapes that feature some of the various pageants European naturists stage from time to time.

    Foley claims "a local nudist" faxed him information about Zadanoff's site.  While that story is of dubious veracity, it allowed Foley to conduct a renewed witch hunt without appearing to have been the one initiating it.

    Now Foley has pilloried Zadanoff for selling videos of pageants involving the school-age sons and daughters of European naturists.  Of course, the congressman was characteristically more colorful in a written statement he sent to the St. Petersburg Times.

    The Times quotes Foley as writing, "These videos are nothing more than a fix for pedophiles.  They serve young children on a platter for America's most depraved."

    So, are the videos offered for sale by Zadanoff to be considered child pornography?  Likely not, says the State Attorney for the Florida county where Zadanoff lives.  Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe has said publicly that the video sales don't appear to break any law.

    Repeating a familiar pattern, Rep. Foley has nevertheless asked Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to investigate.  Bush has assigned the matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

    Unsurprisingly, Foley's aides have attempted to tie the recent brouhaha into the nude youth camp imbroglio from which the lawmaker had to make a partial retreat.  They admit that their goal is more to "shame" Zadanoff than to see him punished.

    AANR has responded to this latest attack by decrying Zadanoff's marketing descriptions that focus on the ages of the children, mostly girls, and on little else.  AANR spokespersons have been quick to distance the organization from Zadanoff, pointing out that his tenure as president ended in 1992, a year before the organization began sponsoring nude youth camps.  AANR also demanded that Zadanoff remove links from his web site to AANR's site.  AANR removed its own links to Zadanoff's site approximately a year and a half ago.

    According to Zadanoff, the videos in question include no sexual content, no provocative posing and no genital closeups.  What they do include are images of kids, nude ones, sometimes arrayed across a stage or platform in customary pageant format.

    It's a foreign and unfamiliar image to naturists in the U.S. today, but the ASA and its clubs and regions used to operate pageants of all sorts.  It was not so long ago that images from beauty pageants, "royalty" pageants and various novelty pageants regularly trouped across the pages of ASA's venerable house organ, the Bulletin.

    Looking at those images now from the yellowed newsprint pages of an old Bulletin, they seem somehow foreign and unfamiliar, not unlike today's pictures from European pageants.  ASA abandoned its nude pageants in the early 1980s, about the same time The Naturist Society was getting a toe hold in North America.  TNS recognized from its beginnings that competitive pageants were a poor fit for its message of universal body acceptance, and pageants have never been a part of TNS events.

    Perhaps as we look through an old Bulletin and wince as we come across the smiling finalists in 1974's Miss Nude Chubby contest, we realize how much the whole idea of nude pageants has become an artifact from other days and other places.  In that light, the pageant videos sold by Zadanoff are an anachronism, at least among North American naturists.

    The issue of children and how best to protect them has become a national social and political hysteria.  Naturists have learned that certain individuals and groups will attack them through their children.  In that context, Zadanoff has become a pawn in the political campaign of Mark Foley.

    Zadanoff himself bears responsibility for the unsavory way in which he has marketed his videos, but the shame that Candidate Foley seeks to attach to Walt Zadanoff must not be allowed to adhere to family-friendly naturism.

    Ultimately at stake may be the right of naturists to document and celebrate the role of families with children--or to include them at all.

Picture captions:

Former ASA President Walt Zadanoff, shown in this file photo, finds himself embroiled in a controversy involving his online sales of European videos depicting naturist children.

"Thank heaven for little girls," says the caption under the picture of ESA's "Jr. Princess" pageant in the Nov-Dec 1973 issue of the Bulletin.


    Foley's Letter to the Editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Nudist 'Kids Camps' Pose Risks
August 1, 2003  [He had already sent it widely over the internet three days earlier.]

    In the past several weeks, I've raised concerns about the emergence of so-called nude summer "camps" for children ages 11 to 18 without parental supervision.  As co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, I take very seriously the threat posed by those who would do harm to children.

    Some in the media have snickered at -- and even ridiculed -- my efforts to challenge the safety of nudist "camps" for kids.  While it may be a joke to a handful of cynical media critics, every day we hear new reports of sick individuals preying on young children at playgrounds, within youth organizations and on the Internet.  For those of us who work regularly with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FBI, these camps immediately sounded alarm bells.

    Most parents I've spoken with agree that when kids are exposed to situations like these in their early formative years, there is a potential to do real and lasting harm to a child's psychological development, especially when parental guidance is absent.  Of even greater concern is the possibility that a camp counselor, groundskeeper or other employee could attempt to exploit or abuse young children attending the facilities.  These camps have admitted that predators have gained access to the children, taking their pictures and making inappropriate contact with them.

    Recently, it was reported that the former president of the nudist organization sponsoring this "kids' camp" was peddling videos of fully nude children on his own Internet site for as much as $100 a copy.  The younger the boys and girls involved, the higher the price.

    I'm pleased Gov. Jeb Bush has expressed concern and taken time to address this issue as well.  The fundamental need to protect our children is not debatable.

U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-16th District
West Palm Beach

The newspaper did not use Foley's original signature:
Mark Foley
Co-Chairman, Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus


Tallahassee Democrat Report of the Tiger Bay Club Talk
    By Nancy Cook Lauer

Nudists Fight for the Right to Run Camps
August 1, 2003

    Florida nudists say their youth camps shouldn't be exposed to more scrutiny than other youth camps just because the children and counselors wear no clothes.

    In a presentation Thursday before the Capital Tiger Bay Club, young and old alike lobbied for the "textile world" to be more understanding of their particular pastime.   They praised nude camps as a healthy way for young people to gain self-confidence and become more tolerant of others.

    "These children have grown up in a naturist environment, and they're very, very comfortable with who they are," said Shirley Mason, executive director of the BEACHES Foundation.  "They have a confidence about themselves and an understanding, and it's not titillating for them."

    The nudists groups, including the Florida Naturist Association and Tallahassee Naturally, are fighting efforts by U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, a West Palm Beach Republican running for U.S. Senate, to ban the camps.  Foley, co-chairman of the House's Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, has been making the rounds of the talk-show circuit pushing his stance on this issue.

    Foley is worried that the children are being preyed on in the camps, and he points to videotapes being circulated by a former head of a nudist organization as proof that exploitation occurs.

    "A nudist camp for children is a much greater risk than camps or playgrounds because there are pedophiles in this world, and they choose these places to stalk these kids," said Foley spokesman Chris Paulitz.

    Nudists claim there's more of a risk in sending children to more conventional camps.  They say there are sexual assaults on children year after year in church-sponsored, sports and Boy Scouts camps, but not in their camps.

    Meanwhile, state Rep. John Quinones, R-Kissimmee, has said he's looking into sponsoring a bill in the Legislature addressing the issue.  Quinones is on a trade mission to Puerto Rico and could not be reached for comment Thursday.

    "All I know, if it's not saying something about we need to do stronger investigations on the adults that are involved in these camps ... it should be, but it should be for all camps," Mason said. "We will not be singled out just because we're naturists."

    It's not the first time the Legislature has looked into nudist camps, said Tallahassee Naturally member Paul LeValley.  He said lawmakers first tried to regulate nudist camps in 1994 and have tried a handful of times since.

    The Tallahassee club rents land near Monticello, where some 50 members enjoy getting that all-over tan along a 6-acre lake.  The Florida Naturist Association has a membership estimated at 18,000, and there are more than 33 million nudists worldwide, according to the International Naturist Federation.

    Gov. Jeb Bush, in a letter to Foley earlier this summer, said he supports the parents' right to raise their children the way they see fit.  But the state steps in if there's evidence of a crime, he said.  Bush has asked for investigations into allegations of abuse or exploitation at such camps.

    "The rights of parents to impart their values to their children and raise their children as they see fit are sacred," Bush said in the letter.  "But these rights require responsibility."

    And what would 16-year-old Kyle Hofmann, who attended his first youth camp this year, tell lawmakers of the no-nudes-is-good-news persuasion?

    "The camps should stay.  It's a good experience for their kids," Hofmann said.

Paul LeValley wrote to the reporter:

    I am afraid I was misquoted in your otherwise fine article on the Tiger Bay Club talk.  The 1994 proposed legislation was an attempt to close the traditional nude beach at Canaveral National Seashore--not any youth camp.


    YPB&R Report

    Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown, and Russel, AANR's public relations consultants, prepared this statement for the AANR convention:

August 11, 2003

    When YPB&R took over the American Association for Nude Recreation public relations account in March of 2003, we identified our primary objectives, in conjunction with AANR officials, as the following:  first and foremost, membership growth and retention.  Second, further educate the general public about the benefits of nude recreation, and third, promote AANR's youth as community leaders while using the summer camps and nude U as vehicles to publicize nude recreation as a wholesome, family activity....

    As we all know, the latter of the aforementioned objectives--promoting AANR's youth--was achieved in many respects, through strategic placements in two of the most prominent and well-respected news outlets in the United States:  New York Times and Time magazine.  Combined, these two publications have circulations of more than 5.5 million readers.  Even though the N.Y. Times article was for the most part a very positive piece, there were some negative repercussions that came out of it, in the form of U.S. Representative Mark Foley.

    It is clear Mr. Foley not only has an ulterior motive/political agenda in using the issue in his bid for a Senate seat from Florida, but is also uneducated on the clothing-free lifestyle.  While this has caused us to refocus our attention and strategy somewhat, the Times and Time pieces did result in the most intense period of media attention in AANR's illustrious history.  The good thing is that people from all walks of life have been talking about nude recreation--and for the most part, the talk has been positive.

    AANR officials, and better yet the mature and well-spoken youth who attended leadership camps, youth programs, and Nude U, have appeared on some of the most high-profile shows on network television.  Among the highlights:

    ●  Good Morning America (Schuttauf family with Dianne Sawyer)
    ●  Early Show on CBS (Susan Weaver)
    ●  CNN (Jesse Ferrier and Horst Kraus)
    ●  MSNBC (Erich [Schuttauf] and Steve Vickers on Hardball with Chris Matthews), as well as other MSNBC programming
    ●  Placements and stories in dozens of major daily newspapers, including St. Petersburg Times, Miami Herald, USA Today, Washington Times, Indianapolis Star, Philadelphia Inquirer, Orlando Sentinel and countless others.
    ●  AANR officials have appeared on radio shows across the U.S. and in Canada.

With more publicity on the horizon, including an upcoming feature in Teen People, the publicity generated has dollar values in the millions.

    As for Mr. Foley, we are certainly not keeping score, but in our estimation there have been far more wins than losses over the past two months.  Internet polls, such as ones conducted by AOL, ABC News, MSNBC and the St. Pete Times have inspired hundreds of thousands of people to weigh in on the issue of nude recreation, and the appropriateness of youth camps in our country.  Again, hundreds of thousands of people have been taking the time to voice their opinion.  Results in different polls have varied, however to summarize, anywhere from 33% to more than 50% of those respondents felt that there is nothing wrong with raising children in a nudist environment, and that it's a personal choice that one should have the freedom to make.  An even larger percentage showed interest in nude recreation in general.

    While some, as we've all seen, will disagree, when you look at the big picture, the fact that tens of thousands of people are now thinking about nude recreation as family recreation, and that these are people and parents who would have never have [sic.] thought about it before, shows we have come a long way in a very short period of time, and are getting the message across--more and more, outsiders are seeing the benefits of nude recreation.  During this process and media frenzy, AANR's youth has shined [sic.] as well, and have come across as well-adjusted, intelligent kids who have no problems whatsoever with many of the issues plaguing teenagers across America today; things like body image, self esteem and the ability to control sexual urges where others don't seem to think it's possible.  What also stood out was their ability to make reasoned, adult judgments without be [sic.] swayed by peer pressure--certainly a mature attribute for these young adults....

    Finally, we are armed and ready should Mr. Foley's camp make another attack on AANR or its youth camps.  While we have not changed our plans or course of action as a result of the Foley situation, rest assured that should the need arise, we have plenty of ammunition to discredit him and expose the many inaccuracies in his claims, while highlighting AANR's many contributions to communities, continued cooperation with government agencies, and most importantly, its record of safety.  In the meantime, we are continuing to strategize and move forward with our initial goal and plan to educate the public about family social nude recreation.  In closing, we look back at the last five and a half months with a true sense of accomplishment, and look forward to the rest of 2003 with a new set of challenges.

    People in the AANR office have no clippings from Indianapolis or Philadelphia, and assume that those mentions contained nothing new.  At the AANR convention, Executive Director Erich Schuttauf's report listed these additional publicity appearances:

        ●  Scarbrough Country on MSNBC—Elf Anderson of Lake Como club and Bob Roche;
        ●  Associated Press--interviewed Steve Vickers, Erich Schuttauf, Carolyn Hawkins;
        ●  Fox News Dayside--Stephen and Linda Payne of Desert Shadows club face Mark Foley.


    Orlando Sentinel Report on Quinones
    by Willoughby Mariano

Lawmaker Aims to Button Up Children Away at Nudist Camp
July 26, 2003

    An uproar over a Florida summer camp for nudist children prompted state Rep. John Quinones, R-Kissimmee, to say Monday he hopes to take the lead in fashioning a state law restricting how and when kids may be in the buff.

    Quinones said he wants to protect children who attend nudist camps from potential predators while safeguarding their parents' constitutional right to let them go bare.

    "When we're dealing with children, we have to make sure we protect them from negative exposure," Quinones said.

    Child nudist camps have endured plenty of recent exposure following a New York Times article about Kissimmee-based American Association for Nude Recreation's youth camp at a nude resort near Tampa.

    Children ages 11 to 18 get together for a week of games and sports and discussions about their choice to be nudists.  In 10 years, the youth camps have operated without incident, according to an association statement.

    Still, U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, asked Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist to investigate the camps for reports of child abuse or other criminal acts.  Department of Children & Families officials have found no evidence of illegal activity, but Bush has promised to look into the matter.

    "We're not trying to ban nudist camps where the parents are there," said Chris Paulitz, aide to Foley, co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.  "We're talking about kids at camps where the parents aren't there."

    Quinones jumped on the bandwagon after he said constituents called him to complain.  Legislative aide Adam Goldman said under consideration is a ban on outdoor child nudity if parents are not present.

    At the Cypress Cove nudist resort in Kissimmee, children of nudists are commonly naked under supervision of their parents, said Dean Hadley, who co-owns the decades-old club with his family.  The club has about 3,000 members.

    Child nudist camps are often run by chaperones who are parents of those in attendance and secured against people with less than wholesome thoughts in mind, Hadley said.

    Nudism is a positive lifestyle, Hadley said, if a misunderstood one.

    "We feel it (nudism) is part of the culture--little known, and little understood, but well-established in American society."


    Proposed Law in Texas

Texas House Bill 50 78S10042 YDB-D By: Hughes H.B. No. 50

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT relating to prohibiting nudist youth camps.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

    SECTION 1. Chapter 141, Health and Safety Code, is amended by adding Section 141.0095 to read as follows:

    Sec. 141.0095. NUDIST YOUTH CAMPS PROHIBITED; STANDARDS. A youth camp may not operate as a nudist camp.  The board shall adopt standards as necessary to implement this section.

    SECTION 2. The Texas Board of Health shall adopt standards required by Section 141.0095, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act, not later than May 1, 2004.

    SECTION 3. This Act takes effect November 1, 2003.


    The Nude & Natural Newsletter Report

    This report was accidentally omitted from the first batch of documents, so included in the second.  It is now restored to its proper place.

In Texas: Lawmaker Files a Bill Seeking to Prohibit Nude Camps for Youth.
August 2003

    AUSTIN, Texas — Reacting to an article published in The New York Times, a Texas lawmaker has filed a bill to prohibit e operation of nude youth camps anywhere in the state.

    Although the regular biennial session of the Texas legislature had adjourned in early June, a special session called by the governor allowed Rep.  Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) to file his bill and have it receive a committee hearing.

    At the July 10 hearing before the House Committee on Public Health, Hughes explained that the sole reason for House Bill 50 was a June 18 article in The New York Times that quoted American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) sources as saying that "organizers in Texas are planning a fourth camp [for nude youth] there for the summer of 2005."

    The only "evidence" that Hughes offered to the committee in support of his anti-nudity bill was a reprint of The New York Times article and material that Hughes said was taken from AANR's web site.

    Leaders of AANR's Southwestern Sunbathing Association region, which includes Texas, had been dumbfounded when they were told that The New York Times had printed the "fact" that a nude youth camp was being planned for Texas in 2005.  According to the president and vice president of SWSA, as well as a member of the regional board of directors and the region's government affairs chair, no discussion with them of a Texas nude youth camp scheduled for 2005 had preceded the public relations release to the Times concerning the fictional event.

    The SWSA board of directors subsequently agreed to study the prospect of such a camp, but they had no time to prepare a position or consider a strategy before Rep.  Hughes had filed his bill.

    NAC chairman and executive director Bob Morton testified against HB 50 in the legislative committee hearing on July 10.  Also testifying was his son Robert, an Eagle Scout, a recent college graduate--and a participant in a number of smaller scale, less extravagantly hyped nude youth camps and events.

    Committee members grilled those opposed to the bill.  Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (R-Wylie) made a vicious but unsuccessful attempt to link family naturist activities to child pornography, rape and incest.

    As with the more celebrated reaction to the Times article by Congressman Mark Foley, the Texas issue is about the characterization of social nudity as inappropriate or dangerous for children.  Unlike the Foley situation, which has so far been limited to political posturing, an actual proposed law has been filed and debated in Texas.  The backlash to the mishandled public relations has resulted in a clear threat to naturism.

    The Texas House committee took no immediate action on HB 50.  Bills introduced in a called session of the legislature (as compared to a regular session) cannot be considered for a floor vote unless they are on the list of topics approved by the Governor for the special session.  HB 50 was not on the list, and although Rep.  Hughes was hopeful he could convince the Governor to add it, that didn't happen.

    However, the Texas legislature did not complete the congressional redistricting task for which it had been called.  Gov. Rick Perry has called a second special session with a new list of approved topics.  Those topics had not been disclosed by press time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Newsletter # 12
    Professors and Researchers
    Special Interest Group
    The Naturist Society
    May, 2004

    ● Youth Camp Supplement ●


Contents:
    1.  The saga continues
        a.  Tallahassee Naturally reports
        b.  Beach Buzz summary
    2.  South Florida Free Beaches continues to take the lead
        a.  SFFB report on the meeting with Foley
        b.  The camp founder speaks
        c.  A camper speaks out
        d.  The John Walsh Show
    3.  The video sideshow--one last gasp from Cincinnati
    4.  [An ommitted Texas article has now been restored to the first batch]
    5.  General analysis
        a.  The Nude and Natural article
        b.  Kush editorial in Beach Buzz
        c.  Hoffman editorial in Nude and Natural
    6.  Meanwhile in Virginia...
        a.  Proposed Virginia law
        b.  The Associated Press filing report
        c.  March Bulletin report on House committee hearings
        d.  The Washington Times report on the full House vote
        e.  The Associated Press report on Senate committee hearings
        f.    April Bulletin report on Senate committee hearings
    7.  Editorial comment on Virginia
        a.  Dougherty column in The Virginian-Pilot
        b.  The Daily Press editorial
        c.  The Clothing Optional Digest editorial
        d.  Dietrich column in The Daily Press
        e.  Morton editorial in The Nude & Natural Newsletter
        f.   Williamson appeal in The Bulletin
    8.  Last echoes (after the electronic newsletter went out)
        a.  Von Hagel report in The Bulletin
        b.  Pat Brown's letter to Governor Warner
        c.  Kraus letter in The Bulletin
        d.  Morton article in Nude and Natural
    
    We devoted our August newsletter to the youth camp furor.  In September, South Florida Free Beaches' newsletter, Beach Buzz, did the same.  Also the quarterly nudist magazines published their reports.  In the months since, legislative threats have come and gone.  This looks like the end of the episode.  Here are the related documents:


    Tallahassee Naturally reports

AANR Dodges Three Bullets: Youth Camps Are Safe
May 2004

    Last summer, the American Association for Nude Recreation decided to emphasize their family orientation by inviting major reporters to their Florida youth camp, which Paul had started many years ago.  But when The New York Times printed an enthusiastic story, little-known Florida politician Mark Foley seized on it as a campaign issue he hoped would propel him into retiring senator Bob Graham's seat.  The publicity Foley got turned sour, and he withdrew his candidacy in early September.  Meanwhile, he had stirred up a lot of political trouble.

    There were three camps in 2003--in Florida, Virginia, and Arizona.  The year before, there had been an experimental weekend camp in Texas, with the idea of eventually starting a week-long camp there, as well.  A special session of the Texas legislature was already in session, so an anti-nudist-camp bill quickly went into committee.  The Naturist Action Committee moved decisively to kill it.

    Meanwhile, representative John Quinones (from Kissimmee, of all places) promised to introduce a similar bill in the 2004 session of the Florida legislature.  From the beginning, South Florida Free Beaches insisted that any law regulating camp staff or parental permission apply to ALL camps, and not discriminate against nudists.  And South Florida Free Beaches had plenty of friends in the legislature to introduce such amendments.  Ten years of political lobbying were beginning to pay off.  By February, Quinones confided that he had already milked the issue for all the good publicity he could get out of it, and realized that any further publicity would turn against him.  He did not want to explain to parents why he was harassing Boy Scout and church camps in an election year.  There will be no bill.

    But Virginia is a different story.  When a bill appeared, requiring every nudist parent to attend camp with their children, the less politically experienced AANR and AANR-East took the lead there.  It was their camp, after all.  They thought they had made inroads in the House committee, but when the bill reached the full House, it passed 98-to-1.  And the one person who voted against it did so because he wanted to outlaw all childhood nudity, even with the parents present.  The bill passed unanimously in the Senate--but not before AANR got it amended to allow a parent to make a quick grocery run.  AANR was already apologizing for the loss when a reporter noticed that the wording of the amendment would allow parents to register for the camp but never show up.  So nothing has really changed.

    Though AANR-East has 19 states where they can rotate the camp, they have announced plans to hold it again this year in Virginia--with all parents required to attend.  The AANR-West camp moves to California this year, and the Florida camp of course remains in Florida.  Like two years ago, there will be another mini-camp in Texas.  The expansion plan seems to be back on track after a rough year.


    Beach Buzz Summary
    by Shirley Mason

A Summer of Education, Defense and Offense: Anatomy of an Anti-nudity Battle
September 2003

    Little did I know that plans of spring cleaning–-even at the beginning of summer–-and an overdue date with the third book in the series of Harry Potter was just about to turn to vapor on the fateful day of June 18, 2003.  I received an e-mail message from Dennis Kirkpatrick that provided the web address for another positive article on nude recreation.  I made note of the URL to read later and continued on to read the other dozen or so e-mails.  Marvin Frandsen’s was the next one I opened with a catchy subject title of “Old Enough To Make A Lanyard” from the New York Times about a Florida nude youth leadership camp.  

    By June 19th, I read the article about Congressman Mark Foley’s letter to Governor Bush and Attorney General Charlie Christ, giving a scathing account of our nude summer camps for naturist youth.  I knew that doing nothing more than contemplating my navel, if I so decided, was going to be put on hold indefinitely.

    The anger that I felt at reading what Congressman Foley said was only tempered by the thought of what must be done to defuse this public relations disaster.  It was obvious that this was not going to be a passing issue, knowing the tenor of the public’s paranoia over nudity in almost any form, equating it to everything sexual.  Add nude co-ed children in a nudist resort environment with other adults in proximity, meant instant disaster for the organized naturists/nudists of the entire United States.  My volunteer citizen activism in both educating and grass roots lobbying of government officials for nude recreation since 1990 told me that this would spiral downward quickly.  Every instinct said that this was going to spread like wildfire throughout state legislatures around the country.  If all of the naturist community didn’t work together to take charge of the situation by countering Foley's malicious innuendoes and scurrilous allegations bordering on slander and libel, we would be cooked.

    In this case, the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) was the natural lead organization for this educational campaign because they sponsored the nude youth leadership camps and they invited the press to the Florida Nude Youth Camp.  Unfortunately, they were not prepared for the onslaught of mostly negative publicity that occurred as a result.  After about 3 days of weak and embarrassing defensive exchanges in the frying pan of high profile national media shows, AANR leadership retreated, not to be heard from.  Several unscientific polls indicated that Foley’s rhetoric had legs and the public sentiment showed 4 out of 5 people believed that nude youth camps were harmful.

    AANR’s statement to its members and state and national naturist community leaders was that they were advised by their professional lobbyist to do nothing and this thing would go away.  They notified us that they would not attend the meeting that I had set up with Foley or attend the press conference the organized naturist leaders had arranged so our correct message of facts versus fiction could reach the public.

NATURIST LEADERS MEET WITH FOLEY AND HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE

    South Florida Free Beaches / Florida Naturist Association and B.E.A.C.H.E.S.  Foundation had been conferring with one of the top communications firms in Florida, Ron Sachs Communications after the third day of this fiasco.  So after a week of this nightmare and when we were informed that AANR would not get out in front of this issue, SFFB / FNA hired Ron Sachs Communications.  They immediately saw how important it was to get a clear, uninterrupted message from the naturists on the Foley/Nude Youth Camp issue.  A press conference was planned in Palm Beach County and held immediately after the naturist leaders' morning meeting with Foley on Monday, July 7th.  However, the day before, naturist leaders met with Ron Sachs Communications account executive Carla Lucas Brown for a strategy meeting, review and crash coaching session.  NOTE : Our special thanks to our professional team of John Wark, Carla Lucas Brown and Ron Sachs for working so hard and charging so little for professional services we naturists could never afford.

    The meeting with Foley and his chief of staff was instructive and educational for both Foley and the 15 naturists in attendance.  Naturists voiced their extreme displeasure with Foley’s actions and rhetoric in a candid but respectful manor.  Things were left with an understanding that the real issue we could all agree on was the need for ALL camp employees and volunteers to undergo a fingerprint and back ground check done by the FBI for the purpose of identifying sexual offenders and felons.  Foley admitted that he was very bothered by naturist children attending these camps without their parents being with them 24/7.  What naturists made clear was that we would not be singled out because of mere nudity and naturist parents would not be coerced into attending nude youth camps with their children in order for these camps to exist.  In the minds of the naturists, it is about equal protection and parental rights.  If the protection of children was the real motive of Foley and other elected officials, then parents, textile or nude, should have to attend EVERY youth camp program in the country including camps for scouts, church, sports, etc.

    The press conference was well attended by a dozen reporters from local, state and national media.  We received two full days of print, television and radio coverage.  As a result, the Foley meeting and Naturist press conference combined with the Governor’s Report of the nude kids' camps being legal with no reported complaints or problems in its 10-year history worked to turn the tide.  Subsequent polls following the media coverage reversed in favor of parents having the right to decide to send their children to nude camps.

    The residual result of the media coverage led to invitations to appear on several shows and event engagements.  The two I’ve selected to expound on are as follows:

TIGER BAY CLUB, TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA--LUNCHEON

    As a self-professed irreverent group of political junkies, the Tiger Bay Club is made up of business, professional and political leaders of the community; it is more than 30-years old.  Tiger Bay Club groups can be found in cities throughout the country; it was originally started for Democratic Party elected government leaders and business-oriented members.  This has changed over the years and it does allow people from other parties to join as well.  The Capital Tiger Bay Club speakers are a virtual who’s who of the rich, powerful, famous and infamous, ranging from foreign dignitaries to social, professional, and political celebrities.  To quote from their Club Biography booklet: “Members and guests must be wary of tribal traditions.  Having stood the test of time, these ceremonies bring great joy to many while inflicting great pain on others.  Certain rituals even involve the roasting of unsuspecting tribal members and speakers.  You may prepare yourself for this, but understand that there is no escaping the inevitable.  If it is your time...then it is your time.”

    In sorting through the maze of media calls of inquiries and interview, I received an enthusiastic request by the club’s executive director to speak before this prestigious group.  On July 30, 2003, the Capital Tiger Bay Club paid for me, as executive director of B.E.A.C.H.E.S.  Foundation, naturist activist and camp volunteer Marion Hofmann, and her grandson Kyle, who attended the youth camp in question at Lake Como, to fly to Tallahassee.  Paul LeValley, president of Tallahassee Naturally and the person who created the Florida nude kids' camp program, was a welcome addition to our speaking team.

    Here is the announcement the Tiger Bay members received:

    “Aaaahhhhh -summer time is here.  Hopefully, a little R & R, a little fun in the sun.  The ideal time of year for individuals and families to spend time at the beach and summer camps.  That is unless you like going to clothes-optional beaches (i.e., go in the buff).  In case you have not followed it in the papers, U.S. Congressman Mark Foley has created quite a stir among the naturists/ recreational nudists community with his requests for investigations into nudist camps for children in Florida.  He claims that he is concerned with the safety of the children and that “kids are not in contact with undesirables."  Attacks on constitutional privacy rights, harassment, and political aspirations are among the accusations expressed by B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation Executive Director Shirley Mason, our next speaker for the Capital Tiger Bay Club.  More pointedly, Ms. Mason is convinced of a movement within the Florida Legislature, as in some other states, to try and ban this type of activity in Florida.  Make no mistake about it, “nudity is a political issue” and “it’s a fundamental freedom in this country to make such personal choices.”  Now THIS would make for an interesting Special Session next year.”

    Greeted with friendly smiles and poster-size cartoons poking fun at Congressman Foley, we knew we were in friendly territory and it was going to be OK.  We reciprocated with two giant posters of our own, showing our sense of humor and pride in our form of recreation with the kid cartoon character “Calvin” running and the phrase, “Life is short, Play Naked” placed next to Foley’s cartoon.  The other oversized poster was of the clothing optional section of Haulover Beach on Miami Beach and was placed on an easel in the front of the room next to the dais head table–-Nothing subtle here.

    We spoke at the luncheon for about 45 minutes and received a wa rm welcome and response from its members.  Approximately 300 members were in attendance and we're told that this was their largest turnout for a summer meeting, when most of their members are on vacation.  Local and national print and television media covered the event and favorable press followed.

    Our team skillfully blended the serious repercussions of anti-nudity legislation, economics of nude recreation, information about the logistics of a typical camp experience with lighthearted remembrances of the history of skinny-dipping in the Tallahassee area and the traditional campus annual streaking events that began at Florida State University.  So when the question was asked, “Who has ever skinny-dipped?” at least half the members raised their hands.  They could relate.

    This two-day trip to Tallahassee afforded me the opportunity to meet with a few key legislators’ staffs and pow-wow with Ron Sachs and members of his staff.  I was even invited to enjoy a complimentary dinner with one of his newest seasoned professionals–-Art Carlson, former lead anchor in Miami with the ABC affiliate television station.

    After several stress-filled lobbying trips to Tallahassee over the past ten years, I can honestly say this was my first enjoyable encounter with that town.  Guess it’s a different place when it’s not in Session.

INSULT TO INJURY / INSULT AND INJURY

    Foley had received national media attention over this issue, probably for the first time, and he loved it.  No doubt, Foley was star-struck and feeling very important.  But the attention was waning by the end of July.  Some of the national coverage by a few of the cable talk show élites didn’t find his hysteria to be worthwhile and said so.  I suspect that Foley felt somewhat humiliated.  So, when he learned about the former president of AANR, Walt Zadanoff, selling nude recreation and travel videos on the Internet, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to gain more attention.  He could now go back to those that wouldn’t fall for his scare tactics, and say, “I told you so, these people are peddling child porn and attracting pedophiles."  He went back to the Governor and the media with his new find.  This time the governor sent in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and even the FBI got involved.

    But as expected, Foley didn’t care that these were videos of nudist facilities in Europe that contained footage of children engaging in normal activities such as innocent sport competitions, “beauty” contests, swimming, socials, and typical kids' play.  He now got his second 15 minutes of fame by causing more havoc for naturists in general and Mr.  Zadanoff in particular.  

    Once again, AANR was not prepared and handled this new revaluation awkwardly at best.  They totally disassociated themselves from a loyal member and former leader.

    In mid-September, Walt Zadanoff was vindicated, but not without his reputation being ruined, loss of precious privacy and income to supplement his retirement income.  Florida law enforcement authorities reported to Governor Bush that the videos were not sexual in nature and were not a violation of the law.

JOHN WALSH TV SHOW: ROCKEFELLER CENTER, NEW YORK CITY

    On August 27, 2003 a contingent of nine naturists from Florida and Arizona were flown to New York City to do a taping of the John Walsh Show on August 28th.  The show aired on Tuesday, September 9, 2003.  I was called the week following our press conference, did an interview, and was subsequently selected to participate on the show.

IN CONCLUSION?  NOT YET

    As of this publication printing (September 25, 03) there has been at least one other state bill in Texas (HB 50) that has been introduced, and one hearing has taken place.  A Florida bill has been drafted for introduction during the 2004 Florida Legislature–-both as a result of this Foley/nude camp episode.  Other officials in Arizona, Virginia and Georgia are doing the same with the help and backing of far right politically religious organizations.  South Florida Free Beaches/FNA director and volunteer activist, Richard Mason has been calling on South Florida legislators, educating them about this issue.  

    Naturists/nudists must get prepared for long, costly and protracted battles in the war to stop non-sexual nude recreation on both public and private lands.  We more than likely will end up in federal court after going through the state court process in several states if anti-nudity laws should pass and/or a restriction on our children participating in family-oriented naturism.  We have no choice.  So, stay tuned.

    Guess Harry Potter and spring cleaning will just have to wait.  


    SFFB report on the meeting with Foley

Coalition of Naturist Leaders Confronts Rep.  Foley and the Media
September 2003

    Rep.  Foley’s letter attacking the AANR Youth Leadership Camp was written on June 18, 2003, the same day that the first article on the Camp appeared in The New York Times.  On that day and the next, Foley also appeared on a number of news and commentary programs.

    On June 20th, Shirley Mason, B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation’s Executive Director, sent an invitation to Rep.  Foley to meet with the leaders of the national and local naturist organizations to discuss the camps, and to correct misconceptions he had regarding both the functioning of the camps, and naturism in general.  A coalition of concerned naturist groups was quickly formed; those that subsequently participated in the meeting with Rep. Foley included B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation, South Florida Free Beaches/Florida Naturist Association, The Naturist Society and its Naturist Action Committee, Naturist Christians, Sunsport Gardens Resort, and Central Florida Naturists.  AANR was invited to participate in this coalition, but declined, as did Lake Como Resort, the host of this year’s Youth Leadership Camp.

    In advance of the scheduled July 7 meeting with Rep. Foley, SFFB/FNA hired Ron Sachs Communications of Tallahassee to set up a media conference for that day, and advise us on tactics and presentation.  The cost of employing RSC was mainly borne by individual naturist donors to SFFB/FNA’s Legal Defense & Political Action Fund, with additional contributions from TNS, NAC, Tampa Area Naturists, The Federation of Canadian Naturists & B.E.A.C.H.E.S.  Foundation.

    Before our meeting and media conference, and confirming the importance of our decision to take this public step, on July 1st FL Rep. Quinones (Kissimmee) announced that he would take the lead in creating a new state statute restricting the participation of children in naturist activities.  While we were holding a strategy meeting on Sunday before the meeting, Bob Morton of NAC was informed that TX Rep. Hughes had drafted Texas HB 50 to ban nudist youth camps there.

    On July 7, an hour-long meeting wa s held with Rep. Foley.  In addition to representatives from the naturist organizations already mentioned, also present was Kyle Hofmann, a 16-ye a r- o l d camp attendee and his grandmother, who was an adult volunteer at the camp.  (Read Ky l e ’s account of the camp on page A.)  Also present at the meeting with Rep. Foley and the subsequent media event, as well as at our pre-event planning session on Sunday, was a representative of Ron Sachs Communications.

    At the meeting, Rep. Foley was presented with reports of child abuse at numerous non-nudist camps, and was asked why he was targeting a nudist camp at which no abuse had been reported; Mr. Foley was asked to contact the Pasco County Sheriff to confirm this.  We objected to the inflammatory language he had been using; he agreed to modify the language on his website.  We objected to the inflammatory language he had been using; he agreed to modify the language on his website.  We objected to being singled out as targets, and suggested he expand his investigation and call for standards to all youth camps: church camps, scout camps, etc.  We stated that American families had a right to enjoy the naturist lifestyle.  We spoke on the family values of Naturists, and on the safeguards at the camps: pairs of adult counselors present at all times, only participants allowed in Youth Leadership Camp site, etc.  We stated we as Naturists could stand fair scrutiny, and offered to provide any information he might further require to make an informed evaluation of the safety of the Youth Leadership Camps.

    RSC had arranged for the presence of reporters from CNN, local network TV affiliates, and the press.  The principal presenters were Shirley Mason (B.E.A.C.H.E.S.), Norma Mitchell (Seminole Health Club resident & former owner of Turtle Lake Resort), Marion Hofmann (grandmother of camp attendee), and Michelle Watson (Sunsport Gardens manager).  After the formal presentation, the media also interviewed Kyle Hofmann (16-year-old camp attendee) and Bob Morton (NAC, also representing The Naturist Society).  The presentation points were the same as in the meeting with Rep. Foley.

    On July 7th and 8th, reports appeared on all local South Florida network TV affiliates.  Once again the media’s attention was aroused, but this time it was we that were largely controlling the message.  The reports in the various media were generally positive, featuring comments from Shirley Mason (B.E.A.C.H.E.S.  Foundation), from Kyle Hofmann, and from his grandmother, Marion.  In a separate interview taped the same day, Rep. Foley pulled back from his earlier provocative statements on the camp.

    On July 12th, Rep.  Foley moderated the offensive and defamatory language attacking naturist parents on his website.  On July 31st, Shirley Mason was invited to speak on this issue before the Tiger Bay Club of Tallahassee; also speaking were Kyle & Marion Hofmann, and Paul LeValley of Tallahassee Naturally.  Shirley Mason was subsequently invited to appear on the John Walsh Show, together with Kyle & Marion Hofmann; the show was taped in New York on August 28th.


    The Camp Founder Speaks
    Paul LeValley

    When Shirley Mason asked me to write down my comments to the Tiger Bay Club for the next issue of Beach Buzz, I cut out the introductory part, where I had warmed up the audience by reminding them of their own youthful participation in nude activities in Tallahassee (home of the college streaking fad).  The talk needed to be cut, not only for a different audience, but also because it ran longer than planned.

Some Perspective on Naturist Youth Camps
September 2003

    Naturist youth camps have been around for a long time.  In 1939, a chain of traditional camps in Vermont added skinny-dips, nude hikes, and nude gardening to their program.  There were two boys' camps, a girls' camp, and a mixed camp for older teens.  Those camps still operate today, though nudity is now restricted to the swimming area.

    1954 saw the first youth camp at a nudist park: Camp Hy-Lee Crest in Pennsylvania.  It operated through 1960.  Similar camps have since sprung up at nudist parks in Connecticut, California, Florida, New York, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, and Arizona.  And none of them ever closed because of scandal.  Instead, most of them folded after several years when the adults ran out of energy.  The California camps, for instance, were a huge operation attracting between 80 and 100 teens each year through much of the 1960s.

    Florida's first nudist youth camp started in 1978 at City Retreat, now known as Gulf Coast Resort, north of Tampa.  Jointly sponsored by the Eastern Sunbathing Association, it opened to accommodate the nation's first nude Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops.  After the owner of City Retreat died, that camp moved to Sunsport Gardens near Loxahatchee.

    When the Florida Association for Nude Recreation (FANR) organized in 1991, one of the first things we did was survey our clubs to find out how many kids we had.  (Only adults show up on national records.)  We found lots of 13-year-olds, but almost no 14-year-olds.  The clubs were doing a fine job of entertaining the little kids with Easter egg hunts and diving for pennies in the pool.  But no local club had enough kids, the facilities, or the manpower to put on a program big enough to challenge the growing abilities of our teens.  Across the state, they were dropping out from family nude recreation at age 14.

    Older heads said, "Don't worry.  They'll turn out fine.  After all, every study has shown that juvenile delinquency and teen pregnancy are almost unknown in nudist families.  They'll be back in ten years when they have married and have children of their own that they want to bring up in the same wholesome freedom."

    But we did worry about those teenagers sitting at home unsupervised while their parents and younger brothers and sisters visited a nude beach or resort.  We pride ourselves on being a family organization, and we wanted to keep our families together.  That meant putting on a teen program, and only a statewide organization was big enough to do it.

    Two years of planning and consulting with experienced camp leaders around the country produced a program with three goals:
    1.  Develop leadership & self-reliance
    2.  Sponsor personal growth through real accomplishment
    3.  Develop a philosophy of living naturally in closeness with nature
(That last one includes drug-free living.)  The camp opened in 1993, and has grown into the longest-running youth camp ever sponsored by a nudist organization.  It now includes the Junior Camp (age 11-14), the Leadership Academy (15-18), and Nude U (18-23).  The idea is spreading to other regions of the country.

    Now, after all these years, a few politicians think they have discovered something new, and are making noises about the morality of it all.  The morality of keeping our families together?  The morality of teaching our children to live without unnatural substances in or on their bodies?

    It must be said again and again:  Naturists have families, and naturists have values.

    I worked in Boy Scout camps for eleven years, but I never felt quite comfortable with the morality of that rifle range.  Was that really what we wanted to be teaching our children?  And I am very uneasy about certain religious camps that, in the name of a loving God, teach intolerance of other religions, or sometimes other races.  I also have doubts about some sports or even music camps that teach cutthroat competition.  What kind of camp is best for each child?  These are decisions that only parents can make.

    Governor Bush's office said it well:  "The rights of parents to impart their values to their children and raise their children as they see fit are sacred."


     A Camper Speaks Out
    Kyle Hofmann

My First Nude Youth Leadership Camp Experience
September 2003

    Kyle Hofmann, a 16-year-old high school student, along with his sister and cousin, was a participant in the 2003 Florida Association for Nude Recreation (FANR) Youth Leadership Camp.  His grandmother was a camp volunteer.  Here is his personal account of his experience at the camp.

    I attended my first Nudist Youth Camp in June 2003 at Lake Como Family Nudist Resort in Lutz, FL.  Lutz is about 10 miles north of Tampa.  My grandmother, who is retired, lives at the resort all year.

    I had a great time.  In fact, it was one of the best times I had in my life.  I would have never known about the camp if it wasn’t for my grandmother.  She heard about it and wanted my sister and cousin, who are both 11 years old, to attend too, so Gramma sponsored the 3 of us.  She knew it would be safe, and we would meet kids our age and learn to feel more comfortable with ourselves and with the nudist life.

    First, there were rules: like the etiquette of sitting on your own towel whenever you sat down.  This, most of us already knew from previous experience at nudist resorts and campgrounds with our parents.  Also, we had a buddy system with another camper when we left the youth camp area to visit the pool or other area of the resort, and always had to have a counselor with us.  We were told about inappropriate behavior, staring at others, touching, improper dress, belittling talk and proper manners.  You were given one warning if you broke a rule.  If you broke a small rule again then you had to go to “jail”.  There was a so-called “jail” which was a screened room with one chair in it.  We called this the “Hot Box”.  No one misbehaved and had to go in there though. If you broke a major rule, your parents were called and they had to come and take you home, but no one did.

    Our camp looked like a tent city.  There were about 35 sleeping tents for the kids and some of the counselors to sleep in. Everyone slept in his own tent.  There was a large tent with food supplies.  Other tents made a kitchen, a large dining area, and a first aid station, plus there were miscellaneous covered areas for workshops and activities.  There were port-a-potties in the camp tent city, as well as showers.

    We did get a lot of rain the first day or two, but it was warm and we didn’t have to worry about getting our clothes wet, because we didn’t have any on.  Although, inside some of our tents, our sleeping bags, pillows and belongings did get wet. It didn’t take long for them to dry, thankfully.

    The food was fantastic and before meals healthy smoothies were freshly made and served, and we all really enjoyed them.

    We were broken up into 3 different age groups.  “Youth” is 11-14, “Leadership” is 15-18, and “Nude U” is the 18-25 year-olds.  Most of the “Nude U” participants had already gone to earlier Youth Camps when they were younger.  The oldest group arrives first for leadership orientation, and then greets and helps orient the middle age group the next day when they arrive.  Then that group greets and helps orients the youngest age group when they arrive the day after that.  So the camp lasts 8 to 10 days, depending on what age group you’re in.  There are also chores assigned to everyone, like cleaning up around the area, taking turns doing dishes, etc.

    The many various activities were loads of fun as well as educational.  There were of course swimming and pool games, volleyball, nature hikes, daily meditation time, writing an essay, optional lessons for tennis, golf, petanque, arts and crafts, etc.  During our nightly campfire, with a hot dog and marshmallow roast, we had a different topic of conversation.  Each person had their time to talk, and each held a lantern at that time which meant no one else could talk or interrupt.  That is the individuals’ time to express their thoughts and feelings on the topic for the night.  Singing and music was also usually a nightly event.  Sleep time was 11 PM till 7 AM.  We were exhausted when we went to bed, so sleep was surely no problem.

    We also had serious discussions on drugs, alcohol, smoking, and body changes, and the older kids were taught how to do a resume.  There was never any smoking or drinking allowed in our large camping area by any one, including the counselors.  Also, only those with the appropriate bracelets on were allowed in the kids’ camp area at any time.  The camp area was also patrolled 24 hours a day by the counselors and volunteers.  My Gramma was on watch from 3AM till 7AM.

    The night before the camp closed, the older groups did the meal preparation and served a spaghetti dinner for about 125 people.  That included the rest of the kids, counselors, family members and invited guests.  Some kids had relatives living at Lake Como, or at nearby resorts, who visited for this meal.  Some parents who brought their kids from farther away were staying at one of the resorts in the area while their kids were at the camp, and they visited too.  After the dessert, there was a talent show that was prepared and planned by us kids the 5 previous days. There were 19 various acts that would match any TV talent show.  Almost, that is.  I was elected by the other campers to be the male Vice President of the camp. So I was picked to be the MC for the evening, along with the female Vice President.  The show was named, “The Sunny and Bare Show.” The nudist version of the “Sonny and Cher Show.” The audience loved it and laughed a lot, there was even a camper raising the “applause” sign, when appropriate.

    Awards were also given out to the many volunteers.  My Gramma was one of them.  She worked in the kitchen, did night watch and other various duties.  I was also named “Man Of The Year” and received a trophy I am proud of.  One other award I won was $25 for the essay I wrote.  It is going before the AANR National Essays and that prize is $100.

    When it was time to leave, there were tears and hugs of new friends found and formed, counselors and kids alike.

    I am so thankful to JFANR (Junior Florida Association for Nude Recreation) for having worked so hard to form and provide the Youth Camp and for raising the donations that help make it possible.

    After the camp was over I was provided the opportunity to appear before Rep. Mark Foley in his office, along with my Gramma and about a dozen other leaders in the nudist life.  We discussed what was written about the Youth Camp in the papers and shown on T.V.  OK, I don’t think he was a good listener.  I can’t believe someone goes so far to try and ruin something so special to all us nudists.  I can’t understand why he won’t let us live our lives the way we want to.  Can’t he see what he is doing to us?

    Gramma, Shirley Mason and I also went to Tallahassee to appear before the prestigious movers and shakers at the Capital Tiger Bay Club.  Some of them admitted they have been Skinny Dipping before.

    As I write this we are scheduled to fly to NYC to tape an appearance on the “John Walsh Show.”  It is being broadcast sometime in September.


    The John Walsh Show

    This was the promotional blurb for the program which aired on September 9:

Teen Nudist Camps: Healthy or Harmful?

    Did you know there were nudist camps for children ages 11-18?  Believe it or not, Youth Leadership Camp at Shangri-La Ranch in New River, AZ, as well as nudist camps operating in Virginia and Florida, are just a few of an increasing number of nudist camps for children ages 11-18.  Since many of these children attend the camp without their parents, the camp has raised concerns among state officials and lawmakers.  Nudists argue that these camps are good for teens' self-esteem and that nudism is NOT about sexuality and exploitation.  But opponents, like Florida Congressman Mark Foley, are concerned about sexual or lewd behavior between campers, as well as the background checks and the application process for camp counselors, volunteers and staff.  First, John talks with four nudist pre-teens and teens: Ali, 12, and her sister Amanda, 15 & Justine, 11, and her brother, Kyle, 16.  Kyle and Justine say they love going to nudist camp because they feel secure and are not judged based on what clothes they have on or what their bodies look like.  Ali has gone to the nudist camp for 3 years and says she enjoys it because going to camp makes her feel good about herself, and kids really get to know each other and care about what's on the inside.  Amanda has gone to nudist camp for 6 years; she insists that people have the wrong idea about the camp.  Eric & Kathy, Ali & Amanda's stepfather and mother, say that nudist camp has helped their daughters have more confidence and higher self-esteem than they would have at a regular camp, and say opponents of the camps should really investigate before they condemn nudists' way of life.  Marion, Kyle & Justine's grandmother, is also here to defend the existence of the camps.  She's been a nudist for 15 years and even worked as a volunteer this past summer at the teen nudist camp that her grandchildren attended.  Patty is the manager of Shangri-La Ranch, a clothing optional resort just outside of Phoenix, AZ, which recently hosted a teen nudist camp that her three children--ages 11, 14 & 16--attended.  Patty explains why she thinks kids benefit from the nudist camp in the studio.  Next, Florida Congressman Mark Foley shares his major concerns regarding these camps and why he thinks they are potentially dangerous for children.  Then, 22-year-old Steven, who was a counselor at a teen nudist camp this past June, tells us why he's tired of hearing all the misconceptions about nudism.  Finally, Dr.  Jeff Gardere, a clinical psychologist, weighs in with his professional opinion on the topic.

    KYLE, 16, & JUSTINE, 11, are siblings who say they love going to nude camp because they are accepted and not judged based on what clothes they have on or what their bodies look like.  They say going to nudist camp has improved their self-esteem and has made them feel good about themselves.  The siblings say they have made really good friends at camp and say they never feel threatened or uncomfortable in regard to their safety when they are there.

    ALI & AMANDA  Ali, 12, and Amanda, 15, h ave been going to teen nudist camps for several years–-and they love it!  They say that they like the way everyone is treated equally-–without material judgments.  Ali has gone to the nudist camp for 3 years and says she enjoys it because people don’t make assumptions about her based on her clothes or how she looks–-they care more about learning who she is on the inside.  Amanda has gone to the camp for 6 years.  She insists that people have the wrong idea about the camp and defends her nudist lifestyle.

    PATTY FABER is the manager of Shangri- La Ranch, a clothing optional resort just outside of Phoenix, AZ, which recently hosted a teen nudist camp.  Patty’s three children, ages 11, 14 & 16, attended the nudist camp held at Shangri-La this summer.  Patty says she believes kids benefit from the nudist camps in several ways--it gives them better self-esteem; it makes them more comfortable with themselves and their bodies, and it even makes them more confident in school.  She insists that the children are protected, since all counselors and employees at her camp get background checks.

    ERIC & KATHY  Eric, who is Ali & Amanda’s stepfather, says the teen nudist camp has been a big self-esteem booster for his stepdaughters, and that they’ve developed close friendships with other teens who are involved in the nudist lifestyle.  Kathy, the girls’ mom, says that the nudist camps have given her daughters confidence and the freedom to be who they are, no matter their social status or class, because underneath it all, all kids are equal.  Eric says he and his wife are totally comfortable and confident that their children are safe when they are at camp, and the couple defends their lifestyle against their opponents.

    MARION is Kyle & Justine’s grandmother.  She’s been a nudist for 15 years and volunteered this past summer at Lake Como’s teen nudist camp, which her grandchildren attended.  She says that Congressman Foley needs to educate himself about teen nudist camps before jumping to conclusions about the safety of the children who attend, and they debate this issue in the studio.

    CONGRESSMAN MARK FOLEY of Florida says that letting nude teenagers of such a varying age range engage in activities together is potentially dangerous.  He says he is concerned that these camps could expose kids to pedophiles and other dangers, and he has urged state officials to investigate them.  Congressman Foley believes leaving kids alone in camp without their parents’ supervision leaves the children open to exploitation, and wants to see extensive background checks conducted on all nudist camp members and staff to make sure the campers are safe.

    STEVEN was a counselor at a Lake Como’s teen nudist camp this past June.  Steven grew up in a nudist environment and says it has helped him with his self-esteem.  He says critics of nudism don’t take the time to learn about the lifestyle, and says there are many misconceptions about the types of safeguards that are in place at the camps.

    DR. JEFF GARDERE is a Clinical Psychologist who says there are dangers with teen nudist camps.  He agrees that teens who attend these camps may have a more positive self-image, but he says his issue is that nudist parents are imposing a lifestyle on child ren that they may not be prepared to deal with.  Dr. Gardere also says that putting 11 year olds and 18 year olds together, naked, could be “a disaster waiting to happen” because some children may not be developmentally mature enough to handle it.

    SHIRLEY MASON is the Executive Director of the B.E.A.C.H.E.S.  Foundation Institute, a Florida group that supports clothing-free beaches.  Shirley is a supporter of teen nudist camps and says that people are too quick to equate nudity and sexuality.  She says people don’t realize how much adult supervision these camps have and says that none of the legislators, including Congressman Foley, have taken the time to learn about the nudist lifestyle and family values.  She feels these opponents are overacting to society’s fears regarding sexual abuse and pedophilia.


    The video sideshow--one last gasp
    WCPO-Cincinnati Attacks Travel Naturally
     by Andrea Canning

    When the national naturist quarterly magazines came out in late August, Travel Naturally simply reprinted the New York Times article and the TNS Position Statement--along with three pictures of family naturism from European videos, and this defiant advertising caption:

Unlike their U.S. counterparts who fear negative public reaction, European youth groups are popularized through videos from Europa Docu-Search, Inc. and its line of The Helios Natura Video Collection.  Available in the United States from Internaturally.

    In early November, a muckraking television reporter in Cincinnati tried to stir up the controversy again.  This time there was no mention of the camp.  The quotations on both sides of the issue are incoherent.  Travel Naturally reprinted this account in their next issue, without comment.

Tri-state Parents Upset Over Nudist Magazine
11/3/03  6:58 PM

    The subjects may not be wearing anything but there's plenty to look at in a magazine that has some Tri-state parents outraged.

    The Campbell County prosecutor is now looking into a publication that's selling nudist vacations but is also selling what some are calling child pornography.

    9News picked up a copy of Travel Naturally in the lifestyles section of Barnes and Noble at Newport-on-the-Levee.

    It was full frontal nudity of young children and teens and included ads for videos depicting them in the nude.

    But the makers of the magazine said this is wholesome family fun and every family has a right to do things in its own way.

    The publishers of "Travel Naturally" magazine said it's meant to promote vacations in the nude.

    But Debbie Dove, the mother of 14-year-old Kayla, saw something much different.

    "I don't like it at all, I don't like what I see in it, the tapes, knowing that there's tapes that kids are being taped with everything that goes on with child molestation it makes you think about what's out there, what's in the bookstores," Dove said.

    Photos of children and teens in the nude and videos for sale like Happy Birthday Sweet Klara, an 11-year-old celebrating her birthday in the nude with her friends are featured in the magazine.

    "In my initial very brief look at the magazine I certainly have some concerns about some criminal violations here.  If criminal charges are appropriate here we'll proceed accordingly," said Justin Verst, Campbell County prosecutor.

    The company that puts out the magazine said this is all part of the naturalistic lifestyle.
    
    "If someone has seen a picture of a nude child they must have been seen there with their parents and in other countries this is much more common place, they don't have the phobia that Americans seem to have of their own bodies," said a publisher spokesperson.

    "If it's presented as a guise like this to be some sort of naturalist and indeed pedophiles are seducing this, trust me the rapes and incidents of child abduction and child sexual abuse rise when this type of material is available in our community," said Phil Burress, Citizens For Community Values.

    9News spoke with a Barnes and Noble representative Monday who said the magazine is not pornographic and if the prosecutor asks to have it removed they will not oblige.  They said the only way they will remove the magazine is if a judge rules they have to.


    The Nude and Natural article

    When the national quarterly naturist magazines came out in late August, Nude & Natural published this summary and analysis:

Congressman Seeks Closure of Nude Youth Camps: Response to PR effort has expanded to include state legislation in Texas, a threat in Florida

    Reacting to an article published in the New York Times, a Florida Congressman has labeled youth camps at nudist facilities to be a "reprehensible exploitation of children," and has called for the immediate closure of what he calls a legal "loophole" that "subjects impressionable youths to denigrating and dangerous behavior and could expose them to pedophiles."

    The Times article was not an exposè.  Far from it.  In fact, it was put together with the enthusiastic cooperation and blessing of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) and YPB&R, its hired public relations firm.  The Times piece appeared as part of a recent AANR media blitz on behalf of nudists.  Leadership of the association is presently trying to sell a major reorganization to its members, and one of the elements of the plan is its intent to replace efforts of volunteers, to a large extent, with those of hired professionals like YPB&R.

    Justifiably pleased by recent articles mentioning AANR that appeared in publications like the Wall Street Journal and Reader's Digest, AANR had confidently allowed the media unprecedented access to a summer camp for nude youth it operated during June at Lake Como, a nudist resort near Tampa.  AANR was not anticipating a backlash and appeared to be caught off guard when one erupted.  Soon after the Times article appeared, Congressman Mark Foley, a fifth term Republican lawmaker from West Palm Beach, called for an investigation of AANR's youth camps.

    Rep. Foley's initial barrage came in the form of a letter he sent on June 18 to Florida Governor Jeb Bush and State Attorney General Charlie Crist.  In his letter, Foley asked that nude youth camps in the state be investigated for reports of child abuse and other criminal acts.

    What had started as a public relations effort by professionals quickly devolved into damage control handled by volunteers.  A prepared and poised Foley quickly rode the ensuing media frenzy into national exposure with TV, radio and print appearances.
Foley is well known to the Naturist Action Committee (NAC), which carefully tracks local, state and national lawmakers who are likely threats to naturist interests.  Earlier this year, Rep. Foley introduced a Congressional measure (HR 756) that some fear could be used to prohibit family-friendly naturist publications from including images of nude children.

    Many speculate that Foley seized the issue as a means of deflecting questions about his personal life.  The congressman has set his sights on the U.S.  Senate seat presently held by Bob Graham, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president.  The opportunistic Foley campaign instantly recognized the sorely needed "family values" issue that had been dropped in its lap.

    After a week of attempting to defuse the situation with conciliatory sound bites ("We're on the same team with Rep. Foley") and TV appearances (ABC, CBS and numerous local shows), AANR officials abruptly began refusing to grant interviews or make appearances.

    Unfortunately, the furor did not dissipate.  Choosing not to let the voices of critics go unchallenged, NAC and other naturist organizations have continued giving interviews and representing the naturist point of view to the media.

Meanwhile:

●    WFTV, the Orlando ABC affiliate, was given a copy of AANR's venerable video Welcome to Our World to use as background for a news report on the youth camp issue.  The TV station aired portions of the video (with large blurry overlays) as part of a news segment in which a local psychologist pronounced it to be child pornography.  The station announced it had turned the tape over to the FBI, which promised to investigate it as part of its Innocent Images National Initiative.  

●    Addressing the matter of nude youth camps, a spokesperson for Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore announced, "We're very concerned about this development.  An atmosphere like that is very clearly an invitation to pedophiles."  White Tail Park in Ivor, Va., is the site of another of AANR's nude youth camps.

●    Florida State Rep. John Quinones (R-Kissimmee) indicated that he was considering introduction of a proposed state law that would ban child nudity outdoors if parents are not present.

●    Texas State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) threatened to file legislation that seeks to prevent nudist camps from "targeting" children in Texas.

    Leaders of other naturist and nudist organizations learned of the New York Times article at roughly the same moment they learned of the mounting backlash to it.
"This is a very serious issue for naturists," said Bob Morton, executive director of the Naturist Action Committee.  "Naturism has always been inclusive of families with children, and naturist parents must be allowed the fundamental right to imbue their children with their own values."

    "That includes," said Morton, "the right to create appropriate and supervised settings in which naturist youth are allowed to validate their experiences and values with their peers.  AANR's youth camps are body-positive reflections of basic naturist beliefs, and we endorse them."

    Responding by letter to Rep. Foley on behalf of Gov. Bush, Raquel Rodriguez, general counsel to the governor, echoed many of the same ideas.  "As of this writing," she wrote, "we are unaware of any reports alleging child abuse, neglect or exploitation related to the camp...  The rights of parents to impart their values to their children and raise their children as they see fit are sacred."

Naturist Coalition Meets with Rep. Foley

    Along with representatives of other concerned naturist organizations, NAC took part in a face-to-face meeting with Rep. Foley on the morning of July 7.  The meticulously planned encounter was part of an action that included BEACHES Foundation, South Florida Free Beaches / Florida Naturist Association, Central Florida Naturists, Sunsport Gardens and The Naturist Society.  Also in attendance was a representative of the Christian naturist community, as well as a teen who had attended a recent nude youth camp, and his grandmother.

    Coordination for the collaborative activity was provided by Shirley Mason of BEACHES.

    It was widely reported that AANR was a part of the meeting.  Indeed, the coalition of naturists had invited AANR and its regional affiliate, the Florida Association for Nude Recreation (FANR).  However, after indicating initially that it would send a representative, AANR declined to participate in the meeting with Foley.  FANR was likewise absent.

    The meeting, which took place in Rep. Foley's Palm Beach Gardens district office, lasted close to an hour.  It was followed by a well-attended press briefing and interview availability session presented by the naturist coalition in a meeting room of a nearby hotel.

    Naturist participants met with Foley and let the congressman know that they were displeased with his characterization of them and the irresponsible accusations he had tossed about.  The meeting remained civil, but there was a definite edge to it throughout.

    Naturists pointed out that nude youth camps have an enviable record for protecting the children involved.  In fact, if one were simply looking toward the protection of children, instead of trolling for a campaign issue, there are many other types of youth camps that are statistically far more deserving of attention and scrutiny.  Naturists challenged Rep. Foley to use his influence to improve the safety of children at all camps, rather than focusing on nude youth camps as a target for his unwarranted attacks.

    The participants promised to provide Rep. Foley with additional material to assist his further education on the topic.  Foley committed to a review of his inflammatory rhetoric, and he agreed to an immediate modification of his Web site.

    Recognizing that chances were slim that Foley would comply, naturists nevertheless demanded that the congressman send a follow-up letter to Gov.  Bush, reflecting the new understanding he'd acquired as a result of the meeting.

    Foley was polite and attentive throughout, but it was clear that he is a skilled politician seeking a political advantage in every statement offered by those who sought to enlighten him.

    The media session at the hotel across the street resulted in a number of news items that can only be described as favorable to naturist interests.

Fallout in Texas

    It is in the hinterland that direct fallout from the New York Times article has perhaps been felt most tangibly.  While lawmakers in other parts of the country were still posturing and seeking media attention, Texas State Rep. Bryan Hughes made good his threat to file actual legislation.  His bill to prohibit nude camps for children became House Bill 50 in the state's special legislative session.

    HB 50 was granted a public hearing in the House Committee on Public Health on July 10.  In the folder he had prepared for each member of the committee, Rep. Hughes presented only one piece of evidence: a reprint of the New York Times article.  In his oral testimony, the lawmaker singled out a phrase from the article that referred to AANR's three existing nude youth camps and said that "organizers in Texas are planning a fourth camp there for the summer of 2005."  Hughes declared that if not for that sentence he would never have filed his bill.

    As it turns out, however, "organizers in Texas" had not been planning a nude youth camp for 2005 or any other date.  Officials of the Southwestern Sunbathing Association (SWSA), AANR's regional affiliate in Texas, expressed surprise at news of the "plan" when they were told of the Times article the day after it appeared in print.  The SWSA board of directors subsequently agreed to study the prospect of such a camp, but they had no time to prepare a position or consider a strategy before Rep. Hughes filed his bill.

    The mention of a nude youth camp in Texas had been solely responsible for precipitating an anti-nudity bill in the state legislature, but a Texas camp had apparently
been public relations fiction created specifically for the Times article.

    NAC's Morton testified against HB 50 in the committee hearing.  Also testifying was his son Robert, an Eagle Scout, a recent college graduate, and a participant in a number of smaller scale, less extravagantly hyped nude youth camps and events.
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.

Where The Issue Stands Now

    At press time for this issue of N:

●    On the day following his meeting with naturists, Mark Foley officially announced his candidacy for the United States Senate.

●    Rep. Foley, after a delay of several days, finally made good on his promise to remove the worst of the inflammatory and defamatory rhetoric from his Web site.  Having established a contact with the congressman, naturists are keeping in regular touch with Foley and his aides.

●    Florida State Rep. John Quinones still says he intends to offer his legislation, but formal confirmation of that posture will have to wait until next year's regular session of the Florida legislature.

●    The Texas legislature has not acted on HB 50.  The strong showing by naturists at the committee hearing may help to keep the bill off the floor of the legislature.

    Naturists have responded with quickness and strength, but this situation is by no means over.  The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) is still investigating.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still investigating.  A live anti-nudity bill exists in Texas and another is threatened in Florida.  Defamatory statements made by a U.S.  congressman hang in the air, damning those who include their children in their naturist pursuits.

    And there's the inescapable feeling that it was all avoidable.

    No responsible naturist would suggest that we should "hide our light under a bushel."  Naturist children are an integral part of the spectrum of naturist activities.  We should be free to include them and proud to say so.  

    But we must not rush headlong into the arena of public relations without expecting an occasional social or political dustup.  Those can be handled if one has a contingency plan.  Sadly, there was no plan for this episode, and the kid who kicked over the ant hill went mute at just the wrong time.

    NAC will continue to provide updates as they become available at its Web site, www.naturistsociety.com/nac.  Also, the Professors & Researchers SIG is compiling relevant documents and a bibliography on the media coverage of the nude youth camps story.  For a copy, contact SIG coordinator Paul LeValley, levalley@tfn.net.


    Kush editorial in Beach Buzz
    By Michael Kush

Nudist Youth Camps: A Wedge Issue
September 2003

    This issue of the Beach Buzz is largely devoted to the controversy over the AANR Youth Leadership Camps for naturist youth, and its larger repercussions.  Some naturists and skinnydippers have wondered if this really is a significant issue for our concern.  Those who don’t intend to send their kids to such a camp often presume a law against a nudist camp for kids won’t affect their right to bring their own kids to a nudist resort or a naturist beach.  Others whose kids have grown and left the nest sometimes aren’t even concerned if children were to be banned from participation in all naturist activities.  After all, this won’t affect their right to visit a nudist resort or naturist beach, will it? Those making these assumptions fail to recognize how this issue can be used as a wedge to bring naturism into disrepute and to broaden the legislative attack on nude recreation.  They also are perhaps unaware of how difficult it is to influence the wording and scope of legislation if naturists do not maintain strong public relations and lobbying efforts.

    For while most of the critics paid lip service to the right of individuals to practice naturism, and of naturist parents to raise their children according to their own values, they simultaneously implied that the Youth Leadership Camp posed a special risk-–even though the Florida Youth Leadership Camp has operated for twelve years without incident, and the alleged risk has not been substantiated.  American parents are free to raise their kids as fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, or agnostics.  They sometimes encourage their kids to participate in sports with some proven statistical risk of personal injury and even death, or, conversely, sometimes don’t provide proper nutrition or encourage enough physical activity to maintain good health.  Unfortunately, some American parents provide inadequate moral guidance and supervision for their children, turning a blind eye to drug use and anti-social behavior.  The state certainly has an interest in protecting children where a substantial risk has been proven.  Yet there is no proof that nudist children’s participation in a structured and supervised nudist Youth Leadership Camp warrants a blanket ban by the state.  The frequent reports of abuse at kids' camps and activities where social nudity is NOT practiced shows that we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this concern, but it is un-American to condemn any group for the actions of a few individuals acting contrary to the intent of that group.  If the state wants to make rules and regulations for kids’ camps, make them universal for ALL camps and supervised kids’ activities.  Investigations of camps and camp leaders are appropriate at ALL camps, where a report of abuse has been received.  This is essentially the naturist position; unfortunately, it is still poorly understood by the public.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

    It was clear at the outset of this controversy that many Americans assumed that a naturist environment was a potentially dangerous one for children.  Unfortunately, gone are the idyllic visions of innocent skinny-dipping portrayed by Mark Twain and Norman Rockwell, replaced by nightmares of rampant pedophilia.  This is hardly surprising in a culture that is steeped in pornography and is often obsessed with sex.  Americans are constantly bombarded with the intentional sexual titillation of the media-–something that is largely absent in naturist environments.  This doesn’t mean that naturists are asexual beings, simply that they can differentiate between mere nudity and sexual provocation (for which nudity is neither a necessary nor sufficient pre-requisite).  Having no knowledge of naturism except for sensational presentations in the media and misrepresentations by those opposed to nudity on sectarian religious or other personal grounds, many Americans don’t understand that naturism is a non-sexual activity, and so naturists prove an easy target for politicians seeking a so-called “family-values” issue.

    America is today a nation of fear and alienation: fear of outsiders, and alienation from our neighbors.  Is that guy who just bought the house down the street who said hello to my daughter yesterday a possible pedophile?  Is the new tenant with the middle-east look a possible terrorist?  “What’s with this woman with the head scarf or sari?” says the third-generation American, forgetting the “outlandish” dress of his immigrant grandmother in the treasured family photo.  It’s good to be alert and aware, but we needn’t be paranoid about different cultures we don’t understand, and haven’t taken the time to learn about.  Organized naturism, just as a church, social club, or cultural group, can foster a sense of community and encourage social and moral standards within the group.  Naturism opposes, and seeks to prevent, sexual predation and child abuse.  It believes that the acceptance of the body as neutral and natural, rather than encouraging promiscuity, pornography and abuse, acts as a tonic to promote a healthy and normal psychological adjustment.  A day at a naturist beach or nudist resort is usually enough to convince the skeptical, but unfortunately most have not had the opportunity to experience this.  Therefore, it’s important that we as naturists assure this message gets presented to the public.

    B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation, in alliance with like-minded naturist organizations, is firmly committed to advancing the public understanding and acceptance of naturism through the truthful and unbiased presentation of the facts in appropriate public forums.  

THE LEGISLATURE

    Maybe we could live with a law that just forbids kids being at nudist venues without their parents.  Never mind that this is an intrusion of the state upon parents’ rights where no substantive documentation of harm has been presented.  Never mind that this calls into question the most fundamental presumptions of naturism.  But will it really stop there?

    A law against nudist youth camps is another step linking naturism in the public mind with “adult” entertainment.  It calls into question the propriety of naturism, and can be a significant step toward further, more restrictive legislation in a future session.  Also, once any anti-nudity bill is introduced, we can never know in advance how it may be altered prior to passage.  A bill against children being at nudist venues without their parents may be modified to become a ban on all child nudity: No family nudist resorts as we know them today.  Forget that nude photo of baby on the bearskin rug; the discount store photo police will likely turn you in if you try to have the film developed.  Certainly, a public naturist beach would be a virtually impossibility, if one had to restrict the presence of kids.  Or, the legislators might decide to just ban all nudity: Bathing suit police with tape measures and calipers at our beaches.  No backyard nude swims in your pool, for fear of being turned in by the neighbors.  Increased pressure to regulate nudist resorts out of existence.  Would we then be safer from sexual perverts, and our children safer from pedophiles?  We don’t think so.

    Naturists in Florida should realize how hard SFFB and other naturist organizations have fought since 1994 to prevent changes to Florida statute 800.03, which addresses nudity with lewd behavior.  Currently, the courts have consistently ruled that under this statute nudity is not illegal unless accompanied by lewdness.  Under FS 800.04, which addresses lewd and lascivious acts performed upon or in the presence of minors, the current wording does not make non-sexual nudity an offense.  It would require only minor changes in the wording of either statute to make the current legal precedents moot, and to criminalize skinny-dipping and naturism in Florida.  To preserve your rights, South Florida Free Beaches/Florida Naturist Association, in cooperation with other politically active naturist organizations, stands ready to intensify our efforts to monitor bills and lobby our state legislators through the end of the next legislative session.

    We simply don’t believe the answer to the problem of sexual predation and child abuse is a retreat to Victorian standards.  This didn’t solve the problem back then, and it won’t solve it now.  These are crimes of violence.  These are crimes that our culture of sexual perversion and social alienation promotes.  Americans are often reluctant to report such crimes, because of the stigma that unfortunately often attaches to the victims of sexual crimes in our society.  This is simply wrong.  Victims need to be able to step forward without fear of shame, and we need a major social adjustment that recognizes this as a fundamental necessary step in addressing this issue.  Whether you believe that sexual perverts should be put in prison, or in mental institutions--whether you believe they can be rehabilitated, or not--we need to attack this problem by protecting law-abiding citizens from the criminals, not by criminalizing naturist families.  Rather than allowing us unfairly to be perceived as part of the problem, responsible and socially conscious naturists stand ready to be part of the real and effective solution.


    Hoffman Editorial in Nude & Natural
    by Nicky Hoffman

Seize It!
March 2004

    In politics, it's pretty much a truism: if you don't define yourself, someone else will.  And as often as not that "someone else" will define you in less than flattering terms.

    The same is true of naturism.  Give our critics a chance to define us and they will.  And the result won't be pretty.

    Last summer's infamous "Foley story" out of Florida provides a perfect example of what I'm talking about.  What began as a positive story for naturists--a visit to the American Association for Nude Recreation's youth camp at Lake Como Resort in Land o' Lakes--turned into a nightmare when then U.S.  Senate candidate Mark Foley latched on to the story.

    Foley, you may recall, eventually dropped out of the Senate race, but not before waging a smear campaign that equated the AANR youth camp with child abuse.  It was an ugly episode.  In the end, the favorable publicity garnered by the initial reports in Time magazine, The New York Times and a local alternative publication was torpedoed by Foley's cynical attack on family naturism.  It didn't matter that he had not a scintilla of evidence to support his dark suspicions.  Through constant repetition, the damage was done.  

    The story petered out over the course of the summer, as did Foley's campaign.  But even now, I fear, a residue of suspicion remains.  That's the way smear campaigns work.  The essential facts may be long forgotten, but the impression lingers.  The link between child abuse and naturism, bogus though it is, becomes embedded in the public mind.

    In Florida, long experience with naturism helps override such warped impressions.  But Florida is an unusual, if not unique, case.  It's one thing to launch an attack on naturism in a state where nude recreation is a growth industry; it's quite another to launch an attack in a place where naturism is virtually unknown.  

    And that's why, as naturists, we need to define ourselves whenever and wherever possible.  Carpe diem as the Romans used to say--seize the day.  Because if we don't, the Mark Foleys of the world will.

    How do we go about this process of defining ourselves, of "seizing the day"?

    There is, of course, no one-size-fits-all answer.  But a good place to start is with an interior dialogue.  Ask yourself why you became a naturist and why you remain one.  Chances are, your answer will say a lot about you and about the value of naturism.  

    Did you become a naturist for the camaraderie?  Because naturism promotes tolerance and body acceptance?  To get in closer touch with nature?  Or simply because it feels good?  These are all good reasons, and I'm sure there are others.  Choose one, some, or all, and then think about it; define what naturism means to you in a way that can be clearly and concisely communicated.

    It may be that you'll never be called upon to defend your naturist lifestyle in any kind of dramatic fashion.  Still, at the very least you'll probably encounter situations in which you have to "explain yourself" to friends, family or colleagues.  If you understand yourself what it is about naturism that attracts you, it shouldn't be too hard to articulate that understanding to others.

    And you never know.  The time may come when you can explain yourself to more dramatic effect.

    I'm reminded of a hearing I attended last fall before a committee of the Wisconsin Legislature.  The issue was one of those hardy perennials here in my home state: an attempt by religious zealots and their legislative allies to ban nudity at Mazo Beach near Madison.  

    Lots of naturists testified, myself and NAC Chair Bob Morton included.  Our "expert testimony" certainly helped carry the day.  In the end, the committee didn't even offer a recommendation on the proposed ban.  But while our testimony helped, our position was buttressed by the articulate, first-person accounts of regular Mazo users.

    They didn't sound like the slick capitol schmoozers politicians hear all the time; they sounded like regular folks who know why they are naturists and were able to communicate that knowledge to decision-makers.

    And that is no small thing.  In the face of the Mark Foleys of this world, clear, honest testimony of the kind I heard last fall may be naturism's best defense.


    Proposed Virginia law

    VIRGINIA HOUSE BILL NO. 158

    Offered January 14, 2004
    Prefiled January 5, 2004

A BILL to amend and reenact § 35.1-18 of the Code of Virginia, relating to nudist camps for juveniles.

      ----------
     Patron-- Reid
      ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 35.1-18 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 35.1-18. License required; name in which issued; not assignable or transferable.

No person shall own, establish, conduct, maintain, manage, or operate any hotel, restaurant, summer camp, or campground in this Commonwealth unless the hotel, restaurant, summer camp, or campground is licensed as provided in this chapter. The license shall be in the name of the owner or lessee. No license issued hereunder shall be assignable or transferable. The Board shall not issue a license to the owner or lessee of any hotel, summer camp or campground in this Commonwealth that maintains, or conducts as any part of its activities, a nudist camp for juveniles. A "nudist camp for juveniles" is defined to be a hotel, summer camp or campground that is attended by openly nude juveniles whose parents or legal guardians are not in attendance.


    The Associated Press filing report
    by Bob Lewis

House bill would ban summer camp for nude kids in Virginia
January 5, 2004

    A summer camp for teens at a nudist park in southeastern Virginia last year won't be repeated if the General Assembly enacts a Republican-authored bill this winter

    Del. John S. "Jack" Reid prefiled a bill Monday that would outlaw camps such as the one at White Tail Park, a nudist resort in Southampton County, held last June.

    "We're going to put an end to kids running around naked without their parents there," said Reid, R-Henrico.

    White Tail held a weeklong summer camp for the 11-to-18 age group beginning June 21.  It was the first in Virginia and only the third such au naturel camp for juveniles in the nation, according to the American Association of Nude Recreation.

    Such gatherings are legal in Virginia, even for children, as long as lewd activity is not involved.

    White Tail officials say strict bans on sexual or lascivious conduct at the camp are enforced by peer pressure from other campers and by a ratio of 1 1/2 counselors for every child.

    Reid's bill would forbid the state from licensing "any hotel, summer camp or campground ... that maintains, or conducts as any part of its activities, a nudist camp for juveniles."

    The bill defines the camps as those attended by "openly nude juveniles" not accompanied by parents or legal guardians.
March Bulletin report on House committee hearings
    by Erich E. Schuttauf

Task Teams Fight Virginia Bill: White Tail volunteers join AANR staff at Virginia capitol to stop HB 158.  You can help, too.

    ZUNI, Va.—Teams have been working virtually around the clock to stop Virginia HB 158.  As reported in last month’s edition of The Bulletin, the bill is aimed at AANR/AANR East youth leadership camps and would prohibit licensure of any club offering a camp to openly nude juveniles who attend without their parent, grandparent, or a legal guardian.

Volunteers and staff storm capital for sub-committee hearing

    One cold day in late January, over a dozen volunteers from White Tail Park in Ivor, Virginia, joined owner Bob Roche, Steve Vickers of the AANR Office, Trustee Susan Weaver, me, and Jonathan Shopiro of the Naturist Action Committee (NAC) in doing everything that could be done in a day’s work to oppose the bill.

    Upon arrival at the capital, we organized into “task teams” of about four to five people each.  These teams managed to visit the offices of each and every member of the sub-committee, the full committee, and a number of other lawmakers to personally request that they vote against HB 158.  We picked up some extremely valuable reconnaissance: there have been virtually no messages to lawmakers in favor of this bill.  However, a number of messages against it have found the way to their offices.  This alone hasn’t been enough to derail the bill, but it’s clearly making an impact.

    Within minutes of  news that John “Jack” Reid, the sponsor of HB 158 was returning to his office, all teams “rendezvoused” at the office, where the lobbyist working for AANR and AANR East had arranged a group visit.  We did not change the delegate’s mind, but even he was forced to admit deficiencies in his bill.  Later in the day, he would go on to offer some amendments himself in an effort to cure some of the deficiencies.

    Immediately following that meeting, we collectively moved to the meeting room where the bill was to be heard.  We sat front and center in a unified show of opposition.  Following testimony on unrelated bills by the full committee, where we observed Reid in action as chairman, the full committee adjourned and a sub-committee assigned to hear HB 158 convened.  Delegate Reid was the only person to speak in favor of his bill, and he admitted that it should at least be modified to allow a grandparent to fulfill the supervision role.  When pressed about the parent who hypothetically might leave camp for a few hours to fetch supplies, yet another change was prepared that may or may not address that problem.

    Reid was adamantly against any measure that would allow a parent to give written authorization to a designated caregiver.

    One by one, members of the team took the podium to rebut delegate Reid’s assertions.  I provided an Executive Director’s perspective as well as that of a parent with children in AANR youth programs.  Bob Roche testified as both White Tail Park’s owner and a regional president who oversaw the camp there last year.  Trustee Susan Weaver corrected several misperceptions, and offered the view of a former workshop presenter.  Jonathan Shopiro of NAC testified about the healthy effects of nude recreation.  Allen and Carey Parker, parents of a youth who was raised going to White Tail, spoke about nudist family values and their faith.  At every step, body language and questions asked showed we were making inroads.

    Perhaps the most effective testimony of all came from Nude U graduate and former camp participant Steve Vickers.  Steve, who now works in the AANR office, spent his 23rd birthday flying with me to Virginia to testify.  He received universal praise from the sub-committee for his demeanor and for being so wellspoken.  “If this young man is evidence of what this camp produces, then my first impressions about this camp may have been wrong,” said one delegate following the hearing.

Gaining by yards, not touchdowns

    Did we defeat HB 158 in sub-committee?  I wish I could say “yes,” but the answer is no.  In fact, it cleared the committee 4-0 with a “do pass” recommendation to the full committee.  It’s important, however, to remember that these developments took place within the sponsor’s own committee.

General Laws Committee, Round II

    Less than one week later, Bob Roche and members of his team returned to the capital for a full hearing before the General Laws committee.  There, with assistance from Delegate Robert D.  Hull, D-38th District, Bob offered an amendment to the panel that would have allowed parents to authorize a designated caregiver to accompany their child to camp.  During that hearing Reid was once again the only person to speak in favor of his bill.

    What does it all mean for us?  At this time we know that the nudist and naturist communities have been able to organize two successful visits to the state legislature, and to galvanize local voters to contact lawmakers where we have dominated the number of messages.  We also know that Reid has, thus far, been the only voice in favor of HB 158.  We have also witnessed the capabilities of the professional lobbyist assisting AANR and AANR East first-hand.

Favorable news coverage

    Local television stations carried excerpts of the testimony offered during both committee hearings on HB 158.  Conspicuously obvious: Reid was the only person testifying on his side of the issue.  Elsewhere, one columnist wrote to express her strong opinion at just how silly Reid’s bill is.  “Will someone please tell these guys to get over it?  Focus on the naked reality of Virginia’s busted budget, please, not this,”  bemoaned Kerry Dougherty in a recent edition of The Virginia Pilot.

Important Update—Your Help Needed!

    As this issue of The Bulletin was going to press, HB 158 completed its journey in the House and was making its debut in the Senate.  Initially assigned to the Senate Agriculture Committee, there is a strong possibility that the bill could be redirected to the Senate Health and Education Committee.

Could we get you to write three letters or messages?

    We are asking all members—especially those with families—to write three letters: (1) to Senator Charles R.  Hawkins, Chairman of the Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee; (2) to Senator H. Russell Potts, Jr., Chairman of the Education and Health Committee; and (3) to Senator John H.  Chichester, President pro tempore of the Senate, and Chairman of the Finance Committee, who has been identified as the most influential member of the Virginia Senate.

Could we get you to write at least one message?

    If you cannot write to all three of the Senators using the list and key messages below, we would be extremely grateful for at least one letter to Sen.  Chichester.  He has the most power at his disposal to stop HB 158.


    The Washington Times report on the House vote
    by Christina Bellantoni

House Votes 98-1 to Ban Teen-Only Nudist Camps
Late February 2004

    RICHMOND — The House of Delegates yesterday passed a bill that would make it illegal for teens to attend a nudist camp without their parents or legal guardians.

    In a 98-1 vote that was punctuated by laughter, the House approved the bill and sent it forward to the Senate General Laws Committee for consideration.  Delegate Charles W. Carrico Sr., Galax City Republican, was the opposing vote.

    The bill, sponsored by Delegate John S. Reid, Henrico County Republican, states that the Board of Health shall not issue a license to any organization that runs a nudist camp for juveniles when parents, grandparents or legal guardians are not present.

    The bill targets Camp White Tail in Ivor, in southeastern Virginia.  Camp White Tail is an adult nudist camp that hosts a nudist camp for one week each summer for about 30 teens and preteens.

    Bob Roche, the camp's manager, said he will fight the bill.

    "We will challenge it in court if we have to," Mr. Roche told The Washington Times.  "It's rather sad they are wasting the valuable taxpayer's money and time with this law."

    Also fighting the bill are the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Association for Nude Recreation.

    Mr. Reid said he drafted the bill when his constituents complained about Camp White Tail's special nudist camp in June for children ages 11 to 17.

    Florida is the only other state that has nudist camps for juveniles.


The Associated Press report on Senate committee hearings
    by Justin Bergman

Senate panel approves bill banning teen nudist camps
March 4, 2004

    RICHMOND, Va.  -- Nudist camps for teens would be prohibited under a  provision passed by a Virginia Senate panel Thursday despite the vehement protests of the nudist community.  The legislation, which nudists claim is unique nationwide, passed the Senate Education and Health Committee unanimously after opponents said it infringed on the rights of parents.  The bill now heads to the Senate floor for debate.

    Del.  John Reid, R-Henrico, said his legislation was aimed at shutting down a weeklong camp for teenagers at White Tail Park, a nudist colony in Southampton County.  It was only the third such au naturel camp for juveniles in the nation, according to the American Association of Nude Recreation.

    Reid's bill would prohibit the state from licensing any hotel, summer camp or campground that allows nudist camps for juveniles without the supervision of their parents, grandparents or legal guardians.

    "This bill is not based on aspersions at all," Reid said.  "It allows individuals committed to this lifestyle to continue to have this lifestyle."  But nudists testified otherwise.

    Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the Florida-based American Association of Nude Recreation, said the bill would prevent teenagers from attending camps that are similar to conventional summer camps in every other respect.

    "There is nothing forming the basis for this statute other than we're uncomfortable that (nudism) exists," Schuttauf said.  Schuttauf said there are 260 nudist parks in the United States and Canada, but only three states--Virginia, Florida and Arizona--where teenagers can attend summer camps without their parents.

    Robert Roach, owner of White Tail Park, said the camp's ban on sexual or lascivious conduct is enforced by a ratio of two counselors for every child.  Roach said the children, ages 12 to 18, sleep in single-sex tents, which Republican Sen. William Bolling called "encouraging."

    "We've had kids live there since day one," Roach said.  "If we haven't had any problems, why legislate a bill?"

    Schuttauf said nudist camps operate under a unique form of parental trust and that children are instilled with a strict set of morals.  He said the bill impedes the rights of parents to determine how to raise their children.

    "No state legislature in all 50 states has ever weighed in with a law on this," he said.

    Sen.  Frederick Quayle, R-Chesapeake, attempted to amend the bill to allow the owner of the nudist camp to be designated in loco parentis, or a substitute for a parent, but the committee rejected it.  The measure passed the House of Delegates 98-1 earlier this month.

    The bill is HB158.


April Bulletin report on Senate committee hearings
    by Erich E. Schuttauf

Government Affairs: The Value of Your Team

    RICHMOND, Va., March 5, 2004—There are times when the “win/loss” column of a sports team, or the final score of a game, doesn’t begin to tell the whole story.  This year’s Super Bowl was a lot like that—the second most memorable moment (next to Janet Jackson’s brief tour de flesh) had to be the field goal booted in the last seconds of the fourth quarter giving New England the win.

    Perhaps the best example I can remember of this principle at work is the 1992 semi-final game of the NCAA basketball tournament.  One year after graduating from Duke law school I watched my Blue Devils trade baskets with the Kentucky Wildcats.  The final score of the game went 104–103.  Duke was on its way to a national championship and got another check in the “win” column.  Kentucky simply showed as “eliminated” from the competition and got a check in their “loss” column for the record books.

    Twelve years later, if you simply check sports statistics, that’s probably all you’d know about the game unless you happened to watch the game as it happened or saw footage of it.  In that case you know that the contest was one of the greatest moments in the history of college basketball, and “104 –103” is just an ordinary basketball score unless you know that the ball changed hands—with points to their respective teams—no less than three times in the last 14 seconds of that game.

    A scoresheet doesn’t reflect that Duke center Christian Laettner earned the remaining two points for his team with a miracle shot he let fly as the buzzer sounded.

    However, I can tell you one thing.  Never, and I mean NEVER, have any of my fellow classmates or anyone I know, called the 1992 Kentucky Wildcats a LOSING team.  You just couldn’t say a thing like that without giving away that you never saw that game.  Most don’t even say Duke won; it’s more accurately stated that Duke happened to have the most points on the scoreboard when the buzzer finished buzzing.

    Why all this talk about basketball?

    There are, perhaps, those who will look at yesterday’s vote by the Virginia Senate’s committee on Education and Health on House Bill 158 to regulate nudist youth leadership camps for what it was in purely factual terms: a 15-0 vote to recommend passage.  [At the time of this writing HB 158 is on its way to the Senate floor where it will likely pass by wide margins, maybe 40-0.  Prior to coming over to the Senate it cleared the House 99-1, and the one who voted “yea” was really a protest vote on a bill he didn’t feel went far enough.]

    I guess you could look at those numbers and say, what’s the point of having an AANR/AANR East Government Affairs program, volunteers, staff, and professionals with whom we contract—not to mention the alliances built with groups like the Naturist Action Committee (NAC) and the International Naturist Association (INA)—if ultimately it comes down to votes like this?

    You could, but that would be like saying that if the Kentucky Wildcats were going to join 63 other teams not winning the NCAA title, they didn’t need to show up and play.

A refresher on what HB 158 will do if enacted…

    As authored and amended by delegate Reid, HB 158 prohibits licensure of any campground, hotel, etc. that conducts a “nudist camp for juveniles.”  A nudist camp for juveniles is further defined as a camp in which openly nude juveniles are present without a parent, grandparent, or legal guardian in attendance and/or registered and participating.

In the final seconds…

    Consider this: before taking the vote that passed HB 158 out of Education and Health, the committee narrowly voted against amending the bill in a way that would have allowed parents to select an adult whom they trust to be responsible for their child.  State Senator Quayle offered this amendment at the close of vigorous testimony against the bill by a delegation of over a dozen people representing AANR, AANR East, White Tail Park, NAC, and even the INA.

    The vote over whether to entertain Sen.  Quayle’s amendment went 7 “for” and eight “against.” To make matters more disheartening, its unclear whether one of the senators voting against the amendment may well have believed he was voting against the bill.  (He voted against HB 158 when it was considered without the amendment, but was allowed to change it to a “yea” as senators may do on a bill where the change would not have affected the outcome.)

    It’s like missing a chance for an NCAA championship on one free throw.

    Collectively, what it also means is that the nudist community made a very strong showing and a very strong impact in a way that may not be reflected in “the final score.” The fight against HB 158 has all the marks of a very well-executed match that your dues and your help made possible.  To recap some highlights:

    ● Members—and especially White Tail Park owner Bob Roche—made dozens of visits to the Virginia Legislature to meet personally with lawmakers and ask them to vote against this bill.

    ● On the House side, a few members’ visits and e-mails persuaded their delegate, Delegate Hull, to offer an amendment to HB 158 within the sponsor’s own committee; several members of that committee (which the sponsor chairs) supported the amendment, even to the point of invoking possible wrath from the chair for their initiative.

    ● The sponsor never obtained outside support for his bill, and he never managed to get anyone to speak in support of the measure making it a one-man show, albeit on the shoulders of a very powerful delegate (he would later downplay the fact that his bill had no support when directly queried by the Education and Health panel).

    ● AANR and AANR East dues funded one of the better lobbyists in the business to assist with the fight; the lobbyist demonstrated acumen when the bill hit the Senate by arranging for HB 158 to sit in the Agriculture committee for weeks, only to be referred to Education and Health, one of the more moderate and deliberative groups in the legislature (e.g. this committee blocked at least three bills attempting to regulate abortion earlier yesterday).

    ● Groups and groups of members whom we want to make sure to recognize in a future issue of The Bulletin made the trek in to Richmond to testify (or, just as importantly, stand in a show of support for us).  Steven Vickers of the AANR staff and a Nude U graduate joined me and Jonathan Shopiro of NAC in traveling in from out of state to speak against the bill twice.  Yesterday, Corey Mangold and Jon Peltier of INA added to that number.  Steve Vickers so impressed lawmakers that one of the Delegates who’d heard Steve testify on the House side made a point to seek him out and wish him good luck yesterday.

    ● Bob and the White Tail team persuaded the Virginia chapter of the ACLU and the Virginia Campground Owner’s Association to weigh in against the bill.

    ● And, of course, so many of you took the time to write, call, fax, and e-mail messages to all the senators on this committee.  As a result, every one of the senators and their staff were intimately familiar with our concerns.  It takes a lot to distinguish a bill from nearly 4,000 other pieces of legislation that were filed in Virginia this year and target it for the consideration this bill got.  You made that possible.

Lessons Learned .  .  .

    Just as there were, no doubt, lessons to be learned from that Duke-Kentucky game, your AANR Government Affairs Team witnessed first-hand that there are areas we need to improve.  Most significantly, we don’t have enough “depth on the bench.” For a sports team, that’s having enough strong players to be able to replace other players to give much needed rest or in the event of an injury.

    For AANR, it’s membership.  While we have tens of thousands of us across the U.S.  and Canada, sometimes that translates into just handfuls at each local level.  It’s critical to have many, many members within each lawmaker’s district.  These are the people who exert the most influence with lawmakers.


    Dougherty column in The Virginian-Pilot
    by Kerry Dougherty

Lawmakers Should Focus First on Bare Necessities
February 5, 2004

    It’s February and that can mean only one thing: Our hardworking lawmakers are back in Richmond, solving all of Virginia’s problems.

    Time to weigh in on at least one of them.

    Hmmm.  Where to begin.  Transportation?  Taxes?  Tobacco?  Nudist camps for kids?  Right then.  Nudist camps it is.

    First, I should tell you that I’m a strong supporter of summer camps.  Ah, those weeks spent many years ago at Camp Wanda.

    There’s something about packs of feral children running free without parents around that make for wonderful memories.

    Not wanting my own offspring to miss out, I’ve always encouraged them to go to camp, too.

    The notion of one where kids bare all intrigues me, because frankly, I’ve had the opposite problem. The summer my son was 8, we dropped him off at camp wearing brown shorts and a red T-shirt.  When we picked him up almost four weeks later, he was sporting the same ensemble.

    By submitting HB158, Del. John S. Reid of Henrico would force Virginia’s only nudist youth camp to fundamentally change or shut down.  He would require that a parent, grandparent or guardian go to camp with each nude camper.

    Here’s what has Reid in such a dither: White Tail Park, the 19-year-old family nudist resort on about 50 wooded acres near Ivor, started a “leadership” camp for nudist youths last summer.

    In addition to the predictable camp activities, this one focuses on self-esteem, promising: You go home from camp with a new respect for the “nude you.”

    Oh my.

    The pilot program lasted one week and included 38 campers. All were the children of nudists. Most had visited White Tail with their parents.

    Owner Robert Roche assures me that the campers were strictly supervised and that there was no opportunity for hanky-panky.

    During the day they swam in one of White Tail’s two pools, played volleyball, shuffleboard and did arts and crafts.

    “They were completely naked?” I asked stupidly.

    “They wore shoes,” Mr. Roche said. “Maybe hats, too.”

    The idea of skinny-dipping teens has some politicians steamed.  They don’t believe nudist parents have the right to send their nudist children off to a nudist camp.  They claim that such a camp--even one in a remote area with 24-hour security--will be a magnet for pedophiles.

    Will someone please tell these guys to get over it?

    Focus on the naked reality of Virginia’s busted budget, please, not
this.

    Try as we might, non-nudists are never going to understand people who
want to play shuffleboard wearing only a hat.

    Nudism is a weird little wrinkle in our culture.  As far as I can tell, nudists are no more dangerous than America’s other oddballs: folks who collect crystals, believe in UFOs or stay up late chatting on ham radios.

    Mr. Roche assured me that his patrons are moral, family-oriented folks.

    Churchgoers? I asked.

    Yes, indeed.

    So much so, they even hold nondenominational worship services at White Tail on summer Sundays when the resort is packed with around 1,000 nudists.

    Picture this: Hundreds of people singing hymns, reading the Bible and praising the Lord.  Naked as a flock of jaybirds.

    Speaking of church, friends of mine sent their 13-year-old to a co-ed church camp a couple summers back.  Imagine their horror when they learned their son had his first sexual encounter there.

    “Camp Orgy,” they call it now.

    Of course, that was a normal camp, the kind our lawmakers like.  Where the kids wear clothes.

    Well, most of the time.


    The Daily Press editorial

Butt Out: On Nudism, Delegates Won't Look Other Way
February 14, 2004

    You can send your child to nature camp.  Or soccer camp.  Even sailing camp, where kids run around in--guess what--bathing suits that show a lot of skin.

    But in Virginia, by golly, you won't be able to send your child to one kind of nature camp, one where clothes, like letters home, are optional.  Unless you want to go, too.

    The dash to bash clothing-optional recreation arises out of a teen camp run last summer by White Tail Park, a private nudist resort in Ivor.  Delegates' knickers are in a knot over the lack of knickers among the campers.

    Del. John Reid of Henrico wanted to outlaw nudist youth camps entirely.  A House committee revised his bill to allow them if a parent, guardian or grandparent accompanied the child.  Faster than a streaker, the full House sent the bill over to the Senate on a 98-1 vote.

    Clearly, the future of the commonwealth is not at issue here.  Still, there's something troubling, and it's not the absence of clothing.  Rather it's that lawmakers seem utterly unconcerned by their incursion into what should be the protected sphere of parent-child relationships.  Surely parents who let their children go to nudist camps know that they are, in fact, nudist camps.  As long as no harm is being done--and nudism doesn't cause any harm beyond the occasional poison ivy or sunburn--the lawmakers need to, pardon the expression, butt out.

    Fewer teens are hurt by nudism than by football.  Or hunting.  Or even soccer.  Nudism may not be the delegates' preferred way of life, but maybe they should give it a try while in session.  That would certainly get the public to look the other way, which would have spared the delegates the dishonor they brought on the House by passing a bill earlier this week that could close legislative proceedings to the public.

    Perhaps the Senate will be less concerned about sunburned bums than the House, but that's unlikely.  No one will want to go on the campaign trail, bragging about standing tall for the rights of nudists.

    POSTSCRIPT: The General Assembly didn't feel it had to get involved with a camp issue that was both truly dangerous and within its purview. That would be the lack of sense and supervision among administrators of a 4-H camp in the western part of the state last summer.  Counselors organized bare-knuckle brawls among young campers and charged admission to let other campers watch.  More than a dozen children were forced to defend themselves, and some suffered broken bones, black eyes and split lips.  Now, that's dangerous. And state business, since the camp was sponsored by a 4-H club, which is overseen by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, which is run by Virginia Tech, a state college.


    The Clothing Optional Digest editorial

    This editorial came out prematurely before the vote by the full senate, though the result was a foregone conclusion.

What Went Wrong in Virginia?
March 17, 2004

    As you probably read in an earlier CO Digest, the State of Virginia passed a law that effectively bans nude youth camps in their state.

    This legislation is a direct result of a story in the national media last year that featured a nude youth camp in Florida, and the story was essentially pushed by AANR and its public relations firm.

    The CO Digest received a news release from AANR recently that spoke about the Virginia situation, and encouraged its members to stay tuned.

    Well, we are going to get on our soapbox now and ask AANR what they were thinking when they encouraged promotion of a nude youth camp in the national media.  Was this a decision that came from Kissimmee, or was this the brainchild of the associations PR firm?  No matter whose idea it was, it was a bad idea.

    Recent history has shown that it is very easy for a vocal minority to make a huge fuss about nudist issues, especially involving kids, and no matter what AANR says, it boils down to costing naturists a lot of money, and ultimately our parental rights.

    We narrowly escaped legistlation in Texas and Florida, and who knows what legislation is lurking out there in another state to ban kids from nude youth camps, or worse, nude beaches, and nude resorts.

    We lost in Virginia, and that bill will likely never be overturned.

    History has shown that kids and nudity, at least in the media spotlight, don't mix.  We hear countless stories about parents who are facing arrest, or loss of their kids because of harmless photos that were flagged by the clerk at the local pharmacy.

    We lost Hippie Hollow, near Austin, Texas because of a seemingly harmless promotion for kids several years back.  A Libertarian group promoted a kids drawing contest at Hippie Hollow, which some in the media turned intoa contest to draw naked kids.  Ultimately, Travis County Commissioners, under pressure from their legal advisors, banned kids at Hippie Hollow, and that ban still exists today, many years later.

    This promotion by AANR was foolhardy and no doubt reckless.  AANR did not take into consideration the political climate when they promoted this story to the national media.

    AANR needs to take responsibility for their actions in promoting nude youth camps in the national media, and the person or persons who ultimately made the decision should be relieved of their duties.


    Dietrich Column in the Daily Press
    by. T. Dietrich

New Bill a Looser Fit for Teen Nudism
March 24 2004

    WHITE TAILS--The debate over camps for nude teens is over.   But maybe not the way lawmakers think.

    The so-called Nudist Camps for Juveniles bill sailed through the Senate (40-0) and the House (98-1), ostensibly to ban any nudist camp that takes in teens without parental supervision.

    The original bill forbade nudist camps for minors whose parents or legal guardians are not in attendance.  But the final bill reads: "whose parent, grandparent, or legal guardian is not also registered for or otherwise accompanying the juvenile."

    To this layman, this means a parent can register, then simply not show up.  The net effect is ...  why the heck did the General Assembly waste a single minute on this wheel-spinning when we don't even have a blasted budget?

    The delegate who submitted the original bill is John S.  "Jack" Reid, R-Henrico.  Reid didn't return calls for comment, but told a Daily Press reporter last week that he stands by the new law and insists it means parents must accompany their children at nudist camps, except for an occasional errand off the premises to, like, gas up the car or buy groceries.

    To clarify, I called the commonwealth's attorney in Henrico.  He said they don't have nudist camps there, so he wouldn't comment on the record.  

    Southampton does have a nudist camp, so I called its attorney.  He didn't call back, then took off for a week.  All the other attorneys in the office are out, too.

    Finally, I reached a legal eagle closer to home.  Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney Linda Curtis glanced at the bill summary and agreed there's a loophole big enough to drive a Winnebago full of white-tailed nudists through.

    "I guess a technicality would be if you're registered, but you don't show up," Curtis said.  "You can be registered, but that doesn't mean you're physically on the property."

    Bingo.  

    Bob Roche, who owns White Tail Park, a nudist camp in Southampton, says the altered language is actually his, presented with a lobbyist's help to an early House subcommittee.  And lawmakers accepted it.  

    "But we never realized the wording until you said something," Roche insisted.  Afterward, Roche said he put in a call to his attorney for a legal interpretation.  Later, he said his attorney needed more time to study it.  Then he stopped returning calls.  

    Roche still insists the new law is discriminatory and he plans to fight it.  He's either being disingenuous or he dodges bullets like Neo.  Maybe through sheer luck he drafted language that local attorneys say means, in essence, he can operate his camp pretty much the way he's been doing all along.

    Maybe all the other lawmakers in the General Assembly knew it, too--except for Reid--and were just winking at the status quo.  Or maybe they plain got snookered.  

    Just the sort of people you want managing a $60 billion state budget.


    Morton Editorial in The Nude & Natural Newsletter
    by Bob Morton

Sore Loser
March 2004

    This won’t be an inspirational message about a sporting event in which the runners-up are commended for having made an effort and the winners are too polite to say they’ve won.  My keyboard would very likely choke on such pabulum.

    But if you want something with a sports theme, let me offer you my favorite quote from legendary Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi.

    “Show me a good loser,” Lombardi said, “and I’ll show you a loser.”

    The legislature of the state of Virginia recently passed House Bill 158, a measure that will terminate the operating license for any nudist resort offering nude youth camps of the type sponsored by the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR).  Henceforth, any minor attending a nude summer camp must have a parent or grandparent registered or in attendance too.

    Singling out naturists and nudists for this requirement, the new law imposes restrictions that are not imposed at all on camps operated by the Boy Scouts, the 4H or the Roman Catholic church, each of which has had documented issues with safety or sexual abuse, the very issues used to cast aspersions on naturists.

    Call me a sore loser.  This process of making laws is a game in which there are officials who DO keep score, and they’re not bashful about reminding you who won.  Lest anyone be tempted by imagery that suggests the “also-rans” in this particular contest came close, let me remind you that the vote in the House of Delegates was 98-1, while the vote in the Senate was 40-0.  And the lone dissenter in the House voted against the bill because he thought it wasn’t harsh enough!

    In the shadow of such an overwhelming slam dunk, it’s pointless to applaud whatever amendments were almost approved by some legislative committee.  We might as well be celebrating the pregame coin toss in which the coin almost landed on the side chosen for us.

    So who picked this fight?  Who scheduled the opponent for this lopsided match?  The answer is simple, but the outlandish spin it has received in recent months might render the truth unrecognizable.

    A frenzy of public relations this past summer included a “tightly managed” promotional piece in a nationally distributed newspaper.  The article was intended to tout summer camps for nude youngsters, and it ignited an entirely predictable backlash among certain pundits, who enthusiastically excoriated naturists, and among certain lawmakers who expressed their outrage while promising corrective and punitive legislation.

    The ensuing brouhaha with Congressman Mark Foley and the media was punctuated by a wobbly “count us in, count us out” posture on the part of those who had plotted the article in the first place.  That only made matters worse.

    So far, two solons have actually made good on their threats to propose new laws banning or limiting nude youth camps.  NAC managed to smother the bill introduced by State Rep. Bryan Hughes in Texas.  And then, of course, there’s the bill from Delegate Jack Reid of Virginia.

    I don’t dismiss the efforts of those who worked under the coordination of AANR to oppose HB 158 in the Virginia legislature.  Those included contingents from AANR, from its regional affiliate, AANR-East and from the Naturist Action Committee.  Numerous individual naturists and nudists also responded to various calls to contact Virginia lawmakers.

    It was not enough.  It was not close.  Despite what you’ve been told, there is, after all, an enormous difference between winning and losing.  In the case of the Virginia legislation, losing means a significant abridgement of the parental rights of naturists and the unmistakable message that social nudity is somehow unhealthy or unsafe for children.

    I believe we can (and must!) draw some conclusions from the Virginia debacle.

    1)  Where we can actually choose our contests, we must do so carefully.  An organization that allows its public relations program to pick fights that its government affairs program can’t win is letting its mockingbird mouth overload its hummingbird ass.

    2)  It’s important to have a backup plan.  Those who stumble out of the gate must not subsequently play now-you-see-us-now-you-don’t with lawmakers and the media.

    3)  Those assuming the responsibility for coordinating a legislative fight must have a coherent strategy for winning.

    4)  We are not served well by those who compare our real-life legislative battles to some collegiate game in which the winners and losers are barely discernible.  

    Sore loser? Oh, you bet I am!  Coach Lombardi would understand.
_________
In the immediate wake of the New York Times article this past June, Bob Morton was one of the naturist leaders who met with Congressman Foley and didn’t hide out from the media.


    Williamson Appeal in The Bulletin
    by Bill Williamson

    The Bulletin edited out Bill's political comments at the end.  I have restored them (in crossed-out type) for anyone interested.

It Is Time for a Display of Unity
May 2004

    In almost every society, there comes a time when there is a need to "Circle the Wagons" and not only demonstrate our unity but present a show of force.  I propose that the AANR-East Youth Camp that is going to be held at White Tail Park at Ivor, Virginia on July 24-31, 2004 is one of those times.

    We just incurred a major loss with the recent passage of Virginia HB 158 that will restrict the attendance of youth at the AANR East Youth Camp in Virginia to those whose parents, grandparents, or legal guardian are present on the grounds during the week of camp.  Previously, the parents could submit the proper release forms and send their children to the camp just like any other youth camp.  This is clear governmental discrimination against nudists.

    This Bill is not only a direct assault on the AANR East Youth Camp, but it strikes at the core values of social family nudism.  For 12 years, we have been developing one of the most well structured and secure camp environments for our children and grandchildren available anywhere.  As nudists, we have an inherent right to send our children to a nudist youth camp just as the agriculturists have to send their children to a 4-H Club Camp and the religious groups do to send their children to a religious camp.

    But No!  The Virginia Legislature has in its wisdom decided that even though these are children that have been reared as nudists, that since they will be "naked" at this camp, their parents, grandparents and or legal guardian must be present.   This is another veiled attempt to strike an initial blow at our rights to rear our children as nudists.

    This is very dangerous precedent.  Setting legislation such as HB 158 could precipitate a series of legislative initiatives that could become consistently more restrictive across the country.  Although we are continuing to oppose this initiative, it is time we present a clear demonstration that regardless of the inhibiting restrictions, we will have a nudist youth camp and we will exercise our rights to rear our children with the family values we treasure.  The best way to do that is to bring our children and grandchildren to camp and let's have the largest youth camp in the history of the AANR this July in Virginia.

    One would think that with the very positive articles that appeared in The New York Times and Time magazine by non-nudist reporters who spent the requisite time on site at the Florida Camp last year to "really learn what goes on", that people would recognize the quality and safe camp experience that these youngsters enjoy at the AANR Youth Camps.  But this Virginia initiative just further proves that we have a lot more work to do before we can enjoy the peace and tranquility of our serene environments without the constant overshadowing threat of unnecessary government intervention.

    Bob Roche is planning a special reduced rate structure for families who bring their children to camp this year.  This is a great opportunity to enjoy the amenities of one of our finest resorts, help your kids have an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives, and to show the state of Virginia that we will stand up and be counted as supporting our lifestyle and the rights to rear our children in that lifestyle.  Purloining a statement from the Red Cross, by bringing your children to the youth camp, you are "giving them a gift that will keep on giving for the rest of their lives."

    Please join with me in bringing your children and grand children to White Tail Park for the AANR Youth Leadership Camp this summer.  A great American statesman once said:  We must hang together, or we will surely hang separately.  This is one of those times we need to bond together before those who are bent on destroying us build sufficient individual scaffolds to incrementally result in the demise of social family nudism in the Americas.  Once the RRR is successful in detaching the family aspects of social nudism, they can then rather easily take the next step in declaring our lifestyle as a part of the adult entertainment industry.  There will be little left in our armory if we allow that to happen.

    Those of us who love and enjoy this lifestyle owe it to ourselves and our fellow nudists to show the world what we believe in and that we will not be subjugated or intimidated by arbitrary and capricious legislation by ill informed politicians.  Let's turn out in force at White Tail Park.


The electronic newsletter went out in May.  I waited until the beginning of June before printing a few copies--just in case there were any last words on the topic in the national magazines.  There were.  Here they are:

    Von Hagel report in The Bulletin
    By Lynn Von Hagel

Virginia HB 158 Update
June 2004

    Virginia Governor Mark R.  Warner not only showed his favor for House Bill (HB) 158 by offering a clarifying amendment to it, but by adding some derogatory puns as well.  Warner announced his decision on Thursday, April 15.  The deadline for him to veto, amend, or sign the legislation that was passed during the 2004 regular General Assembly session, was midnight April 18.

    Warner’s brief written commentary was full of double entendres and attempts at humor as he declared that, “This bill has been the butt of many jokes, so with naked admiration for its patron, I am offering this amendment.” The patron that Warner referred to is delegate Jack Reid, who introduced HB 158 in an attempt to legislate the youth camp at White Tail Park.  Warner further stated that “Stripped to its bare essence,” the bill bars the State Department of Health from licensing any hotel, summer camp, or campground that holds activities for nude minors whose parents or guardians are not “registered for or otherwise accompanying the juvenile.”

    The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia had urged Governor Warner to veto the bill or amend it to read that minors who have parental permission should be allowed to attend.  In a press release, ACLU executive director Kent Willis said “This bill is an uninformed overreaction by prudish legislators who could not come up with one witness or research  document to support their contention that that the camps could be harmful to minors.” In a letter to Warner, the ACLU included a legal memo that describes the basis on which a lawsuit could be led challenging the ban on the nude youth camps.  The press release also indicated that the only testimony lawmakers heard was from parents and children who described the healthy family atmosphere of the camps.

One such testimony regarding the merits of the youth camps was given by Steven Vickers, an AANR employee and Nude U graduate.  Vickers  impressed the lawmakers so much with his comments, that many of them, even those who supported the bill, congratulated him afterwards on his presence and testimony before the General Assembly.  One delegate wrote Vickers a letter afterwards that stated, “I thought you might like to know that in talks of HB 158, you were the main topic.  Everyone was in awe of your ability to speak; some were even intimidated....  If you are what these camps produce, I cannot see the need for this bill.”


    Pat Brown's letter to Governor Warner

April 16, 2004

Hon. Mark R.  Warner, Governor
State of Virginia
State Capitol, 3rd Floor
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Re:  Your amendment to HB 158 and accompanying remarks…

Dear Governor Warner,

    On behalf of the American Association for Nude Recreation, our members in Virginia, and all parents, I am writing to express our great disappointment with your recent amendments to House Bill 158 and accompanying sophomoric remarks.

    These developments are particularly disconcerting given that a delegation of concerned parents and representatives of White Tail Park made a considerable effort to meet with your staff where they voiced very legitimate concerns about this bill after it was reported from the senate.  It wasn't enough to simply ignore these parents and voters.  Instead, your "commentary" dropped in pun after pun referencing nudity and the human body.  

    Frankly, we can't think of a stronger argument for programs that promote wholesome body acceptance than the fact that Virginia's highest office is helpless to discuss this subject without reverting to vocabulary more fitting for a college frat house than the state house.  Especially when critical 14th Amendment questions are involved.   Let's just recap:

        (1)  The Virginia legislature and you singled out a group of parents and targeted them with a piece of legislation that takes away their right to make fundamental decisions about how to raise their children and whom to entrust with their care;

        (2)  You did so without any evidence of a single documented problem but simply because you disagreed with what they do;

        (3)  You made fun of these parents and voters with every pun that you, and perhaps your speechwriters, could think of so that you could laugh while dismantling what should be cherished rights under the 14th Amendment.   

    It's a chilling thought for any parent who homeschools a child, belongs to a religious sect you can't understand, or whomever you elect to target next.

    Taking away parental rights, freedoms, and laughing about it.  Just when did Virginia government stop being the institution where the gravity and value of freedom prompted delegates like Patrick Henry to vow "Give me liberty or give me death"?

Very Truly Yours,
Pat Brown, AANR President


    Kraus letter in The Bulletin
    by Horst Kraus

Dear Editor:

    There can be victory in defeat, and that is not a paradox.

    I don’t like the outcome of Virginia HB 158, and we can look at it as if it were a defeat.  But if that is what we chose to do, it is only a defeat to the measure of the victory of our opponents.  

    What have the opponents won?  Not the end of nude youth camps.  Not the closing of a nudist park.  Not the ouster of nudists.  Not the end of nudism.  No diminished activity for nudists in appropriate settings.  

    What have they won?  Not a whole heck of a lot to cry in my beer for.

    What have we gained in this so-called defeat?  The House and Senate in Virginia clearly acknowledged the right of parents to expose their children to social nudity, and the right of parents to the upbringing of their children as nudists.  They acknowledged the right of licensure for nudist parks IN VIRGINIA (under appropriate conditions), and the right of nude youth camps to take place IN VIRGINIA (under appropriate conditions).  They have to their chagrin acknowledged that nothing inappropriate takes place at nude youth camps.  (Had they had any suspicion, they would have started an investigation.  Had they had any proof otherwise, they would have levied a law like Travis County-Hippy Hollow in Texas.)

    All they got is the satisfaction to vote yea on their own demand that Mom or Dad or Grandpa or Grandma must be present while the kids are enlisted in the camp.  Big deal.  We are better off for it; we get a greater pool of volunteers that way.  Good and sincere volunteers, I say.

    This law is not constitutional, and in my limited knowledge of our right not to be singled out by the government, it could be overturned.  But it is not even worth going to the Supreme Court for, in my humble opinion.  So what should we do?  Tell the usual AANR-bashing subjects to mind their own problems.


    Morton article in Nude and Natural
    by Bob Morton

What About the Children?  A Target-Rich Environment: The Assault on Family Naturism
June 2004

    Naturists have made significant advances in recent years, giving us reasons for feeling, on the surface at least, that we may finally be less vulnerable than we once were.

    I'll tell anyone who will listen that according to Forbes magazine, commercial nude recreation has been the fastest growing segment of the recreation industry.  I proudly cite the Roper Poll that says 80 percent of the American public favors allowing nude sunbathing at beaches set aside for that purpose.

    We're not wrong to enjoy our accomplishments, and no one is more pleased than I am when we have cause to celebrate a victory.  At the same time, I know that we must be careful not to allow the giddy disregard for trouble that can come from smelling our own vapors.

    The honest truth is that naturists are still under attack, socially, politically and through the legal system.  The well-funded and relentless opponents of nudity are not confining their attention to strip bars.  Increasingly, they are mounting intensified and fine-tuned assaults directly on the recreational choices of naturists, as well as on our way of life.

    The most insidious and vicious of these attacks are being directed at us through our children.  Parent or not, no naturist can afford to ignore that troubling fact.

    Those who would destroy us have already demonstrated the relative ease with which naturists can be attacked by hiding behind the veil of protecting "society's most vulnerable."  The attacks come on two main fronts: our social activities and our families themselves.  I have first-hand knowledge of both.

Outside the Gates

    Conventional wisdom among some in the North American nudist community has been that nudist resorts, parks, and camps are relatively safe behind their gates and walls.  If social, legal or political confrontations concerning nudity and children are to occur, they will happen first to those involved with free beaches and the nude use of public lands.  To a great extent, that piece of conventional wisdom has proven to be correct.

    For many, the Hippie Hollow conflagration of the mid-1990s defined the shape of the battle to come.  An aggressive county attorney in Austin, Texas used threats of complicity in child abuse to stampede Travis County officials into prohibiting families with children from using an officially clothing-optional county park.  The result was the abrupt termination of a long-standing tradition of family skinny-dipping at the site.

    My entire family—myself, my wife Christine and our three children—were plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the county seeking the return of our ability to visit the park as a family.  At issue was the right of naturist parents to determine the personal and social values with which their children would be imbued.  A court ruled in favor of the county's claimed right to protect the children of naturists from being involved in legal activities of the parents' own choosing.  The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the case.

    That devastating loss and the five-year legal battle leading to it made me very aware of what's at stake and how easily it can be ripped from us.  It also exposed many of the tactics and arguments we would see used against naturists in subsequent conflicts.

    More recently, we've heard disturbing echoes of the same plot in the assault by a pseudo-religious group on the clothing-optional use of Mazo Beach in Wisconsin.  For the sake of the vulnerable children, say the crusaders, nudity must be prohibited.  To make their point, they routinely accuse public officials of complicity in the abuse of children.  Sound familiar?

    A coalition led by the Naturist Action Committee and Friends of Mazo Beach recently stopped legislation aimed at banning nudity at Mazo and on public lands across the state.  An important element of our success was being able to anticipate and blunt the predictable arguments involving children.

Not Just Public Lands

    Now the confrontation has come knocking on the front gates of nudist resorts.

    Most naturists are familiar with the assault that has been mounted in recent months against nude youth camps that are sometimes conducted at nudist resorts.  Prompted by a piece this past summer in The New York Times, pundits and lawmakers alike have assailed youth camps of the type sponsored for a decade by the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) and its regional affiliates.

    Among those decrying the nude youth camps, a common theme has been that while social nudity among adults may be a marginally tolerated practice, the inclusion of youngsters in naturist activities is a "reprehensible exploitation of children."  In fact, those are the exact words of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida).  Foley was among the first and the loudest in his vitriolic condemnation of nude youth camps, calling them an "outrageous abuse of minor children."

    Nothing at all has been heard from Foley on this issue since he ended his campaign for the U.S. Senate, but legislation to put a stop to nude youth camps has actually been introduced in two states.  NAC testified against such a bill introduced during a special session of the Texas legislature this past summer.  Following a hearing, the bill never emerged from the committee to which it had been assigned.

    Less successful was an AANR-led effort to stop a legislative measure in Virginia that proposed restrictions to nude youth camps in that state.  House Bill 158 was overwhelmingly passed by both houses of the legislature.  Naturists have been marginalized to such an extent that the governor of Virginia recently saw nothing wrong in ridiculing us as he endorsed state legislation that strips away our rights as parents, issuing a statement filled with sophomoric double-entendres and bad puns that mock the human body.

    The county attorney in the Hippie Hollow case once bragged to me that his notion of government intervention between naturist parents and their children would someday be used inside private nudist resorts.  He was right.  The distressing tactic has jumped the fence and busted down the gate.  It's inside the resorts, parks and camps now.

Inside Our Families, Too

    When it comes to children, naturist families present what the military might call a "target-rich environment."  Naturists with children regularly include them in their naturist social activities.  Not surprisingly, life at home frequently reflects the honesty and consistency of body acceptance through nonsexual nudity.

    Our adversaries have not ignored the opportunities.  Laws in some states (e.g., Arizona, Ohio) make taking pictures of your naturist family at home a risky proposition.  Nebraska considered making it an offense to possess a "compilation" that includes more than five pictures of nude children, even if it happened to be five snapshots of Junior on a bearskin rug, playing in the bathtub or running through a sprinkler.

    Meanwhile, a proposed new type of law intends to prevent the sexual "grooming" of vulnerable children as a prelude to abuse.  Lawmakers are being told they can accomplish that admirable goal by simply outlawing all nudity in the home.

    Beyond the letter of the law, judicial bias and the tyranny of enforce    ment and bureaucracy take their toll.  In many states, caseworkers from Child Protective Services (or its differently named equivalent) routinely open cases based on hearing of simple nudity in the home.  Child custody cases are rarely decided in favor of a naturist parent.  If ex-spouses have both participated in clothing-optional activities, the one who more quickly renounces nudity gains the upper hand.  Naturists seeking to adopt or become foster parents can anticipate little prospect of success, unless they agree to give up their naturist pursuits.

    We are being discouraged from celebrating and documenting our family-friendly naturist activities, our events and our lives.  We are singled out for the abridgement of parental rights, and it's entirely because we are naturists.  We can expect that attacks will continue to be directed at us through our children, but we cannot abandon our children, and we must not allow our detractors to redefine us by fragmenting our families.

    It's a fight we simply cannot afford to lose.

Picture caption:
ENEMIES OF NATURISM try to intimidate politicians and bureaucrats by making bogus connections between nude recreation and child abuse.  The signs shown here were aimed at Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources, former DNR Secretary Darrell Bazzell and former Gov. Scott McCallum.  Despite continued pressure from a self-styled Christian group, Wisconsin's clothing-optional Mazo Beach remains open to families.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Newsletter # 28
    Professors and Researchers
    Special Interest Group
    The Naturist Society
    February 2008

    ● Youth Camp Concluding Supplement ●

    This is the third and final archiving of documents that arose out of the 2003 AANR Youth Camp controversy.  Issue # 9 covered the initial publicity.  Issue # 12 covered mostly the reactions in state legislatures.  The legal challenge has taken much longer.  We have been holding this report, waiting for the final shoe to drop in the Virginia court challenge.  That happened so silently that nobody was aware of it.

Contents:
    1.  Overview: End of the AANR Youth Camp Story
    2.  Texas
        a.  Second Proposed Texas Law
        b.  The Daily Texan Story
        c.  Naturist Action Committee Update
        d.  The Bulletin Report
    3.  Virginia
        a.  The 2004 Camp
            i.  The Washington Times Story
            ii.  The First Federal Court Verdict
            iii.  Cancellation of the Camp in Virginia
            iv.  Report on the Moved Camp
        b.  Opinion (all of it pro-naturist)
            i.  The News Leader Editorial
            ii.  Richard Mason Letter on AANR Effectiveness
            iii.  Dietrich Column in The Daily Press
            iv.  Bill Williamson Article in The Bulletin
            v.  Richard Mason Letter on Governor Mark Warner
        c.  The Legal Challenge
            i.  AANR-East Files Its Second Federal Appeal
            ii.  Second  Proposed Virginia Law
            iii.  Virginia Proposal Defeated
            iv.  Federal Court Victory on Legal Standing
            v.  Erich Schuttauf Letter on Dropping the Case
    4.  Florida
        a.  Florida Sun-Sentinel Story on Foley
        b.  First Saint Petersburg Times Story on Foley
        c.  New York Daily News Story on Foley
        d.  Second Saint Petersburg Times Story on Foley
        e.  Glidewell Column in The Saint Petersburg Times
        f.  Kush Analysis in Nude & Natural


End of the AANR Youth Camp Story
by Paul LeValley

    The 2003 AANR Youth Camp controversy has ended with something less than a whimper.  Sometime in the last two years, the AANR-East challenge to a Virginia law outlawing nudist youth camps was dropped so quietly that nobody knew about it.

    The controversy began when AANR, in an effort to emphasize the family aspect of nudism, invited reporters from the New York Times, Time magazine, and a local paper to visit the Florida camp (which I had founded many years ago).  The publicity came at a time when reporters were also beginning to question local Congressman Mark Foley about rumors he was gay.  To change the subject, Foley suddenly went on an anti-nude-youth-camp crusade, claiming he was saving teenagers from exploitation by adults.  At the time, no one knew why Foley's mind was in the gutter--that he was, himself, pursuing young male former congressional pages with letters full of sexual innuendos.

    Naturists everywhere went into public relations damage control.  But there were no political consequences in Florida--mainly because South Florida Free Beaches had been so active during the previous ten years making friends in the state legislature.  Even Governor Jeb Bush's office issued a statement that, "The rights of parents to impart their values in their children and raise their children as they see fit are sacred."

    Part of the intended publicity message was that the camps were expanding, with a goal of opening youth programs in a new AANR region every year.  Full-fledged camps were about to happen in Virginia and Arizona, and leaders had begun thinking about a weekend pilot program in Texas.  Nothing political happened in Arizona, but after the camp season, bills prohibiting nude youth camps appeared in the Virginia and Texas legislatures.  The Naturist Action Committee quickly killed the first Texas bill, only to have it resurface two years later.  But that time, just when naturists thought they had won again, a prohibition of nude youth camps suddenly appeared in the “sanitation” section of the state Health Department administrative code--where nobody could get at an elected official to change it.  NAC tried to claim victory, in that the proposal never reached the floor of the legislature.  And AANR claimed credit for discovering the administrative end-run.  The truth is that we lost badly.  The projected 2004 weekend mini-camp did take place--but in Oklahoma.  Then the Southwest region laid low for a year (while the second Texas fury swirled), before opening a regular week-long camp in Oklahoma.

    Meanwhile, the Virginia legislature required that parents accompany their children to camp if any nudity was involved.  When parents could not do that, the 2004 camp was at the last moment moved to South Carolina.  AANR-East went to court challenging discrimination in the Virginia law--and found all kinds of legal hurdles placed in their way.  At first, the court insisted on calling each year a separate camp--so that the issue became moot as soon as the camp date rolled around.

    Another device that legislators use is to slightly alter the law, so that the challengers must waste time and money filing a new suit.  In 2005, a bill was introduced in the Virginia legislature to strike the parental accompaniment clause--effectively barring all children from nudist resorts as well as summer camps.  This struck at the very heart of family naturism.  Fortunately, legislators thought they had fixed the "problem" the year before, and were in no mood to take it up again.  That proposal quietly died in committee.

    A few years ago, the County Prosecutor at Hippie Hollow in Texas managed to get children banned from the area--with the result that a family place deteriorated into a gay pick-up spot.  The prosecutor blurted out the radical right plan:
    1.  Ban children from nude public beaches.
    2.  Close down the beaches as places of adult activity.
    3.  Ban children from private nudist clubs.
    4.  Close down the clubs as places of adult activity.
In Virginia, they got ahead of the plan, and jumped to step 3.  It didn't work.

    Next, the Virginia court ruled that AANR-East had no standing in the matter.  AANR-East appealed to the federal court, who agreed that the sponsoring region did indeed have standing to challenge the law.  Sometime after that, AANR-East and AANR officials concluded that they could never win in a Virginia court, and might as well quietly go out claiming a federal court victory.

    At first, the original publicity seemed to be having its desired effect.  Camp attendance boomed in 2004.  But in the last couple of years, attendance has plummeted--figures offset by the growing success of the Youth Ambassador Program for college-age young people.  Some leaders say there are fewer young nudist families with children, but no one has produced figures to support that theory.  Others say the camps have become so security-conscious that they aren't fun anymore.  Another explanation could be that the controversy drove out the most visionary and inspiring recent camp leader.

    Back in 2003, some people were quick to condemn AANR for a publicity blunder that should have been foreseen.  With the perspective of time, we can tally up the final score:
    ● a flurry of publicity with the good outnumbering the bad,
    ● Congressman Foley thoroughly discredited,
    ● nude youth camps outlawed in two states,
    ● and a stalled camp expansion plan with dwindling attendance.


Second Proposed Texas Law

79R3321 YDB-D

         By:  Hughes                                                      H.B. No. 772

                                          A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                                 AN ACT

         relating to prohibiting nudist youth camps.                                  
                BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
                SECTION 1. Chapter 141, Health and Safety Code, is amended
         by adding Section 141.0095 to read as follows:
                Sec. 141.0095. NUDIST YOUTH CAMPS PROHIBITED; STANDARDS.  A
         youth camp may not operate as a nudist camp.  The executive
         commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission by rule
         shall adopt the standards necessary to implement this section.
                SECTION 2. The executive commissioner of the Health and
         Human Services Commission by rule shall adopt the standards
         required by Section 141.0095, Health and Safety Code, as added by
         this Act, not later than May 1, 2006.
                SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.   


    The Daily Texan Story
    by Marie Delahoussaye

    This well-researched piece appeared in the University of Texas newspaper.

Bill proposed to outlaw nudist youth camps
February 7, 2005

    AUSTIN, Texas - Nudist Texan youth will have a long way to travel for summer camp if a recently filed bill is passed.

    The bill's author, State Rep.  Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) said he wants nudist youth camps outlawed in Texas, although he isn't aware of any currently operating.

    Hughes decided to write the bill because he heard the American Association for Nude Recreation was planning to expand into the state in 2005.  He said he opposes the camps because they allow nude children to be unsupervised by their parents.

    "It's a real dangerous situation," he said.

    Hughes called the camps "magnets for pedophiles," and said he is concerned about youths' own abilities to behave responsibly in a nude environment.

    Edward Moss, owner and manager of Bluebonnet, a nudist resort in Alvord, Texas, said, "The whole idea behind the nudist parks in this country is to promote family unity."

    While the membership at his resort consists mostly of couples, he said there are some families with children.

    Moss attributes the recent bill to ignorance on the part of legislators.

    "The critics assume if there's nudity, it's a nasty thing, an immoral thing and should be banned," Moss said.  "It's not for everybody, but we should be free to raise kids as we see fit."

    The American Association of Nude Recreation now operates three youth camps nationwide, according to the Rev. JoAnne "Elf" Pessagno, marketing director at Lake Como Family Nudist Resort in Lutz, Fla.

    The camp at Lake Como is the oldest of the three, founded by Judy Grisham [wrong] in 1992.  The yearly camp runs for one week in June, during which supervised campers participate in such activities as volleyball, mini-golf, "capture the flag" and campfire sing-alongs.  Pessagno, who worked at last year's camp, described one game called "pudding toss."

    "Before you know it, everyone is covered in pudding, and then they jump in the lake and rinse off," she said.

    The camp culminates in a spaghetti dinner and a "Sunny and Bare" talent show for parents.

    For children raised in nudist families, the camps provide an opportunity to meet people their own age of similar backgrounds and interests.

    "The kids love it.  They come back year after year," said Bob Roche, manager and president of White Tail Park in Virginia and president of AANR-Eastern Region.  "It gives them a great place to enjoy themselves and meet new friends."

    The camps take careful measures to prevent misconduct, and according to Roche, they haven't had any problems.  The park is secure, he said, and campers are supervised by both a male and female counselor at all times.  All counselors have been recommended by a local nudist club, plus an elected official of the AANR.  Many are graduates of Nude University, a camp and counselor certification program for 18-to 25-year-olds.  After interviews, applicants are subject to police background checks.


    Naturist Action Committee Update
    by Bob Morton

    This is the second of three NAC pronouncements–all containing nearly-identically worded criticism of AANR.  The first was an Action Alert dated February 5, 2005; the third appeared in the June 2005 Nude & Natural Newsletter.

    April 25, 2005--NAC has negotiated with the sponsor of Texas House Bill 772 for the withdrawal of his bill from further legislative consideration, and that withdrawal took place on Thursday, April 21. HB 772 had sought to prevent nude youth camps in the state of Texas.

    This is a success worth celebrating, but NAC has learned of circumstances that make it less than a full victory.


HISTORY

    Texas State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) is the sponsor of HB 772, a bill introduced earlier this year. Rep. Hughes introduced similar legislation during the first special session of the Texas legislature in the summer of 2003. According to Hughes himself, his actions in that session and in this one were triggered entirely by an article that had appeared in the New York Times on June 18, 2003, as a promotional piece for the American Association for Nude Recreation.  That is the same article over which Congressman Mark Foley (R-Florida) created a furor concerning nude youth camps in 2003, and it's the same article that initiated a backlash in the state of Virginia, leading to a legislative prohibition against certain nude youth camps in that state in 2004.

    The New York Times article, which AANR has characterized as having been "closely managed" by members of its staff and a public relations firm it uses, included descriptions of a nude youth camp in Florida. It also mentioned similar camps in Arizona and Virginia, and it declared that "organizers in Texas are planning a fourth camp there for the summer of 2005."

    The statement about a plan for a Texas nude youth camp was absolutely untrue. No such plan had been proposed or considered.  AANR officials have said they have "no idea" how the statement made it into their closely managed article, and they have suggested the newspaper simply fabricated the statement, somehow plucking "Texas" and "2005" at random out of all the possible combinations of states and years.


WHAT DID HB 772 PROPOSE?

    HB 772 proposed to add a section to the state's Health and Safety Code, declaring that "[a] youth camp may not operate as a nudist camp." Rep. Hughes has insisted publicly that he has no present intent to target naturist facilities for adults. However, he has issued strong and inflammatory statements about the inclusion of children in naturist activities. Most specifically, he has said he wishes to prevent any Texas implementation of the type of nude youth camp about which he read in the New York Times.


WHAT HAS NAC DONE?

    The Naturist Action Committee opposed House Bill 50 in the first special session of the 2003 Texas legislature. NAC testified against that measure in a legislative committee hearing, and it died without ever receiving a vote from the committee.

    When House Bill 772 was introduced in 2005, NAC immediately hired a professional legislative lobbyist and began working on behalf of naturists to kill the bill. NAC's efforts included behind-the-scenes  discussions with lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate, as well as conferences with selected members of the House Public Health Committee (to which the bill was assigned) and Rep. Hughes, the bill's sponsor.

    Those efforts on multiple fronts have paid off in the withdrawal of HB 772.

    A legislative response team from NAC arrived at the hearing of the House Public Health Committee last Thursday, prepared to testify against the bill. Rep. Hughes agreed to withdraw it just minutes before the hearing session started.


PRESENT STATUS OF THE LEGISLATION

    House Bill 772 has been withdrawn from the legislative process. It is dead for all practical purposes. It cannot be declared officially dead yet, but because of the withdrawal, it has missed important deadlines that are required of bills that will make it to final passage.


A SUCCESS, YES ...BUT NOT AN UNQUALIFIED VICTORY

    NAC's derailing of House Bill 772 is an important success. However, an administrative "end run" has thrown a significant wrench into the works.

    In a move done so stealthily that not even Rep. Hughes knew about it, administrators in the Department of State Health Services took matters into their own hands. Through an administrative process available to the Department, they amended the Texas Administrative Code to prohibit nudity at youth camps. The Texas rules on "General Sanitation" (25 TAC §265.26) have been modified to read:

    "A youth camp may not allow campers or staff to be nude, except when bathing, showering, changing clothing or receiving medical care."    

    What was the trigger for such a rule? In a publicly issued statement, Department administrators wrote: "The new rule is not due to recent legislation, but is in response to published comments from nudist associations that plan to operate nudist youth camps in Texas ..."

    The "published comments" to which they were responding were, of course, those that appeared in the 2003 article in the New York Times.

    Without question, Rep. Hughes was influenced in his decision to drop his bill when he learned of the Health Department's rule.


DISCUSSION

    The Naturist Action Committee vigorously supports and defends the right of naturists and nudists to send their kids to camp, in the same way that parents send their children to Boy Scout camp, church camp, band camp, etc. NAC has specifically defended AANR's nude youth camps, even doing so as part of a broad coalition of naturists who held a face-to-face meeting on the issue with Congressman Mark Foley in 2003. Foley had demanded investigations into the camps and had suggested the introduction of legislation to prohibit them.  AANR was invited to that meeting, but chose not to participate.

    The focus here on the effect of the "closely managed" article in the New York Times is a direct reflection of its central role in so many assaults on nude youth camps by lawmakers and rulemakers, including those involved with HB 772 and the administrative rule that accomplished a similar goal.


WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN TEXAS?

    NAC has initiated an immediate investigation into the legal ramifications of the change to the Administrative Code. The exact nature of further action will depend on the result of that investigation.

    NAC has also broadened its data gathering in Texas and in other states in an effort to be more effective in catching future "end runs" around the legislative process.
    The Bulletin Report
    By Erich E. Schuttauf, J.D.

June, 2005

AANR Uncovers Texas Regulation

    If you think back to your high school civics class, you may recall that oft-repeated description of the three pillars of government: "the legislature enacts laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the judicial branch interprets laws."  As your AANR Government Affairs professionals can tell you, however, some times it's not quite so simple.  A recent case in point is Texas.
There, resources funded with your AANR dues helped us uncover a State Health Department regulation.  It certainly alters the legislative fight that AANR, SWSA, and other groups have been waging to stop Bryan Hughes' TX HB 772—to restrict nudist camps for juveniles—moot.

State Net Helps AANR Uncover Nudity Regulation.

    Your dues fund AANR's subscription to the State Net legislative tracking service.  This is the same service used by legal publishing companies and government professionals to monitor proposed legislation throughout the country.  The thousands we spend help cover the legislative waterfront.  But regulations are different.  There are rules prepared by administrative agencies within the executive branch of government that can go into effect much more quickly and quietly than laws because they don't have to pass through committees and houses of state lawmakers.

    Your AANR Government Affairs Coordinator Patricia Omer took State Net up on its offer to try an additional service the company is offering to track regulatory activity.  That's when we unearthed this bombshell:

    "Texas Administrative Code Title 25 Part 1 Chapter 265 Section 265.26.  Nudity Prohibited.

    A youth camp may not allow campers or staff to be nude, except when bathing, showering, changing clothing or receiving medical care."

    To give you an idea of just how quiet and under-the-radar this can be, consider that neither Bryan Hughes, his staff, or the lobbyist working on behalf of the nudist community to stop TX HB 772 had ever heard about Section 265.26.

What Does It Mean for Our Clubs?

    It's critical that our SWSA clubs not jump to conclusions about how the regulation does and does not apply.  Reaching such conclusions will require thorough research.  It's one of the reasons that, as this issue of The Bulletin goes to press, AANR and SWSA have obtained the services of an attorney board certified in administrative law from a top-shelf Austin, Texas, firm.  This attorney is preparing a memorandum explaining the scope of the regulation.

    Last month a team from SWSA/AANR, NAC, and the lobbyist working for the team met with Hughes to explain that his bill was no longer necessary, and we were advised that he would withdraw his bill prior to it being considered in committee hearings.  The official status of the bill on April 21, 2005 was 'left pending in committee."  I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of SWSA Government  Affairs/NAC Chair Bob Morton in helping to facilitate the promised withdrawal, and for being on hand for that committee meeting.

A Word about Timing and the Challenges of Coalition Building.

    In an unexpected move on April 29, 2005 the committee brought the bill back to the table and a substitute bill TX C.S.H.B. No. 772 with some changes was introduced by Vice Chair Laubenberg.  It was considered and reported favorably as substituted.  On May 2, 2005 the committee report was filed and the bill slated for reading on the House floor.

    Based on research at the time of this publication, it appears that the bill as substituted may not make it in this session.

    As advocates for nude recreation, AANR and SWSA recognize the critical importance of working with other groups to build strong coalitions capable of defeating legislation.  While we are committed to continuing such coalition-building, we find it regrettable that NAC issued a pre-emptive alert [actually the above update--not an alert] based upon the information that AANR and SWSA supplied to the coalition in confidence.  It had been our hope to have the thorough, professional analysis of the Austin attorney available at the time we released information about the regulation to our members in clubs to avoid speculation and quickly-drawn conclusions that may prove detrimental.


    Virginia: The Washington Times Story
    By Christina Bellantoni

Teen Nudist Law Faces Challenge
June 21, 2004

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said litigation is likely against a new state law that makes it illegal for teens to attend a nudist camp without their parents or guardians.

    An ACLU legal director called the legislation a "knee-jerk reaction" against a legal lifestyle.

    "There was no good reason to enact this law, and there is no reason to believe that these camps are harmful to children in any way," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the Richmond-based ACLU of Virginia.

    Earlier this year, the General Assembly overwhelmingly passed the law that says teens can only attend a nudist camp if a parent, grandparent or legal guardian is present.  The law goes into effect July 1, unless legal action is taken.

    Miss Glenberg said "litigation is likely" against the law, which targets Camp White Tail in Ivor, a city in southeastern Virginia.  Camp White Tail runs an annual week-long nudist camp for nearly 50 teens and preteens.

    Bob Roche, the camp's manager, said he is working with the ACLU and will file an injunction in the coming weeks. The ACLU would not confirm this.

    Mr. Roche said that unless the law is repealed, it will affect this year's camp, which is to be held the last week of July.

    "There's a whole bunch of kids that won't be able to come without their parents," Mr. Roche said.  "We want to overturn this extremely bad law that is unconstitutional, and if we have to, we will sue for money."

    Mr. Roche said the law discriminates against nude teens.  "It singles them out--a church group that lets students take nude showers doesn't need parents there.  A youth hockey camp or summer camp doesn't need their parents," he said.

    Miss Glenberg agreed.

    "There's absolutely nothing unlawful or wrong about not wearing clothes, as long as you are not in public, where other people might be offended," she said.  "By denying children the opportunity to go to this summer camp and by denying parents the right to choose where to send their children during the summer, the state is trampling on their right to privacy and the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children."

    Mr. Roche said he expects participation in the camp to decline because many parents won't be able to take time off from work to attend the camp with their children.

    Paul Reagan, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Warner, said the administration is "very confident" the law will withstand any legal challenge.

    The ACLU had lobbied for Mr. Warner, a Democrat, to veto the bill.

    Delegate John S. "Jack" Reid, Henrico County Republican, sponsored the bill in response to constituent complaints about Camp White Tail's special summer nudist camp for juveniles ages 11 to 17.

    The law states that the Board of Health shall not issue a license to any camp that runs a nudist camp for juveniles when a parent, grandparent or legal guardian is not also registered for or present with the juvenile in the same camp.

    Mr. Reid said he expects Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, a Republican, will defend against a lawsuit, and said the law is "absolutely constitutional."

    "I don't think the Constitution allows you to do anything you want to earn a living," Mr. Reid said.  "There are certain things society can say they feel is acceptable or unacceptable, and the overwhelming reaction in the General Assembly is that legislators didn't want this camp for children taking place in Virginia....  We'll let the courts decide."

    Delegate Richard H. Black, Loudoun County Republican, was the only co-patron of the bill.  He said the law will be upheld in Virginia courts and said the camp is "bizarre."

    "There are laws against child pornography--and if you can't put it in a picture, I don't understand why you could put it at an outdoors camp," he said.  "I cannot imagine what type of parent would send their teenage child off to a nudist camp."

    Delegates Charles "Bill" Carrico, Independence Republican, and Terrie L. Suit, Virginia Beach Republican, were the only lawmakers to vote against the bill.

    A spokesman for Mr. Carrico, who is on vacation, said the delegate didn't feel the legislation went far enough.

    "He wanted to ban juveniles from nudist camps, period," said spokesman Stuart Higley.

    Mrs. Suit voted against the governor's amendment to the bill because she preferred the original version of the bill.  Mr. Warner's amendment required that the parent be present with the teen instead of just accompanying the teen to the camp.  The amendment passed.

    There are just a handful of states with nudist camps for juveniles, including Arizona and Florida.

    Mr. Roche said the children are "at peace" with their nudity, and that the camp would teach them social interaction skills.  At the camp, the juveniles do normal activities, including playing volleyball and swimming.


    The First Federal Court Verdict

Nude Camp Must Have Parents Present
The Associated Press
July 15, 2004

    RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal judge ruled Thursday that a nudist colony in Virginia cannot hold its annual summer camp for teenagers in defiance of a new state law that requires parents or guardians to be present.  Robert Roche, owner of White Tail Park nudist camp, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sought a preliminary injunction against the law so juveniles could attend the summer camp later this month without parental supervision.  But U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams denied the motion, saying the presence of parents or guardians at the camp would not interfere with the children's ability to enjoy themselves.


    Cancellation of the Camp in Virginia
    AANR Press Release

    When announcing that the 2004 camp would not be held in Virginia, AANR officials remained silent about the new location to avoid any more bad publicity.

July 16, 2004

    The American Association for Nude Recreation’s Eastern Region announced today that it is canceling the youth leadership summer camp that was scheduled to take place next week at White Tail Park in Ivor, Virginia.

    According to AANR East President and White Tail Park owner Robert Roche, a federal court’s ruling yesterday would place an undue burden on too many parents who had planned to send their children for a week of wholesome, well supervised instruction and activities.  On July 1, a new Virginia law became effective that prohibits parents from sending their children to any summer camp where their child will be “openly nude” unless a parent, grandparent, or legal guardian is also in attendance, regardless of the level or quality of adult supervision at the camp.

    “This issue is about much more than a ‘summer camp.’ The problem with a recently-passed Virginia law and the court’s decision requiring that parents and grandparents attend is that it interferes with fundamental parenting rights.  Parents must have the right to direct the upbringing of their children and to choose custodial caregivers for those children without undue interference from the state” said Roche.  “The state of Virginia has chosen to interfere with parenting decisions and rights of otherwise fit parents.  This is the first step on a slippery slope.

    “In the case of AANR youth leadership camps, our caregivers include many of the parents themselves, in addition to screened volunteers.  Most of these come from professions ranging from law enforcement to paramedics, nurses, and educators--making them especially well suited to add to the safety and security of this experience.  We have a staff to camper ratio of nearly two staff to supervise each of the campers, including many families who elect to come together” said Roche.

    Parents are welcome to accompany these children to the summer camp.  But just as parents are not required to attend scout, YMCA, sports or religious camps with their child, the government should not have the power to compel parental attendance if it interferes with a parents’ decisions to choose when and with whom they will educate their children.

    All parents care very deeply about the upbringing of their children and many are on the youth camp staff.  In fact, for fourteen years, youth leadership camps have a totally unblemished record, thanks to the qualified people who give their time, as well as solid rules, security, and standards of conduct.   

    This year the camp scheduled at Ivor will not be able to take place given the number of campers whose parents cannot attend due to such factors as work commitments, military service, and health reasons.


    Report on the Moved Camp
    by Bill Williamson

The Bulletin
January 2005

An Outstanding Effort by All:
Youth Camp Successful Despite Legal Controversy.

    PELION, S. C.—On July 15, 2004, after the unfavorable judicial decision about the request for an injunction regarding Virginia HB 158, and due to intense media interest relating to it, AANR East President Bob Roche announced the cancellation of the AANR East Youth Camp that was to be held at White Tail Park near Ivor, Virginia.  Immediately following that action, Roche contacted another club owner at an undisclosed location in the AANR East region and initiated arrangements for the camp to be held there.

    Through an outstanding effort on the part of many concerned nudists, camp staff and participants were contacted regarding the change of the location that was projected to start nine days later.  Travel schedules were rearranged, and some staff was changed due to the different location.  Extraordinary efforts were undertaken by many to assist campers and staff in reaching the new location in a timely manner.

    Cedar Creek, the new host club in Pelion, South Carolina, deserves the deepest appreciation of all concerned for the overwhelming welcome and extensive provision of facilities.  To ensure heightened security, Cedar Creek owner John Shaw closed the club to all except members and camp personnel during the time of the camp.  This transition could not have successfully occurred without the gracious hospitality and extensive cooperation of Cedar Creek and its members.

    The camp was very successful with 17 campers plus three Nude U graduates.  Campers were present from five states.  Eleven of the campers had parents, grandparents, or stepparents present for some or all of the camp.  It is notable that one of the issues of the Virginia Legislature related to the requirement that the campers have parents, legal guardian, or grandparents present while at the camp.  There was certainly more family involvement in this camp than any non-nudist youth camp with which I have been involved in the past.

    It is also particularly significant that two of the campers' essays were selected at the AANR Convention for the AANR Junior Man and AANR Junior Woman of the Year Awards.  We are truly proud of these youngsters'
achievements.  It was also notable that many of the youths' essays dealt with the governmental intrusion on their rights, and their parents' rights, to enjoy wholesome family-oriented nude recreation.

    Even though we lost several of our projected staff that could not rearrange their schedules due to the late-breaking change, the membership of Cedar Creek rapidly came forward and volunteered to fill the gaps.  We had a total of 26 volunteers from seven states and the District of Columbia supporting the camp program, and an extraordinary array of talent and professional backgrounds were represented in our staff.

    Due to the circumstances surrounding this camp and the last minute changes that became necessary, we witnessed an example of unparalleled dedication, tenacity, resilience, and unity of nudists in standing up for their beliefs and defending their rights.  Also, we cannot express an appropriate level of appreciation to the Nude U graduates, Amanda Williamson, Erin Patton, and Steven Vickers, who conducted the majority of the workshops, sports, and fun activities, while the older adult staff provided the infrastructure and administrative support for the operation of the camp.  Their superb performance is indeed a tribute to the success of the Nude U program.

    Although the legal battle continues, and plans are in place to return the camp to White Tail Park in 2005, the events of 2004 only strengthen our resolve as nudists to protect our rights to rear our children in a wholesome nudist environment.  We truly appreciate the support and contributions from all over the country in support of this important endeavor.

    We encourage you to make plans now for a family vacation at White Tail Park in 2005 and bring your youngsters to the AANR East youth camp.


    Editorial: The News Leader

Staunton, VA
August 13, 2004

So They're Naked ...

    Soundbite politics--ideas that sound good given a 20-second hearing on television or radio but which don't make a whole lot of sense when examined closely--are at the heart of much of what passes for governance today.  Virginia's no better, if not much worse, than anywhere else.

    Take, for example, this concept: If you send children to camp and they're allowed to take their clothes off, they'll get molested if their parents aren't with them.

    That, basically, is the idea behind a law that was passed during this year's session of the General Assembly, which shut the door on a summer camp for juveniles run by White Tail Park, a nudist camp in Ivor in the southeastern part of the state.  The law didn't ban nudism (for children or adults) at the camp, which has been in operation for about 20 years, but it said that if nudist parents want to send their nudist children to a nudist summer camp, they'd have to go with them, too.

    We're not going to proselytize on behalf of nudism in this forum, but we don't see what all the fuss is about.  Children stand as much chance of being molested at a traditional summer camp as they do in a setting which caters to nudists.  For that matter, children stand a good chance of being molested at the park or in school--or at home.

    For the record, White Tail Park has rules against lewd and lascivious conduct and runs background checks on visitors.  While that, in itself, doesn't preclude bad behavior, it puts the camp on at least an even footing if not better than its clothed counterparts.

    "Virginia has an absolute responsibility to see to the safety of its citizens, particularly its children," Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, told The Associated Press.  "We know that pedophiles tend to congregate where children are accessible... and we just think this law is common sense."

    Based on that kind of reasoning, we'd better pass laws requiring parents to be with their children at all times--no more of this "in loco parentis" nonsense.  Every school and sporting event, Boy or Girl Scout conclave and any other function which relies on counselors, teachers or parent substitutes will need to build extra seating and accommodations to handle the extra traffic.


    Letter on AANR Effectiveness
    by Richard Mason

Posted on RixPlace.com
Jan. 21, 2005

    The latest experience in Virginia exposes the fact that organized nudism
does not have plan to handle the political side of the issue.

    If the energy and money spent on the internal politics, for example, AANR Tomorrow or what ever it was called, was put into an organized action plan to educate elected officials, we might be halfway to somewhere, rather than halfway to nowhere.

    Such an action plan was submitted to FANR at its birth, (early 1990s) by Naturists from the non-landed clubs and shot down by those that stayed too long in organized nudism and just wanted to protect the status quo.  Titles, expense accounts and egos were more important than political action.

    In the textile world, these individuals would be called "suits."  They secretly believed that because their interests were on private property, they would always be protected from government anti-nudity laws.

    It was a kind of "the Hell with the Beach People.  Let them fall.  Then they will have to come to the clubs."

    When Naturists pointed out that the landed clubs were vulnerable to the anti-nudity lobby through the children and alcohol issues, we were accused of being alarmists with a false message.

    It reminds me of a song that they sang in Boston, at election time.  It went like this.  (I have changed the words to accommodate the Virginia situation)

"East side, West side, all around the town.
The nudists play ring-around-the-circle,
While Virginia was burning down."

    Having the personal experience of being drummed out of FANR by the power trustees behind the expense accounts, and being disrespected by the president of ASA (AANR) and the Board of Trustees of ASA and the Officers of FANR, at the time; and having my wife and my character attacked because we only wanted to do good and warn about the future power of the RRR; and being accused of creating a false enemy for the purpose of having the FANR budget spent on a robust political action program, instead of being spent at the landed clubs; and being called a "beach people" because the callers thought "beach people" were irresponsible and less human than club people; and asking for an accounting of the money that FANR was supposed to receive from ASA, I have to admit that I am not surprised at what is going on in Virginia.

    The tragedy is that the nudist club that is going to suffer from this misdirected political action, White Thorn, is one of better-managed and progressive of the landed nudist clubs.

    The owner has been a stand up guy for Nudism.

    Having been one of several Naturists from the beach side of the nudist/Naturist divide warning about this danger, and having been educated and alerted by Lee Baxandall of the Naturist Society in the late 1980s about this danger from the Right, it is sad to witness what is going on in Virginia and know that had ASA/AANR focused on this issue, listened to Lee and the "beach people" (15 years ago), things might be a little different in Virginia.

    Lets all support the effort of Bob Roche.

    I would recommend that all who haven't yet bought or read the book, The Nudist Idea by Cec Cinder, do so now.  This will give you perspective as well as the background to educate elected officials of the direction they are going and the company they may be keeping.

    Hermann Goring comes to mind.


    Dietrich Column in The Daily Press
    by Tamara Dietrich

Hampton Roads, VA
March 24, 2005

Weigh Bare Facts on Camp for Teens

    You may have noticed that nudists are plucky folk.  A year after the General Assembly told them they can't send their teenagers off alone to summer nudist camp anymore, they're still fighting back tooth and nail--and everything in between.

    They seem to think they have the same rights as other parents to ship their kiddos off to summer camp, where, instead of computers or math or popsicle stick handcrafts, teens are taught the philosophy of the nudist lifestyle.

    Now an appeals court is considering whether requiring one group of parents--i.e., nudists--to accompany their kids to summer camp injures them sufficiently that they have the right to sue.

    "If they were affected by the law, which they clearly are, they should be able to bring a lawsuit," Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, insisted Wednesday.

    Virginia is one of the few states that offered a summer nudist camp for teens--White Tail Park in Southampton County.

    Glenberg made her arguments before the appeals panel last week.

    The state Attorney General's office counter-argued that plaintiffs have no legal standing, according to one wire report, because "there is no constitutional parental right to send your child to a juvenile nudist camp."

    A decision could take months.  Even if the ACLU wins, all it means is that plaintiffs can present their case back in district court.

    Let me say right off that the nudist philosophy eludes me.  I'm one of the majority of uptight Virginians who believes that, for myself, there's but a handful of situations where nudity is appropriate, and none involves social groups or campfires.

    But I grant others the right to live by their own harmless rules.

    Some people happily embrace nudity, like the daring Buckroe guy who used to fetch his paper buck-naked until his neighbors videotaped him last fall and called police.

    Nudist resorts are different from strolling down your driveway, of course, because you're on private property far from prying eyes and frequented by like-minded people who agree ahead of time not to be offended, no matter what they see.

    Whenever I write about this issue, I get grateful e-mail from nudists who think their lifestyle is completely misunderstood, and irate ones from readers who tell me that nudist resorts are rife with child predators.

    I always ask for any credible studies showing that pedophiles are any more or less active at nudist resorts than in the general population.  So far, irate readers have offered zip, except for the occasional creepy anecdote.

    "What I've read so far is that nudist camps are just like any other place when it comes to the likelihood that a child will be abused," Glenberg says.  "No more or less likely."

    The backgrounds of camp counselors are thoroughly checked.  Nudists tell me that cameras are forbidden, and everyone is watchful and aware because they understand that pedophiles will try to infiltrate any organization that gives access to children.

    And for every creepy anecdote, I'll raise you five incidents of children molested by a fully clothed Boy Scout leader, coach, teacher, neighbor, family friend, father, grandfather, uncle, brother, priest, day-care worker, etc.  Last summer, two counselors and two campers at a summer camp run by the Northern Virginia Baptist Center were charged with sexually assaulting younger boys.

    But this past session, lawmakers didn't introduce a single bill requiring Baptists to accompany their children at summer camp.  Instead, one lawmaker tried to ban nudist camps for teens outright.  Some people just believe nudism isn't a healthy lifestyle.  Period.

    Years ago, Glenberg says, many people believed Catholic kids should be required to attend public school rather than private because Catholicism wasn't a healthy thing to be teaching kids, either.  But the U.S.  Supreme Court granted parents the right to practice their own beliefs and pass them down.

    Glenberg's parents would send her to summer camp basically for indoctrination in Judaism.  There are still plenty of people who firmly believe Judaism is the road to hell, but society doesn't grant any of them veto power over Jewish summer camps.

    A nudist summer camp, Glenberg says, is similar.  "They're teaching kids through example and day-to-day life as well as by instruction on what it's like to be a social nudist," she says.  "And that right, I think, is protected by the First Amendment."


    Bill Williamson’s Article in The Bulletin

May 2005

Keep the Family in Social Family Nudism

    There is an ever-growing need for increased action by those who enjoy the wholesome benefits of nude recreation.  I am increasingly appalled by those who seem determined to tell us what our values are and how we should conduct our family affairs.  As noted by the great statesman John Locke more than 300 hundred years ago, "Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to everyone of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not and not to be subject to the inconstant unknown, arbitrary will of another man."

    There is an incessant growing movement, perceived as a mandate by a minority in this country, that believe it is their "God-given right" and public responsibility to tell nudists how we should rear our families under the guise of legislation and case law to "protect minor children."  This is not only a farce and uninformed aggression against a peaceful law-abiding minority of nudists generated for the sake of development of political capital, but it is also an unethical and irreverent misinterpretation of democratic principles of governance.  If there are any of you who still doubt the invasive dangers of the above assessments, please take the time to read some of the recent press excerpts regarding this issue.

    In a 2/06/05 opinion piece entitled "The Big Nanny" in the Hampton Roads Daily Press (Virginia) the author stated: "Then we have the 'hands-on' conservatives.  For them, public intrusion into private conduct is a way of life.  Government becomes an instrument for shaping society, suppressing individualism and ordering behavior.  It is the philosophy of nannyism, of "you-do-as-I-do" or else...  It's a brand of politics that is in your face, in your lives and, if need be, in your bedroom."

    In another article "The General Assembly Has Been on a Holy Crusade" published 2/ 17/05 also in the Hampton Roads Daily Press, columnist Tamara Dietrich notes: "Let's stop the pretense, shall we?  To say Republicans believe in limited government is to say that PETA believes in skinning live bunnies."

    In 2004, HB 158 placed serious restrictions on the AANR Youth Leadership Camps, requiring that parents, grandparents, or legal guardians accompany their children attending nudist youth camps in Virginia.  In 2005 the Virginia Assembly attempted to strengthen this law through HB 2806 by prohibiting attendance of youth at any nudist camp.  After AANR and AANR East spent the equivalent of more than 1,200 members' annual dues to employ a lobbyist, this proposed law died in committee in 2005 with a pledge that the sponsor will bring it back next year.  As of this writing, the court battle supported by AANR, AANR East, and the ACLU attempting to overturn the effects of HB 158 is ongoing.  Nudists in increasing numbers will have to stand up and be counted if we are to win this and future battles.

    In another article, "Bill Proposed to Outlaw Nudist Youth Camps" published in the Daily Texan (2/7/05), Marie Delahoussaye reports on State Rep.  Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) who wants "nudist youth camps outlawed in Texas, although he isn't aware of any currently operating."  Rep. Hughes has for the second time in two years introduced a bill in Texas that would ban nudist youth camps.  Of course we all remember Rep. Foley (FL) and Rep. Flake (AZ) who likewise tried to make "political hay" over this issue during the last couple of years.

    Obviously these are no longer isolated political attacks on nude recreation, but a concerted strategically planned effort to separate the family from social family nudism.  These social conservatives believe that if they can prevent our children from sharing our wholesome participation in social family nudism, they can then designate nude recreation as simply another part of the adult entertainment industry instead of the most rapidly growing sector of the travel and resort industry.  We should remember the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

    We need to support our AANR Youth Leadership Camps by bringing our youth to camp, volunteering our time, and subsidizing our youth leadership program by provision of scholarships and contributions.  We cannot allow those who would destroy our family values and replace them with their own to be victorious.

    We also need to demonstrate our support for AANR and our family- oriented nudist clubs through our membership, volunteerism, and contributions.  We need to come out of the closet and be willing to share our enthusiasm about wholesome social family nude recreation with our friends, neighbors, and professional colleagues and replace their misconceptions with facts.

    What about you? Are you willing to take the initiative to become involved? Are you willing to become a part of the solution instead of waiting for someone else to do our job for us?  Only through personal involvement can we influence progressive change!


    Letter on Governor Mark Warner
    by Richard Mason

February 6, 2006
Letters to the Editor
The Telegraph
Nashua, New Hampshire

    Former Governor of Virginia, Mark Warner, will be bringing his one-man traveling minstrel show to New Hampshire this week.  The proclaimed reason for the visit is to gather information from the voters and seek support for his planned run for the presidency.

    Democrats in New Hampshire really need to examine Mark Warner for the difference in his form of governance versus that of a New England Democrat.

    Before anyone supports Mark Warner, they should look at his record as Governor and examine what he supported and what he opposed.

    One legislative bill that he signed into law, with gusto and negative remarks, was House Bill 158.  This law takes parental rights away from Naturist parents as a class of people.

    The bill was introduced without a compelling government interest, violation of any law, and absent any study or report of an adverse secondary effect of Naturism upon a child.

    This law discriminates against parents and is absent any investigation or court decision with standing.

    The law is being challenged in the court.  However, when parents needed a voice of reason, Mark Warner, as Governor, choose to follow the mob mentality of the day.

    This facet of his character should be examined before supporting this candidate.  He certainly owes American Naturist families an apology.


    AANR-East Files Its Second Federal Appeal
    by Pete Williams

The Bulletin
October, 2004

ACLU Appeals Virginia Youth Camp Decision

    The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has appealed a federal court decision upholding a new Virginia law requiring parental supervision at a youth leadership camp at White Tail Park in Ivor, Va.

    The appeal, filed in August on behalf of AANR and White Tail Park in the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, is the start of what likely will be a five-month process before a decision is made, according to ACLU attorney Rebecca Glenberg.

    A law requiring parental supervision at nudist-related camps for children went into effect July 1, and prompted the cancellation of the White Tail Park camp, one of three regional events hosted annually by AANR clubs.

    The law denies a state license to "any hotel, summer camp or campground...  that maintains, or conducts as any part of its activities, a nudist camp for juveniles who are not accompanied by a parent, grandparent or legal guardian."

    According to Bob Roche, AANR East President and owner of White Tail Park, the ruling places an undue burden on parents who cannot attend because of work commitments, military service, or health reasons.

    AANR officials also have maintained that the youth camps are no different than scouting, sports, or religious camps, which do not require parents to attend.  The AANR youth camps are well-supervised with a counselor-to-camper ratio of 2-to-l.  Many families elect to attend the events together.

    "This issue is about much more than a 'summer camp,'" Roche said.  "It interferes with fundamental parenting rights.  Parents must have the right to direct the upbringing of their children and to choose custodial care-givers for those children without undue interference from the state.  The state of Virginia has chosen to interfere with parenting decisions and rights of otherwise fit parents.  This is the first step on a slippery slope."

    AANR's youth leadership camps sparked a national debate in 2003 following prominent national media coverage of the camp at the Lake Como Family Nudist Resort in Lutz, Fla.  U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, lobbied unsuccessfully to end the Florida event, and Lake Como again hosted the camp in June.

    AANR was not as successful in Virginia, where officials traditionally have been less than receptive to nude recreation; White Tail Park is the state's only nudist resort, and the state has no public lands available for nude use.

    Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jerry W.  Kilgore, told The Associated Press that Virginia has a responsibility for the safety of its children.  Said Murtaugh, "We know that pedophiles tend to congregate where children are accessible...  and we think this law is common sense."

    AANR officials have noted that the camps have an unblemished 14-year track record of success, thanks to qualified adults who ensure security and standards of conduct.  The kids, ranging in age from 11 to 18, are well-supervised by screened volunteers and many of the parents themselves, some of whom work in professions ranging from law enforcement to paramedics to educators.

    Richard Williams, a federal judge in Richmond, tossed out a lawsuit filed by the ACLU challenging the new Virginia law in early August.  Williams said White Tail Park's decision to surrender its permit to operate this summer's camp rendered the lawsuit moot.

    Glenberg disagreed with Williams' conclusion, noting that AANR organizers want to hold a youth camp at White Tail Park again in 2005.  Under the current law, many parents who want to send their kids to the camp are unable to attend, leaving too few participants to make the event practical.

    "If there were a law requiring a parent to accompany every child to Boy Scout or Girl Scout camp, you can see what a burden that would be," Glenberg said.


    Second Proposed Virginia Law

                                HOUSE BILL NO. 2806

                                Offered January 18, 2005

         A BILL to amend and reenact § 35.1-18 of the Code of Virginia,
         relating to nudist camps for juveniles.

                                       ----------
                                    Patron-- Carrico

                                       ----------
                              Committee Referral Pending

                                       ----------

         Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

         1.  That § 35.1-18 of the Code of Virginia is amended and
         reenacted as follows:

         § 35.1-18. License required; name in which issued; not assignable
         or transferable.

         No person shall own, establish, conduct, maintain, manage, or
         operate any hotel, restaurant, summer camp, or campground in
         this the Commonwealth unless the hotel, restaurant, summer camp, or
         campground is licensed as provided in this chapter.  The license
         shall be in the name of the owner or lessee.  No license issued
         hereunder shall be assignable or transferable.  The Board shall not
         issue a license to the owner or lessee of any hotel, summer camp
         or campground in this the Commonwealth that maintains, or
         conducts as any part of its activities, a nudist camp for juveniles.  A
         "nudist camp for juveniles" is defined to be a hotel, summer camp
         or campground that is attended by openly nude juveniles whose
         parent, grandparent, or legal guardian is not also registered for and
         present with the juvenile at the same camp.


    Virginia Proposal Defeated
    by Bob Roche

HB 2806 Tabled by Full Committee
as of Tuesday, February 1, 2005

    This morning, the Virginia House General Laws Committee voted to table HB 2806.  This kills the bill for this year.  However, the bill's sponsor, Delegate Charles Carrico (R-Galax) has stated that he will re-introduce the bill next
year.  In politics, like sports, the best defense is a strong offense.  After this General Assembly session is over, we urge all Virginians to actively work to educate our elected lawmakers on what nude recreation is all about.  We
need to dispel the myths with factual information.

    We thank AANR and AANR-East for all their support and help in defeating this bill that would had effectively banned children from attending any nudist facility or activity in Virginia, with or without their parents.  AANR and AANR-
East provided the funding for this fight against HB 2806, which enabled us to hire one of the finest, most effective lobbyists in Virginia.  If not already a member, we strongly encourage you to join AANR.  AANR and AANR-East are strong proponents and defenders of your and your family's right to participate in social nude recreation.  These efforts do require major expenditures of funds, the primary source of these monies being member dues.

    We also thank all of you for helping us achieve this victory, especially the restraint you showed in refraining from contacting Virginia legislators and the media.  We are organizing a family Open House specifically for elected officials from throughout Virginia.  We'll publicly invite them to attend through the media and personal invitation.  We'll be asking AANR youth to host a question and answer session with the lawmakers.  At a later date, in conjunction with our lobbyist, we will be asking for your help in our educational efforts.

    As always, we'll continue to alert to any future threats to your right to enjoy nude recreation.


    Federal Court Victory on Legal Standing
    The Associated Press

July 6. 2005

4th Circuit reinstates juvenile nudist camp's free-speech lawsuit

    RICHMOND, Va. — A federal appeals court yesterday reinstated a lawsuit challenging a Virginia law requiring parental supervision at a summer camp for juvenile nudists.

    A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the American Association for Nude Recreation-Eastern Region could pursue its claim that the law violates its free-speech rights by crimping its ability to spread its social nudism philosophy.

    The organization claims it had to cancel a summer camp last summer in southeast Virginia because only 11 of the 35 youths who signed up would have been able to bring a parent as required by the law.

    “A regulation that reduces the size of a speaker’s audience can constitute an invasion of a legally protected interest,” Judge William B. Traxler Jr. wrote in the unanimous ruling in White Tail Park v. Stroube.

    U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams ruled last August that the lawsuit was moot because the organizers of the camp at White Tail Park in Ivor surrendered their state permit for the camp after the law took effect on July 1, 2004.

    The appeals court affirmed Williams’ ruling that White Tail Park and six parents who wanted to send their children to the camp lacked standing to sue. The parents’ claim was moot because the camp date had passed, the court said, and nothing in the record explained White Tail’s interest in educating juvenile nudist campers.

    However, the court said the regional nudist organization, which designed and would have conducted the camp, had a case because it wanted to conduct future juvenile nudist camps in Virginia.

    “What we’ve got is our case reinstated, maybe with a little different plaintiff lineup,” said the nudists’ lawyer, Rebecca Glenberg of the American Civil Liberties Union.  “We will still be able to make the same constitutional arguments.”

    Emily Lucier, spokeswoman for the Virginia attorney general’s office, said: “We are disappointed with the court’s ruling, but we expect to win at trial.”

    A summer nudist camp for children ages 11 through 17 was conducted at White Tail Park in 2003. It was the first camp for nude juveniles in Virginia and only the third in the country, according to its sponsors.

    Virginia’s General Assembly found out about the camp and passed the legislation requiring a parent, grandparent or legal guardian to accompany each participant, scuttling plans for the 2004 camp at the Ivor park.


    Letter to Paul LeValley on Dropping the Case
    by Erich Schuttauf

November 9, 2007
Dear Paul,

    Great hearing from you.  I know that the whole youth camp furor, and the case in Virginia was especially significant to you, given the considerable role you played in the early creation of our camps in Florida.

    As a husband and a father to a nudist family with four children of my own, I share your appreciation of just how significant the issue is and frustration with the state of Virginia's misguided views about AANR Youth Leadership camps.  Having assisted as a volunteer with, and having enrolled my own daughters in, the Florida-based camp I can confidently echo what you know to be true.  Specifically, these camps are, and always have been:
staffed by thoroughly screened individuals who provide constant adult supervision to young persons who have been raised in nudist homes, as part of a well-structured program that instills wholesome values about body acceptance and self-respect to those enrolled.

    More than two years ago a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the AANR East region had the right to force the Commonwealth of Virginia into court to defend its ill-conceived law requiring parents to be in direct attendance at any nudist youth camp.

    Some other factors brought the case to a voluntary closure by both sides, but winning that round enabled nudists to "go out on top."  The view held by the team managing the case was that, at that point, it was best to leave things as they were: with the general view by the public, the media, and legal community that nude recreation had won a key victory.

    For all who invested so much in these important camps, it burned us up to encounter outright prejudice from the state of Virginia.  It was rewarding to see the U.S. Court of Appeals affirm our right to contest its law.  And in forums where we have a "fair fight," we continue to advocate that nude recreation in appropriate setting is suitable for all ages.  This includes the National Conference of State Legislatures, where we speak with policymakers directly about the issue.

    Your dues and your club's support make it possible for us to serve as the credible voice of reason for nude recreation, and we couldn't make the progress we're making without you!

Sun-cerely,
Erich E. Schuttauf, J.D.
AANR Executive Director


    Florida Sun-Sentinel Story on Foley
    by Josh Hafenbrack and Anthony Man

October 1, 2006

Florida Republicans Angry at Foley's 'Hypocrisy'
The Congressman Was Known for Crusading Against Sex Predators and Internet Porn.

    FORT LAUDERDALE -- At the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a young Republican congressman from Florida did something that seemed ordinary at the time: He condemned President Clinton on moral grounds for having a relationship with the White House intern.

    "It's vile," Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, told the St. Petersburg Times.  "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

    Eight years later, Foley finds himself forced from power because of a sex scandal.

    Florida Republicans and Foley allies recoiled in anger and disgust Saturday, a day after the six-term congressman known for crusading against sexual predators and Internet pornography resigned because of reports that he exchanged sex-laced e-mails and instant messages with teenagers who had served as congressional pages.

    "The hypocrisy is very hard to swallow," said Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, a prominent Republican.  "I think he needs some serious help.  He has some mental-health issues, but he was a person that people put their trust in, and he had a lot of power.  He betrayed that trust, and he abused the power."

    As a congressman, the 52-year-old Foley sought laws aimed at punishing the kind of behavior that led to his ouster from Congress.  He recently authored a key provision to shore up tracking of sexual predators, as part of a child-protection act--inspired by two Florida cases--that President Bush signed into law in July.  Less than two months ago, Foley introduced legislation to impose tough new penalties on people who use the Internet to transfer obscene materials to minors.

    "There's betrayal and letdowns, and there are ones that just smack of bitter irony," said Florida Atlantic University political-science professor Robert Watson, a Democrat.  "Here's Foley -- for years preaching on sexual predators and Internet porn."

    "You hold yourself out to be one way, and you text-message something else," McCarty said.  "It was definitely a death wish.  How do you put something like that in writing?"

    In 2003, during Foley's brief bid for the U.S.  Senate, he drew nationwide press when he urged Florida officials to investigate a Tampa nudist camp for 11- to 18-year-olds, run by the American Association for Nude Recreation.  Foley expressed concern that the children could be exposed to pedophiles.

    "With Internet porn and child modeling, those things typically are going on at least between the filter of a computer," Foley said at the time.  "But in this particular situation, you're actually putting these children together with adults."

    As a chairman of a congressional caucus on missing and exploited children, Foley made clear that sexual misconduct with teenagers shouldn't be tolerated, said Rodney Romano, a former mayor of Lake Worth, where Foley got his political start as a city commissioner.

    "He's pretty much already defined how bad it is and what the punishment should be, by his own statements," Romano said.

    Foley's personal life always has bubbled below the surface of his political career.  His sexual orientation, long an open secret in Florida and Washington, came up during his first congressional campaign in 1994 and again when he ran for U.S. Senate.  Foley has never publicly acknowledged being gay.

    "His sexuality had been a question for a long time, and most of us who knew him, just kind of accepted that and dismissed it," said Donna Brosemer, a Republican political consultant in Palm Beach Gardens who has known Foley for 10 years.  "But this is so far beyond that.  I'm angry."

    Foley's supporters, struggling to put their dismay into words, said the scandal hints at not just a human failure but a systematic letdown.

    "It's a failure to uphold the standards to which we profess our government to be all about," said Tom DeRita, a Palm Beach Gardens Republican who said he has raised millions in campaign cash for Foley.


    First Saint Petersburg Times Story on Foley
    by Steve Bousuet

October 2, 2005

Pasco Nudists Recall 'Hypocritical' Campaign

Foley’s Attempt to Close Lake Como’s Kids Camp in 2003 Failed.
Naturists Are Asked Now Not to Gloat.

    TALLAHASSEE — Three years ago, U.S.  Rep.  Mark Foley demanded that the state investigate a summer nudist camp for kids in Pasco County, warning it could expose innocent children to pedophiles.

    After reading a news item about the camp in The New York Times, Foley, a U.S. Senate candidate at the time, sent letters to Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist in 2003.

    “The situation clearly raises legitimate issues that should be addressed, given that it involves minor children,”  Foley wrote, citing his post as co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.

    Foley compared the camps to child pornography and child modeling Web sites and wrote: “I believe they may be endangering these children.”

    Recent revelations of Foley’s sexually explicit e-mails to underage male pages on Capitol Hill carries a special resonance with the nudists who say Foley maligned them as child pornographers.

    “I just find this very hypocritical,” said Shirley Mason, a longtime naturist in Miami.  “There is no correlation between people who skinny-dip and perverts who want to harm children.”

    Mason said she was especially troubled by news reports suggesting that Foley was sending suggestive e-mails to pages as early as 2001, two years before he targeted the nudist camp.

    “If you see evil in everything, chances are there’s evil within you,” Mason said.

    Foley’s high-profile campaign to close the camp brought a windfall of publicity, but little more.  State authorities concluded the camp operated legally and that children were separated from adults.

    The camp at Lake Como in Land O’Lakes was run by the American  Association for Nude Recreation and remained open after state authorities decided it was operating legally.  Florida law allows underage nudity as long as it is not lewd.

    “We are unaware of any reports of criminal acts or child abuse, neglect or exploitation,” responded Bush’s general counsel, Raquel Rodriguez.
Her letter cited a Florida Supreme Court decision in which justices drew a legal distinction between parents who practice nudity as a lifestyle and parents who exploit children for monetary or sexual gain.

    A spokesman for Crist said the office had no record of the attorney general responding to Foley’s letter, most likely because the governor’s office answered it.

    In the summer of 2003, Foley trumpeted his call for an investigation on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, CBS’s The Early Show and ABC’s Good Morning America.

    He even launched a Web site in which he invited people to send their complaints about the camp.  The site no longer exists.

    Eric Schuttauf, executive director of the American Association for Nude Recreation, e-mailed the group’s members after the Foley scandal broke, cautioning them not to gloat over their former critic’s downfall.

    Three years ago, Foley “took less than an hour to frame an incorrect impression of those camps,” Schuttauf wrote.

“As a credible voice of reason for nude recreation, we will not make the same mistake.”


The New York Daily News Story on Foley

October 3, 2006

From Foley, Naked Display of Weirdness

    Rep. Mark Foley's campaign against nudist camps for children in 2003 casts a creepy sidelight on accounts of his e-mails with House pages.

    Like many a public figure caught doing bad things (such as e-mailing sexual come-ons to teenage male House pages), ex-Palm Beach, Fla., Rep. Mark Foley has copped to alcoholism and entered rehab.

    But even in Washington, jaws are dropping at the yawning gap between the six-term Republican's creepy private behavior and his righteous public crusade--as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children--against sexual predators (like he's accused of being).

    Lowdown has unearthed some of Foley's weirder whoppers, from his relentless June 2003 campaign against child-oriented nudist camps in Florida - which reaped a television bonanza:

    !  Foley on CNN, June 20: "You put 11- and 18-year-olds together in a camp where they're nude, I think it is a recipe for disaster.  It is like putting a match next to a gasoline can."

    !  On MSNBC, June 23: "I do have to question why people, if this is such a natural endeavor, have to be put in a hot tub with 18 others, if you will, enjoying this kind of activity....  These kids are young.  I think that they should maybe be learning something other than being nude together and being thrown in a hot tub.

    !  On CBS' "The Early Show," June 24: "In fact, in the very camp we're talking about in Florida, there have been people ejected because of their trying to enter the camp because they're peering through sauna windows."

    !  On "Good Morning America," June 24: "In fact, they've coined an expression for people that visit these parts, they call them COGS, Creepy Old Guys....  It's in [the children's] most formative years.  I think they'd be better off at Girl Scout camp, Boy Scout camp or sports camp than a nudist camp."

    !  On "The O'Reilly Factor," June 29: "The parents said, 'Oh, they're supervised, they have camp counselors, they have custodial people there to watch out for them.'  Well, again, several cases have come to my attention where the camp managers themselves have been arrested, charged with pornography."

    Let's hope Foley is getting the rehab he deserves.



The Second Saint Petersburg Times Story
    by Chuin-Wei Yap

Published October 5, 2006.
Reprinted Sunday, October 8 as "Lake Como's Nudists Angered Anew by Foley."

Nudists Angered Anew by Foley

Members find the scandal involving former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley has revived memories of his 2003 attack on the resort.

    LUTZ - In July 2003, Marion Hagans brought two of her grandchildren to a televised interview in New York with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley.

    "He looked my 16-year-old grandson in the eye and said, 'I'm here to protect you children,' " Hagans said, recalling the exchange on The John Walsh Show.

    A month earlier, Foley, then running for the U.S. Senate, had compared Lake Como's summer nudist camp for children to child pornography and child molestation Web sites.

    Hagans was among a group of outraged Lake Como members fighting to restore the resort's reputation.

    These memories flooded back to Hagans on Saturday morning when a friend called to tell her Foley had become embroiled in revelations of his sexually explicit e-mails to underage male pages on Capitol Hill.

    In this nudist community of 1,149 members, the revelations have revived bitter memories and brought no small sense of vindication.

    Van Bradley, the resort's general manager, characterized Foley's 2003 remarks as an attack.  Foley pressed for and got a state investigation into Lake Como that later found no wrongdoing in the resort.

    For about a year after Foley's attack, the resort lost an uncounted amount of business from people Bradley knew.  They told him they stayed away because they did not want to be associated with nudism after the incident.

    Foley's smear hit Bradley in a personal way.

    "My daughter-in-law wouldn't allow my grandson to come back to the camp," he said.

    At the heart of Pasco's nudist resorts--the county's second-biggest tourism earner--is a deep-seated fear that the industry will forever be associated with sex.

    That's the kind of response that those in Lake Como have strived for 60 years to overcome.  Its officials say the camp has strict rules barring sexual touching and remarks.

    "If you grab somebody's butt, you are out," said marketing director Rene Niquette.

    Its one-week Junior Camp for children 11 to 17, started 16 years ago and is conducted in a roped-off area.  Two counselors are provided for every five children.  Classes are taught on citizenship and civic values, among other things.

    "Even going to the bathroom, counselors walk them," said Arlene Reed, Como's activities director.

    As Foley's scandal unfolded, emotions ran the gamut at Lake Como.

    "At first, I jumped for joy," Hagans said.  "I took it personally.  He had been trying to negate our children's nudist camp.  It's not correct that he should make me or other participants feel guilty.  Our kids are well-protected, and we teach them proper values in life....  When I thought about it, I became quite angry.  I feel he owes my grandson an apology."

    Not that there is a chance Foley can visit to make that apology.

    "Not anymore," said member Mike Chauncey.  "Now he's on the 'Do Not Admit' list."


Glidewell Column in the Saint Petersburg Times
    by Jan Glidewell

October 9, 2006

Democrats will surely mess this one up, too

    They are calling it the Political Perfect Storm, the theory being that the combined Mark Foley/Bob Woodward book/Abramoff scandal/War in Iraq and other scandals du jour will combine to sweep what had looked like a well-entrenched Republican power structure out of power over the next two years.

    Those of us, however, who have been either Democrats or Chicago Cubs fans over the past few decades have faith in our guys.

    Trust me.

    They will find a way to blow it.

    I hate myself for enjoying the Foley scandal as much as I do.

    Let me restate that.  I don't hate myself.  I am just a little disappointed with myself.  I wish I were a bigger man, and give it up, I'm not following that straight line anywhere.

    Three years ago, shortly before I retired, I was getting a load of hate mail and taking flak on a couple of Web sites for casting aspersions on Foley's campaign to keep Lake Como, a Pasco County nudist resort, from having a summer youth camp for 11- to 17-year-old nudists.

    (Disclaimer time here: I am a nudist, have been for some time.)

    What I said publicly at the time was that I was pretty sure that any statistical analysis would show that kids were statistically as safe or safer at the Como camp where the recorded number of molestations had been--er--none, than they might be at camps where people keep their clothes on most of the time.

    My fault.  I forgot to mention that they would also apparently be safer there than serving as congressional pages.

    Foley said back then that nudist camps and resorts force kids to fixate on nudity during their formative years.

    "It's putting matches next to gasoline," Foley said back then.

    We now know that the flip side of that theory in Foleyworld is, apparently, that suggesting to a teenage boy, whom you call your "favorite young stud," that he disrobe and get comfortable is a good way to get his mind off nudity.

    Like other celebs in trouble--most recently Mel Gibson after his anti-Semitic tirade--Foley has now put himself in rehab, claiming that alcohol--the joint consumption of which he allegedly discussed with at least one of his underage electronic correspondents--is at the root of his problems.

    A day later he added childhood molestation by a clergyman to the list of everyone and everything--but him, apparently--responsible for his conduct.

    Foley added, through his attorney, that he is gay, apparently implying that homosexuality is also somehow to blame for his inability to control the send button.

    Millions of Americans are gay and don't molest children.

    Tens of thousands of people have been molested--and a number of those, we have learned of late, by clergymen--and haven't molested children, or, if you are picky about definitions, had or tried to initiate cybersex with them.

    Back during the Como flap I was invited by a producer of the O'Reilly Factor to come on that waste of good airtime and debate Foley.  I declined because I am not a spokesman for Lake Como or organized nudism.  They have their own representatives.

    I also don't appear on pseudo news programs where the moderator is also a loud-mouthed participant who controls the microphone and, if anyone is thinking of asking, I don't do mud wrestling either.

    (The pudding-wrestling episode in the 1980s was an aberration, and alcohol was involved, although I didn't feel the need to hide in rehab.)

    So how will my brother and sister Democrats manage to shoot themselves in their collective foot?

    They might pick up a few congressional seats unless something else distracts the ever-distractible American public, but forget the presidential race.

    I'm guessing that in 2008 they will run Hillary Clinton, the only person (if she can take time off from being a hawk on the war and introducing pandering flag-burning legislation) who will be less electable to the presidency than Foley.


Kush Analysis in Nude & Natural
by Mike Kush

Winter 2006

Foley's Folly: "Family-Values" Congressman's Hypocrisy Exposed

    In 2003, then U.S. Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) took issue with the American association for Nude Recreation's (AANR) Youth Leadership Camps for nudist youth.  Never mind that Foley's request for an inquiry was based solely on one media report--one solicited by AANR.  Never mind that AANR had held the camp in Florida for ten years, without incident.  Never mind that the kids were there with their parents' written approval.  Never mind if the kids were from nudist families.  Never mind that the camp protocols were long, the strictest conceivable, with kids always accompanied by both a male and female counselor.  Never mind that some the children's parents and grandparents were camp volunteers.  Never mind that a few days after Foley brought the FANR camps to public attention, Florida Attorney General (now gubernatorial candidate) Charlie Crist gave them a clean bill health, noting that they were not illegal, nor had his office received any complaints.  Foley, after all, was the chair of the House caucus on missing and exploited children.  Also, Foley was set to make a bid for a U.S. Senate seat, and was concerned that his conservative base was perhaps uncomfortable with continuing allegations about his own  sexual inclinations.

    So Foley ranted and raved about protecting our youth on the cable talking-heads shows like Hardball, The O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country.  Perhaps to Foley's surprise, condemnation of the camps was not universal.  Even O'Reilly opined that he viewed this as a question of parental discretion, absent documented proof of abuse.  Perhaps also to Foley's surprise, some of the nudists chose to fight back.  A few weeks later, Foley was confronted by a coalition of nudist/naturist organization leaders organized by Shirley Mason, Founder and Executive Director of B.E.A.C.H.E.S.  Foundation.  The naturist coalition agreed with Foley's assessment that our youth needed to be protected, presented Foley with documented evidence of abuse at non-nudist youth camps and other youth programs, and suggested Foley propose legislation providing for uniform and nondiscriminatory standards to safeguard youth at all camps, nudist and non-nudist alike.  A teen camp participant was also at the meeting, to give Foley his first-hand observations.

    The coalition then held a media opportunity, attended by CNN and local Palm Beach news outlets.  The coalition had hired Ron Sachs Communication, a well-known Tallahassee public relations firm, to ensure maximum coverage.  The costs were shared by B.E.A.C.H.E.S., South Florida Free Beaches, The Naturist Society and its Naturist Action Committee adjunct, the Federation of Canadian Naturists, and Tampa Area Naturists.  Bob Morion, NAC's Executive Director, flew in from Texas to offer his services.  Also present at the media opportunity was the grandmother of two of the camp's participants, who had also served as a volunteer at the camp.  We never heard back from Foley on our simple suggestion, but his attack on nudists quickly became muted, and he chose not to pursue the Senate nomination.  Nevertheless, the damage of unproven innuendo had already been done.  Fortunately, legislative action attacking the AANR camps in Florida was fairly easily sidetracked, despite FL Representative Quinones briefly taking up the cause.  But Virginia--the site of another AANR Youth Camp--soon passed a bill outlawing minors at nudist camps unless their parents were present.  Texas, where AANR had yet held no Youth Leadership Camps, proposed legislation against them as well.  This legislation was sidetracked, but then an executive order by the Texas State Health Department was issued prohibiting nudist youth camps.  All on the basis of an unsubstantiated allegation by a wily and nervous politician interested in making a Senate run.

    On September 29, 2006, we learned that at the same time Foley had been so publicly concerned about the threat to families posed by the AANR Youth Leadership Camps, he was engaged in explicit instant messenger conversations with a 16-year-old congressional page, including comments from Foley to the teenager such as: "Did you spank it yourself this weekend?"  "[I can see your] cute butt bouncing up and down," and "Love to slip them off you and grab the one eyed snake."  Foley, earlier considered a shoo-in for re-election, resigned his seat that day.  Republican House leaders later admitted that in 2005 they had seen certain jejune and juvenile e-mails from Foley to the youth, and they had asked him to terminate the association, but said they had not been aware of the explicit conversations.  It was also claimed the parents of the page asked that no action be taken.  They then (2006) asked the FBI to investigate further.  Ironically, Foley had sponsored legislation aimed at controlling Internet sexual predators.

    Meanwhile, AANR still continues to offer its Nudist Youth Leadership Camps in several states—camps where youth indeed seem better protected from sexual predators than in the halls of Congress.  Nudist families simply would not have it otherwise.  We choose to live in the sunshine, not in the dark.
Newsletter # 44
Professors and Researchers
Special Interest Group
The Naturist Society
www.paullevalley.com/sig
May 2012

    ● Youth Camp Special Edition ●

    Three times before (in 2003, 2004, and 2008), we devoted an entire issue to youth camp documents.  Now more have become available.  ABC News' 20/20 program has just finished filming family naturism at Sunsport Gardens—in an election year, when political opportunists will say anything.  Will there be another public reaction that we need to archive?  It's time to clear the desk of this much.

Contents:
    1.  Farm and Wilderness Camps
        a.  As Sparks Fly Upward
        b.  The Fifth Freedom
        c.  My Name is White Rainbow
        d.  One Unhappy Camper
        e.  Nature and Nurture
        f.  Letter to Paul LeValley
        g.  Menopausal Stoners Blog
        h.  Message from the Board of Trustees, 2007
        i.  Staff Handbook, 2008
    2.  JWSA Camp
        a.  Linda Shockley
        b.  The Letter that Started It All
    3.  Camp Sun Eagle—Prospectus
    4.  Boy Scout Naturism Merit Badge
    5.  Bibliography: Youth Camp Updates
Farm and Wilderness Camps

    The Farm and Wilderness Camps are a group of about five adjacent youth camps founded by Quakers in Vermont.  From their opening in 1939, the camps encouraged nudity for nearly 50 years.  For another 20 years, they tolerated the continuing nudity, while denying publicly that it ever happened.  Finally, at the close of the 2007 season, camp officials required that all activities be clothed.  Various testimonials and a few nude pictures have been published over the years.  Here is a sampling.

    In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his famous Four Freedoms speech, emphasizing:
    Freedom of expression,
    Freedom of worship,
    Freedom from want,
    Freedom from fear.
To this list, the boys at Timberlake camp added their Fifth Freedom:
    Freedom from clothes.
Camp leaders today would like people to believe that the Fifth Freedom meant freedom to dress up in funny clothes.
As Sparks Fly Upward
by Kenneth Webb

    In his 1973 book, the founder of the Farm and Wilderness Camps explained the evolution of camp nudity in two incidents—one from 1939, and another from the 1960s:

    Two days before [the boys] had to start west again, they decided to head for Stratton Pond even in the rain.  It was, after all, just drizzling that morning and it might be rained out [finished raining].  Right after breakfast the party set out for the Long Trail crossing on the Wardsboro-Arlington road....  By the time we reached the Long Trail crossing, the drizzle had developed into a heavy downpour.  What to do?  We were determined to have an overnight at a cabin we heard of on Stratton Pond, yet we knew that our last change of clothing, carefully saved for this expedition, would not stay dry under the simple ponchos we had.

    "We can go barefooted and keep our shoes dry," somebody suggested.

    "Yeah, then we'll have dry shoes to wear home, but no clothes."

    "Well, there's nobody anywhere around this wilderness, certainly not in weather like this.  Why don't we take all our clothes off, pack 'em in our rucksacks, and hike bare?  It's warm enough."

    The boys figured this was a swell way to solve the problem, and so it turned out.  Hiking in the rain with freedom to splash and be splashed proved so popular that Timberlake has ever since enjoyed the Fifth Freedom, a freedom from clothes whenever no rational answer can be given to the question of why not?

    The trail had gone through low places; it was now ankle deep in water; in several places it was even deeper.  Some logging had been going on in the area, and through the steamy downpour we could hear loggers shouting at their horses.  Because of the rain we never saw them.  They too had evidently decided to ignore the rain, but probably not under such pleasant circumstances.

    After slopping along the drowned trail for five miles, we came out in the early afternoon at the shack we had expected on the shores of Stratton Pond, then as now forest rimmed and unspoiled.  We could see only a few feet out into the water, heavily pocked with raindrops, but it looked inviting.

    "Let's dump our packs in the shelter and go for a swim?" someone suggested.  'The water's great in a rain."

    "Not me.  I'm famished.  Let's get the sandwiches out of the packs."

    We opened the door of the shack.  Inside, to our amazement, a young fellow lay on one of the double-decked wooden bunks.  It turned out he was caretaker of the Stratton Shelter and the nearby Willard Ross Shelter.  He stirred sleepily and sat up, rubbing his eyes.  Our surprise couldn't have rivaled his as six boys and two men, all in their birthday suits, came pouring in.  He recovered in time to welcome us properly; and in fact, started up a fire in the sheet-metal stove, offering us cocoa to wash down our lunch.

    The boys dried off quickly in the heat, then sprawled out on the bunks after the meal, getting out the two blankets each had brought.  Someone discovered the log book.  We were fascinated by entries other hikers had left.  We read them through and added our own remarks.  Then we headed for the water.  It was warm, sort of an extension of the soft, wet air.  The rest of the day was sheer delight: in the water and out; then in to dry off and rest a bit; then out again.  The caretaker told us of a raft a little way down the shore.  The boys poled it over, and used it to dive from in deeper water....

    After a final dip as the shadows deepened toward darkness, the boys crowded into the snug cabin, dimly lighted by a lantern swinging from a rafter.  A few minutes to dry off, and everyone was snuggled comfortably into his blankets, drifting off to sleep to the sound of the wood in the glowing stove.

    It was a terrific trip, still remembered by the lucky hikers on probably the rainiest hike the Camp has ever taken.  It set the pattern for all our hiking: rugged, venturesome, joyous and satisfying.
-----

    At Tamarack Farm [teen camp] this clear-eyed generation, many of whom have the tradition of Timberlake [boys camp] or Indian Brook [girls camp] behind them, has resolved the matter of [swim]suits in a mixed group in a way which may seem daring to our clothes-bound culture, but which proves to be perfectly natural and obvious to the youngsters themselves.  One year the first week of each group enjoyed the customary suitless swimming at its own dock for an early morning dip and for a quick swim after work projects, just before lunch.  But when the girls came over for a leisurely afternoon swim at the boys' dock, where most of the equipment is centered, both groups at first wore suits.  Then the boys who had been brought up at Timberlake began to wonder why their lost freedom had to be lost.  A serious discussion of the issue at Tamarack Farm's "Town Meeting" led to an agreement to wear suits for the first week, since some of the girls were uneasy about the Fifth Freedom in a mixed group.  At the end of the first week any girls who were still uneasy about shedding suits should say so to the distaff side of the young couple who ran the water front.  The identity of the protesters would not be revealed.  If there was expression of uneasiness which the water-front director could not resolve by a little discussion, then the mixed swims would be suited, as in the past.  To the relief of all, there was no protest.  The group has swum for the most part unsuited ever since, at least after the first week.  Sometimes a few of the girls will wear suits, but these generally disappear before the end of the season.  Everyone does what he is easy with and there are no critical comments.

    This evolution in attitudes is very like what happened at Timberlake in its first years.  The boys were required to wear suits on weekends when parents might be present at the water front.  Then several mothers discovered that their sons would not go into the water.  They had either lost their swim suits or were so wedded to this new and delightful freedom that they preferred to wait until parents had left before going in.

    "But why should they?" several mothers asked the director.  "We don't care; we've seen boys undressed before this."

    "But their sisters?  How do you feel about them?"

    "For my part," one mother replied, "if I have brought up my daughter in such a way that the sight of the male form without clothes is going to harm her, I'll figure that I've failed."
    The others seemed to agree.

    When the matter was brought up at powwow the next weekend, the boys' attitude was, "Well, we don't care if they don't care.  So why bother with suits?"

    Ever since, the Timberlake water front has been free of suits at all times, except for the occasional counselor who has no Farm and Wilderness tradition, and for whom this attitude is too new to take.

    Tamarack Farm [teen camp] has a sauna, constructed over two summers by devoted crews who cut the logs for the building, squared them with loving care—successfully keeping feet and legs out of the way of swinging adzes—and built a Finnish bath that even the few Finn residents in the region approve.

    For years the girls and the boys were carefully scheduled separately.  Then one afternoon several years ago the girls got the fire started later than they expected, and were still inside when the boys arrived.  The boys had a swim from the sauna dock while they waited, finally broke in on the girls.  No screams of pretended fright; no off-color remarks, No earthquake!  Since that time the Tamarack Farm sauna baths have generally been coed.  This radical innovation has not proved sexually stimulating, nor has it had, as far as staff can judge, harmful effects in any way.  It has cut down, so the staff in the boys' cabins says, on foul language and on snide remarks with double meaning.  If the Finns can do it, why can't we, or isn't our culture that healthy?

    This complete freedom in respect to clothes at the Farm has caused occasional repercussions beyond the Camp.  When a thunderstorm overtakes a group at dinner, the lure of a warm shower in the downpour when the meal ends is too much for a few of the boys, maybe one or two of the girls.  They strip off then and there and splash through the pools on the adjacent soccer field, playing tag and sliding through the puddles with shouts of glee.

    It would have to be at that juncture that a delivery truck comes in, bringing with it the mores and attitudes of the outside world.  The shock of this encounter, on the part of the driver, is retailed outside the camp, thereby adding to the regional mythology of these as "nudist" camps.  Fortunately, over the decades the local people have come to respect the Camps, and realize they stand for much more than a 21st-century attitude toward clothes.
The Fifth Freedom
by Kenneth B. Webb

    In 1960, Webb had published this article (with photographs of nude campers) in the international nudist magazine, Solaire Universelle de Nudisme.

    How does one become a convert to the pleasures and the benefits of nudism?  Certainly everyone can't expect the good fortune of having a nudist friend who drags him off all unwilling for his first timorous visit to a nudist camp.  If nudism had to wait for that process, the movement would spread much more slowly than is the case.

    The movement depends also on what might be called gradualism.  Summer camps for children are one area where this beneficent process takes place.  Boys—and girls—are quickly initiated into the advantages of just a pair of shorts—or perhaps shorts and halter—as sufficient summer costume.  They speedily discover the delights of swimming free from the annoyance of a bathing suit.  "Gee, you can go fast without a suit," a dripping young swimmer exclaims as he pulls himself up on the dock, his eyes sparkling with a new discovery.

    Just as "summer camps and some're not," so some camps take advantage of the chances to get rid of clothes and to instill in their young charges a liking for this freedom, and some don't want to, or they are afraid to.  After some twenty years in experimentation at Camp Timberlake on the problem of changing the attitudes most new campers come with regarding the unclad body, it seems clear that this kind of change cannot be forced.  It must come about somewhat gradually, being approached with sensitivity, tact, and a bit of humor.  Hence our popularization at camp of the phrase, "the Fifth Freedom," understood among those in the know to mean freedom from clothes.  The phrase has become a proud touchstone of belonging, its significance cherished alike by counselors (most of them!) and campers.  It means belonging to the gayest, most carefree crowd in the world, a gang who don't at all mind the feel of rain beating down on the bare skin—in fact, they love it.  This is a fraternity who love to get wet all over, to get covered with mud, or—most of all—to get tanned all over with what we have dubbed a "Timberlake tan, the only original all-over tan, without the tell-tale band."

    The ideal of ruggedness, of the pleasant adaptation to heat and cold possible to you if you "go bare" long enough, this toughness has become one of the proudest ideals of Timberlake.  Once a youngster has been introduced to the blessings of swimming without a suit, it is not difficult to promote other sports and activities in the nude—not if the games areas have been designed so that they are contiguous to the waterfront.  Not if the program is planned so there is no pause between coming out of the water and running up a saw-dust covered trail to an "outdoor gym."  There counselors are ready to receive the on-coming flood and distribute it over simple apparatus: a long rope to climb, a chinning bar, a punching bag, an over-head ladder, a couple of sets of barbells, and a wrestling ring with a good mat rounded over deep saw-dust.  And just beyond is a play area where a tremendous game of dodge ball will soon get started, or some frisfee, or three-deep.  Over at the side a couple of badminton courts, horse-shoes, and a tether ball—even a spacious sand pit for sand modeling when one gets tired.  Among the counselors there has been enthusiastic talk of an obstacle course around the edge of this whole play area.  This will strengthen the physical fitness program with which the camp has been identified for years.  Boys are taught good posture and how to walk correctly—the first lessons in the ancient Greek palaestra.
    There is another approach to this ideal of the mens sana in corpore sano [sound mind in a sound body] at Camp Timberlake: the Indian lore program.  Take the sawdusted path through brushy woods to a green-carpeted clearing.  Before you reach the greensward you will probably hear the throb of drums.  When you come out into this busy meadow you may behold a sight which for color, beauty, and action will be hard to beat.  A group of bronzed figures are treading the intricate measures of an Indian dance being readied for the next council fire.  Tawny boys sit beside a painted teepee beating Indian drums.  Beyond the teepee where the lake sparkles in the sunlight other boys are busy on an Indian head-dress, or bending over beaded head-bands.  On the other side of the clearing, beyond an impressive rock altar, a group are experimenting with Indian cookery.  On some flat stones by the edge of a fire-place cornmeal cakes are baking; on a spit made of green ironwood a broiler [chicken] is becoming brown and crisp.

    "Indian boys didn't usually wear anything," the counselor will have remarked initially, "and I don't either, not when I can find a place like this."  After the first such afternoon, if it is decently warm at all, the boys catch on without urging.  Some of them even anticipate the informality of the Indian program by coming from their cabins unencumbered with clothes.

    At an auxiliary Indian encampment up the mountainside, many of the boys pride themselves on wearing nothing all the live-long day, wrapping themselves Indian-style in old blankets at the council fire against the cool of the night when one is inactive.  They will sleep "raw" also.  There is great rivalry to see who can get the best all-over tan, a rivalry stimulated perhaps by the prospect of the "TL tan trip" at the end of the season, a trip as exciting as it can be made, the desirability of which is passed down from generation to generation of boys.  After all, doesn't the camp song say,
    "We shout, we sing till the merry woods ring,
    When games and sports are the plan—
    And the only suit we like to wear
    Is a deep brown coat of tan."

    At Indian Brook, the sister camp on the same mountain lake, the girls delight in morning and evening dips without the nuisance of suits, though the fact that the swimming area is not so secluded from the public road makes some circumspection necessary.  At Tamarack Farm, the teenage, co-ed, work camp, third unit of the Farm and Wilderness Camps, an insistent minority of parents who haven't themselves had the wholesome exposure to the Fifth Freedom has made nude mixed swimming inadvisable—for the moment.  But on hikes, as well as on occasional joint trips of Timberlake and Indian Brook groups, nobody wants to bother with packing a wet bathing suit, yet no one can bear to forego the pleasure of a dip in a mountain stream or a wilderness pond.

    Though it has seemed wise not to force the issue of mixed swimming at Tamarack Farm, there is a significant deal of carelessness regarding nude swimming at the separate boys' and girls' docks.  When a canoe with a pair of nude paddlers stranded on the lake beyond the hour of separate nude bathing paddles in, neither boys nor girls seem to pay the slightest attention—which is just as it should be, indicating a healthy attitude of mind none too common among the older generation.

    Yet parents who come to visit often adopt the Fifth Freedom themselves.  They have become used to seeing the boys at the waterfront.  Fathers often join their sons in an unhampered swim, while the mothers sit wistfully on the shore.  Occasionally the mothers break out of the fetters of custom themselves.

    "This  water looks  too tempting to miss," the mother   of   an   "old  boy"   remarked to a  new mother.  "I'm going in.  How about joining me?"

    "I'd love to, but I didn't bring a suit."
    "I'll lend you mine." the first mother offered leveling a smiling gaze at her new acquaintance.

    "Well, I guess maybe it's all right—here," the first woman mused doubtfully, standing up to unfasten buttons.  "We can just go in over here by ourselves."

    Embarrassment was quickly over; while the women were swimming, a sudden storm, brewing behind the shelter of the woods, struck the lake without warning.  The boys reveled in the slash of the storm, but the two ladies saw the advancing sheet of rain too late to save their little piles of clothes from getting wet.  Scooping them up nevertheless, they made for the first shelter they saw, one of the open-front cabins toward which several shouting boys were splashing their way.  The ladies followed suit, to find on the porch of the shelter half a dozen youngsters and their counselors, all in a state of unspoiled naturalness.

    The counselor came forward with a smile of welcome, his hand extended in cordial greeting.  "I am Jerry Martin, and this is my junior counselor.  Most of these boys live here.  We're glad to be able to offer you shelter."  The courteous action was so natural that for the moment no thought of impropriety came over the visitors.  It would be safe to conclude that on that day two more converts to nudism were made!

    The thing seems to be catching, for parents and other visitors at Timberlake cannot fail to notice the completely wholesome spirit of the place.  A man who often comes to camp on business had stayed on after the end of a counselors' meeting one night.  The staff, reading the signs, had realized that heavy rain was about to descend and had left for their cabins.  By the time the director and his guest had decided to set out for the visitors' cabin, it was raining hard.  Neither had brought rain coats.  "Well, you've probably seen what some of the boys do when they're caught at the dining room without rain coats and want to get back to the cabins," the director remarked.  "They just take off their shorts and whatever else they may be wearing, roll it all into a tight bundle, and paddle on through the rain.  'S'fun.  Let's do it."

    The pair sloshed along together, the rain-drops glinting in the beams of their flashlight.  It seemed to the director that his guest sought out the biggest puddles to splash through, very much like his boys.  The man was renewing his childhood.

    Then the visitor chuckled: "Where else could a man come up on business and enjoy himself so much at the same time, with such—er—informality ?"

    —Well, there are places, and here's still another convert for them!
My Name is White Rainbow
by Reggie Darling

    In this 2011 blog, the author writes about his experience at the Farm and Wilderness Camps' Indian lore camp:

    Several months ago, while rooting around in a box filled with old papers and photographs, I came across a brochure for a summer camp that I attended as a boy, in the latter 1960s....

    (Many paragraphs about Camp Flying Cloud's Indian lore program have been omitted here.)

    All these years later, though, when reading through the brochure and reflecting on my experience at Camp Flying Cloud, I'm somewhat amazed that I wound up going there, that it even happened.  That's because Camp Flying Cloud was a most decidedly "alternative" summer camp when I went there, and of a type that Mame Dennis would have gotten into all sorts of trouble with her nephew's horrified trustees for sending him to, had she done so, before they yanked him out of it and placed him in a more respectable, conventional camp for boys.

    Fortunately that wasn't my fate.

    Setting aside the absence of Political Correctness of the camp's (then) mission—at least as articulated in its brochure—when I attended Flying Cloud, wearing clothing there was largely dispensed with, except for warmth, and we spent most of our days either wearing skimpy leather loin cloths or buck naked.  I'm not joking.  While not exactly a nudist camp, Flying Cloud encouraged its campers and counselors to cast off conventional clothing much of the time.  The brochure may have featured photographs of lads in loincloths, but the reality was we were, more often than not, running around naked!

    And Flying Cloud wasn't the only one of the Farm and Wilderness camps that encouraged nudity among its campers and counselors.  In those days all of the other camps in the F&W group encouraged their campers to at least swim without wearing bathing suits.  But I believe that Camp Flying Cloud was the most extreme of the group's camps when it came to encouraging au natural living.

    I'm not exactly sure if my parents fully realized the extent of the nudity that prevailed at Camp Flying Cloud when I first went there, but they came to experience it vividly on a first-hand basis when they stopped by the camp, unannounced, one afternoon during my second summer there.  What they found when they arrived at the camp were approximately forty boys and perhaps ten or so counselors running about the campground wearing little more than loincloths, if not naked.  Well, not entirely naked—most were probably wearing something on their feet.

    At least that is all that the head counselor of the camp was wearing that afternoon when he met my parents.  I recall that his name was Rick, and that he was an extremely handsome fellow in his mid twenties with piercing blue eyes and a head of thick, curly brown hair.  I admit that I had a bit of a little boy crush on him.

    As readers of this blog well know, my mother, known as MD, was not one to blanch or blush, but even she was rather taken aback by what greeted her at Camp Flying Cloud.  I recall her as being uncharacteristically tongue-tied when Rick was standing in front of her and my father, naked as a jaybird, speaking with them about the camp and clearly enjoying showing himself off to them as a veritable nature boy!

    Afterwards, when walking with my parents back to their car, they asked me if I was having a good time at Camp Flying Cloud, and was I happy there?  I responded that I was, indeed, having a terrific time (which I most decidedly was), and that I loved the camp.  With evident relief at this news, they then gave me a quick hug and a kiss and climbed into their car and drove away.

    Years later, I had a conversation with MD in which I asked her about her visit to the camp, and what she thought of it?

    "Well," she said, "all that I can clearly recall is the experience of meeting that handsome young man who ran the camp.  But I can't remember anything of what we spoke of because I couldn't concentrate on a word of what he was saying, since I was—uh—rather distracted by the fact that he was as naked as a newborn baby!  And he was very well formed, and rather lovely to look at.  I do remember that."

    "But why did you send me there, to that camp, instead of a more mainstream one, such as a tennis camp?" I asked.

    "Because, dear, we thought it would be a good experience for you.  We figured that you would be able to play tennis for the rest of your life, but that you would most likely not have all that many opportunities to run around naked in the woods, playing Indian, when you grew up."

    She had a point there.

    So, what do I mean when I write in the title of this essay that "My Name is White Rainbow"?  Well, when I went to Camp Flying Cloud all of the campers were given an "Indian name" in a night-time ceremony that involved supposed Indian dancing around a big bonfire amidst much drumming of tom-toms and the singing of supposed Indian songs.  "White Rainbow" was the name I was given, and was the name by which I became known thereafter at the camp.  All of the names given to the campers were supposed to signify something unique about the camper's personality, ideally with a spiritual element thrown in, too.  I recall that my "Indian name" of White Rainbow supposedly reflected what the counselors considered to be my general good nature, along with my propensity to joke around most of the time.  It is not exactly what I would consider to be a particularly manly name for a lad of eleven, but it is the name I was given, and I liked it.

    While Camp Flying Cloud continues to operate today, it has long-since dispensed with its mission to be a place where boys learn to "live like Indians" and its campers are no longer encouraged to engage in au natural living. 

    Flying Cloud is now a more culturally sensitive and conventional camp focused on developing wilderness skills among its campers, and the "Redmen" orientation of the camp's identity was dropped years ago.  The Farm and Wilderness camps have also long since stopped allowing nudity at their camps, even for swimming.  I would imagine in today's litigious world that such activity is simply too great a liability risk for them.

    Looking back on my experience at Camp Flying Cloud, back in the days when it was still a place where little boys like Reggie could engage in the fantasy of "living like an Indian," unencumbered by conventional clothing or today's more jaundiced world view, I am glad that I went there when I did, in more innocent times.  And, to MD's point, even though I gave up playing tennis for good more than a decade ago, I can't recall having had the opportunity since I attended Flying Cloud to run around in the woods, naked as a jaybird, "playing Indian."  Not that I lose any sleep over it, mind you.
One Unhappy Camper
by Mark Oppenheimer

    Not all campers left enthused.  Mark Oppenheimer contributed an essay, "At August's End: Serving Time in Leftist Summer Camps" to the anthology, Sleepaway: Writings on Summer Camp (ed. Eric Simonoff, 2005).  But he concentrated more on nudity in this brief National Public Radio interview later that same year:

    When I was eight years old, in 1983, my parents sent me off to a nudist camp; not a camp for adults who voluntarily chose nudism as a lifestyle, but a summer camp for young boys where nudity was encouraged.  At Timberlake, nestled in the woodlands of Vermont, boys swam in the nude, slept in the nude, even played Whiffle ball in the nude.

    I think my parents sent me to Timberlake because the camp had been founded by Quakers.  I had spent a lot of time that year watching Michael J. Fox play the young right-winger Alex P. Keaton on the TV show "Family Ties," and my parents probably hoped that four weeks in the care of back-to-nature pacifists would cure me of any conservative impulses.

    Now Quakers are not generally nudists.  Richard Nixon was a Quaker and he wore clothes in public.  James Dean was a Quaker and he wore clothes, too.  But at this summer camp, the free-spirited tradition had evolved over the years to include more freedoms than most of us consider normal.  Well, I was a modest boy and I wasn't having any of this nudist nonsense.  At the beginning of the summer, there was one other boy who insisted on remaining clothed, even at swim time.  But he caved, and by August, I was the only boy willful and stubborn enough to wear clothes all the time.  I thought these people were crazy.  And if the skinny-dipping and nude sports hadn't been enough to drive me away, then I surely would have made up my mind after sneaking out of my bunk on the very last night and finding my counselors—some of them well into their old age—square dancing in their birthday suits. 

    My parents picked me up the next day, and on the drive home from Vermont to Massachusetts, they filled me on what I missed.  Dave Righetti had thrown a no-hitter for the Yankees on the Fourth of July.  My youngest brother had learned to kick a soccer ball.  But what about me?—they wanted to know.  Had I been homesick?  Happy?  Had I made friends?  I can't remember what I told them, but I'm sure that I didn't want to hurt their feelings.  They'd had such high hopes for my summer with the Quaker nudists.  I must have said something like, "Well, it was an interesting month."

    It turns out that I should have been a little more honest because the next summer, after promising me I'd never have to go back to Timberlake, they sent me instead to Kinderland, a socialist sleep-away camp where the cabins were named after dead leftists, like Eugene Debs and Woody Guthrie.  I spent all of that summer singing songs about union solidarity and writing letters to congressmen about the civil war in Nicaragua.  But look on the bright side: At least I got to wear clothes.
Nature and Nurture:
At Plymouth's Farm and Wilderness summer camps, it's all about simplicity and stewardship
by Kirk Kardashian

    These two paragraphs from a much longer article (not published till 2009) explain the gradual change of attitude that came over the camps.

    For a long time, a "clothing-optional" policy prevailed at the camp: The Webbs were nudists, believing that nakedness was essential to inclusiveness because it fostered an acceptance of bodies.  Times changed, and concerned comments from parents started trickling in.  In the late 1980s, clothing was mandated everywhere but at the waterfront, but some parents still complained, and eventually the policy began affecting enrollment numbers.

    Bohen says the administration wondered if the policy was actually having the opposite of its intended effect, by excluding people—Latinos and Muslims, for instance—who are offended by public nudity.  As a result of those reflections, this year [2008] is the first that clothing must be worn everywhere at F&W.  Not all campers are sanguine about the change.  "Who isn’t a fan of being naked?" asks Hilde Alexander, a 16-year old girl with little braids sprinkled throughout her curly hair.


Letter to Paul LeValley

    When he began planning the first AANR youth camp in 1991, Paul LeValley wrote to the Farm and Wilderness camps for guidance and suggestions.  But it was too late.  Camp officials were already in full denial.

                                                November 19, 1991

Paul LeValley
909 Still Court
Tallahassee FL 32310

Dear Mr. LeValley,

    Thank you for your letter.  I am glad to have the chance to clear up some misconceptions about the Farm & Wilderness camps.  Maybe you can help me spread this information to other parts of the ASA.  It has been frustrating to get accurate information printed in your organization's literature.

    The camps are run by a private, non-profit organization.  They are not sponsored by the Society of Friends.  The founders were Quakers and we still have daily meeting for worship, but we are not affiliated with the Quakers.  The fee for 1992 is $3,310.  The campers and staff are allowed to skinny dip.  They can work in the gardens with their shirts off, but nudity is not optional at all times.  This is particularly true during off-camp hikes.  The founder tells a story of a group hiking in the nude because they were caught in a heavy downpour.  I suppose it's inevitable that a story once told becomes legend and, eventually, gospel, but we do not allow campers to hike without clothes.

    We have found this balance between clothes most of the time and skinny dipping permitted, but not obligatory, at the waterfronts to be healthy and about what children are comfortable with.  I can't be much more help than that.

                                                Sincerely,

                                                Leonard K. Cadwallader
                                                Executive Director
Menopausal Stoners Blog
by Penolan

    Despite official frowning, blatant nudity continued right up until the final prohibition.  Here, a mother relates her experience with the camps in the early years of the twenty-first century.  She has disguised all names, including her own.

    One of the traditions at the Hippy Dippy Quaker Camp involves a camp fire ceremony wherein some of the boys are given a camp name by the group.  They only practice this naming tradition at one of the five camps on the Hippy Dippy Quaker camp property which I'll call Camp Soaring Bird.  Kids who attend Camp Soaring Bird, roughly 25 per summer, are at some distance from the main HDQ property—maybe a mile down the road and another mile up a hill deep in the woods.  There's a pond at Soaring Bird where alumni, staff and campers go every Presidents' Day Weekend to cut ice to use in the ice house over the summer since there's no electricity at all whatsoever at Camp Soaring Bird.  While no electricity is part of the primitive attraction of SB, health department regulations regarding refrigeration of food must be observed—hence the ice house.

    I hiked up there myself once with Velvet [her son] and Buzz Kill [the boy's father] and a full contingent of alumni, staff and campers, cutting through knee deep snow for over a mile.  "Once" is the key point, here.  Velvet and Buzz Kill enjoy the hell out of it, though, and they go every year.

    Velvet never got a Soaring Bird name because Velvet attended the more traditional camps at HDQ.  Some people might argue that none of the camps at HDQ are traditional since the kids often run around naked.  It's called The Fifth Freedom, and while some people might be shocked and horrified, I find the whole idea brilliant.

    *Note*  Nobody [around 2001] goes naked when parents are visiting except maybe in the sauna, and even then they set time limits where, after an hour, naked time is over.

    The Fifth Freedom has always been very well managed.  The camp is laid out so that the lake is at the bottom of the hill, then there are three sided cabins in the woods, then comes a dirt road.  Across the dirt road, the woods are cleared for dining halls, meeting halls, farm buildings, barns and gardens.  There's more woods at the very top of the hill, but for the most part, this land is cleared, which means there's a clear view of most of the area from the road.  Even Fed Ex uses that road, so nobody's allowed to be naked on the farm side of camp.  You can only be naked on the lake side which includes in the woods by the cabins.

    When Velvet was 15 and first at the High School camp, he challenged this limit occasionally by walking naked in the middle of the dang road.  I'm pretty sure the staff didn't pay much attention to Velvet and just told him to stop being such an asshole.

    Now, when the kids are younger (9-14 years old) they are in same sex camps.  Soaring Bird is only for boys.  There used to be a similar program for females, but the girls opted out.  Maybe eating crickets got to the girls—I don't know the history.  I have enough trouble with the outhouses because the walls only go half way up.  This design is good when you consider how smelly it can get inside a fully enclosed outhouse—but it's a bit disconcerting when you're trying to pull up your pants because, if you're not careful, you can moon the community.  There are many outhouses on the property, and some have higher walls than others.  Smart moms go to the nurses' office and use one of the few private, flush toilets on the property.

    I will admit that the embedded Baptist voice inside me was originally scandalized about Fifth Freedom, but once I saw it in action (sort of, since nobody goes naked when parents are there) I immediately recognized its value as a method for passing along the notion that the human body and all its functions are natural and unremarkable.

    The camp is also very good at establishing the concept that everyone is in control of the space around his/her own personal body.  With boys, this personal space is a big deal because they will run and tackle each other and roll around on the ground like a pack of puppies, especially when chasing Frisbees and soccer balls in non-competitive sports.  There will be no unauthorized tackling, smacking, hugging, what ever.  Personal body space is absolutely respected.

    Fifth Freedom becomes more intriguing when the boys and girls are naked together at the High School Camp.  It might seem outlandishly provocative to toss naked boys and girls together as soon as the hormones have fully kicked in—but the same rules about personal space that the kids learn when they are younger in a same sex environment apply when they are older and in a mixed sex environment.  The camp also recognizes that some kids' sexual orientation and gender expression can still be fluctuating, so the high school camp has a gender night dance where kids declare Male/Female/Other—that's later in the week after Relationship Night where they talk about sex stuff.

    The girls often work topless in the organic gardens (which is technically on the Hill Side where you're supposed to wear clothes but since males work without shirts, females can too—except on parent visiting days when everyone wears shirts regardless of gender.  It's only fair), and the boys have been watching summer after summer for years because kids frequently wander between the camps around the property.  These boys don't have the typical American adolescent male fixation with tits.  They like them and everything, but there's no race to see bare tits since the lake and the garden are full of them.  Same with penises, as a matter of fact.  And no touching anything without specific permission.  I'm sorry to say that I believe that the Hippy Dippy Quaker camp may eventually abolish the Fifth Freedom in order to increase funding options.  Some foundations frown on awarding grants for running around naked in the woods.  Further, the camp is trying to be more culturally inclusive and Muslim parents often choke at the whole naked thing.

    More camps should adopt Fifth Freedom, if you ask me.  It's kind of backwards to keep kids together in a co-ed setting when they are little and don't care about sex, then segregate them after puberty because a Taboo is established and the race to lose your virginity kicks into high gear.  That's how people get pregnant in High School—even though a single-sex environment may be best for academics.

    I have never heard of kids getting pregnant at the Hippy Dippy Quaker Camp.  The policy is: We think you're too young to be having sex because sex complicates friendships, and it takes away from the community when kids pair off privately—but we're not blind, and if you feel you absolutely must have sex, here are condoms.  Think, Children, Think!
Message from the Board of Trustees, 2007

    Over the past several years, the Farm & Wilderness Board of Trustees has been deeply engaged in the process of reviewing the practice of suitless swimming at F&W.  We have heard from many members of our community for whom this is a cherished tradition.  We have also heard from our current program staff about the salutary qualities of this practice: helping campers to become comfortable with their bodies, demystifying their young-adult body within our community, and engendering a sense of respect for others.  These are significant benefits.  However, the Board has also heard from many children and parents who feel deeply uncomfortable about suitless swimming.  We have learned that suitless swimming creates an insurmountable barrier to enrollment at F&W for many.  Such a barrier is in conflict with one of our highest priorities: creating an inclusive and diverse community.

    At the October Board Meeting, the trustees engaged in thoughtful discernment on this topic.  An important aspect of the discussion focused on how it might be possible to end suitless swimming at F&W, yet still retain our cherished emphasis on physical self-respect and respect for others.  After much talk and prayer, the Board gathered the sense of the meeting that we must end the ordinary practice of suitless swimming at this time.

    While the decision was made to end suitless swimming as it has been traditionally practiced at Farm and Wilderness, it is contemplated that individual camps may still have occasional skinny-dipping to the extent that it serves programmatic purpose.  Each of the camps are now developing a Program Plan to transition smoothly away from our prior policy regarding suitless swimming.  Part of this plan will be to define when skinny-dipping would be appropriate within the context of each camp program, and to determine how best to ensure that the positive values identified with suitless swimming will not fade.  Change is never easy.  However, the F&W Board of Trustees, which is majority alumni, strongly believes that our new swimming policy is the best way to balance the many important values our community holds dear.

    As a practical matter, current campers will notice little difference in the program as the actual practice of suitless swimming at many of the individual camps had waned sharply in recent years, another important factor in the board’’s deliberations.  We ask that you hold our staff in the Light as they make this transition.

    In closing, we want to emphasize that the Board's decision was the result of consideration over many years and was informed by hundreds of discussions with our stakeholders.  While staff helped enormously as we sought clarity and consensus, this was the Board's decision alone.  We ask, therefore, that you relay your thoughts, concerns or agreement directly to the Board rather than to any staff.  We look forward to hearing from you.
Staff Handbook, 2008

    We celebrate a child’s creativity and reinforce it as much as possible throughout a young person’s waking hours.  We say that young people are free to wear what they choose and have given this the name, "the Fifth Freedom."  (President Franklin Roosevelt outlined the Four Freedoms in 1941 as freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from want and fear.)  Our costume boxes are legendary, and it’s not unusual to see campers and staff parading across the lawn in outrageous outfits.  No longer coerced or compelled to dress and wear what fashion magazines dictate, campers and staff are empowered to be their own best selves.

    Historically, "Fifth Freedom" also referred to the camp tradition of nude or "suitless" swimming.  In October of 2007, after eight years of discussion and community input, the Board of the Farm & Wilderness Board of Trustees ended the practice of suitless swimming at the F&W camps.  In 2008, each camp (excepting the Barn and SAM), will develop guidelines which may allow skinny dipping on occasion, as it serves camp program and it occurs with a defined group of people (such as a cabin or trip group).  We recognize that some returning staff may be upset with the end of suitless swimming.  We understand that the end of a tradition is a difficult transition, we hope that those who are sad can make a full effort to understand why the change was made, and we must make clear that swimsuits are now required to be worn at all times, except as mentioned above.  Staff must support and abide by this policy.
JWSA Camp:
Linda Shockley

    In the mid-1960s, nudist magazines identified her only as Linda of Oakleaf Ranch.  But they did give her full credit for bringing regional nude youth camps to America.  Her short dark hair in the earliest pictures soon grew long and blond.  This text accompanies lots of pictures at http://www.nudistclubhouse.com/group_topic.php?topic=3222.

    Linda Shockley was the epitome of the California girl: with a fresh face, long blonde locks, golden tan, an athletic figure and squeaky-clean attitude, she helped define the West Coast teen scene for the ASA.  Using their home club of Oakleaf Ranch near Sacramento as their base, the Shockleys travelled up and down California as one of the most active families in the Western Sunbathing Association.  Linda’s parents were very supportive of her many endeavours, whether it was posing for photographers, competing to succeed the reigns of Rosie Smith and Cécile Allain in the Royalty pageants or organizing activities and outings for the teenagers of the clubs.

    It was for the latter that Linda is best remembered.  When she was a high-school junior, she read an article about INF/FNI sponsored teen camps across Europe.  Personally witnessing the disenfranchisement of many of her peers, Linda wrote a letter to the WSA executives asking if they would support a similar programme.  The writing/editing/photographing team of Keith and Iris Bancroft were enthusiastic supporters.  They spearheaded Linda’s plan through committee and, along with the energetic Alice Apgar as senior director and Linda in the teen-leadership role, the Junior Western Sunbathing Association—or JWSA—came to fruition in Summer 1964.

    Operated as a non-landed travel club, the JWSA directly focused on finding a remedy for the high dropout rate amongst nudist kids.  Linda trekked from club to club attracting her fellow teenagers to participate in camping trips, dances and ice-cream socials, bowling, roller-skating, grounds-cleaning projects and even expeditions to interesting locals.  She also helped organize annual cavalcades at different parks, each with their own themes: Nautical at the Lazy К Ranch in 1964, Greek Mythology at Oakleaf Ranch in 1965, Polynesian at Swallows Sun Island in 1966 and Psychedelic at 1967’s gathering back at Lazy К Ranch.  The JWSA conventions involved between 80 and 100 nudists ages thirteen to nineteen who would prepare the host club for ASA festivals and meetings the following week-end, cook meals over an open fire and sleep under the stars.

    The Bancrofts—noted documentarians of the ASA—recognized the invaluable photographic opportunities with Linda and her friends.  Such images of burgeoning teens made magnificent advertisements for the young American nudist scene of the 1960s.  The JWSA gatherings were well recorded on film and, with her parents’ blessings, Linda became the embodiment of nudist youth.  Her pictures adorned a plethora of journals from the Bancrofts’ publishing enterprise.  However, not all the participants had parents who shared such eagerness to have their kids photographed au natural.  Linda had the answer.  Everybody would have their colour-coded first names written on their upper arms at the time of registration: GREEN or BLACK indicated unrestricted photography with signed release on file; YELLOW meant “okay on a picture-by-picture basis and release had to be obtained;” and RED for absolutely no pictures allowed.

    The JWSA in this incarnation lasted until 1969, about the time Linda stepped down as its teen leader.  Youth camps have come and gone; and to-day they have become political lightning rods for the legislating social engineers and PC control freaks.  Yet in the face of adversity, AANR has continuously sponsored these programmes since 1993.  They all owe a debt of gratitude to Miss Linda Shockley—California girl, pageant princess, nudist activist—and ASA icon.


The Letter that Started It All
by Linda Shockley, 1963

    It seems a lot of fuss is being made about teen-age dropouts from Nudism.  But how many teenagers have been consulted on this problem?  Yes, once in a while someone will ask us why the kids aren't coming out, but after our trite "Gee, I don't know," we forget about it.  So maybe it's our fault.  But anyway, I have been thinking and found an idea that would certainly keep me, and I hope many others, interested.   Truthfully I didn't think it up—it was in an article in the A.S.A. Bulletin as part of the l.N.F. Youth Program—but I like it.

    Why couldn't we have a Youth Camp?  I understood from the article that it was an International affair but I think that it could be just as good (and cheaper) if it were confined to Regionals.  One of the things I like best about Nudism is meeting people, especially teenagers; I think it's the same with some of the other kids, too.  I think this camp could probably last a week.  It could include all kinds of programs and discussions on things like Nudists' place in the world and what our teen clubs could be doing, as well as plenty of time to goof around and make friends.

    I have already met with some arguments against my idea.  The main one is that Nudism is supposed to be a family affair and should not have something that would tend to reject part of the family.  But, I wonder if "adults" realize how sick we can get of being with our families, even when they are the best of parents and sisters and brothers, and how much we yearn to be independent, even to a small degree, like not being told to brush our teeth or that we really don't need to put on different nail polish.

    Don't you think that it would really be wiser for us to find this opportunity for escape or independence in something that so many of us love so much—Nudism?  Is there anyone who could not agree that a controlled, supervised "escape" would not be best for us?  Or do you think that a simple party turned into a drunken brawl would be better?

    I'm not trying to say that a summer retreat would end the J[uvenile] D[elinquency]  problem, but I think it would help more teenagers coming to camp [home clubs]—both in giving us something really neat to look forward to and also some ideas on things to do to make camp [home clubs] more "exciting."

    Excuse me, but with my opinion of today's "adults" in general (although not really general, I got my opinion the same way as "adults" get their ideas about "teenagers")—there are probably some who wouldn't agree with me, and probably for the simple reason that I'm "only sixteen."  They could probably look at this all as a little girl's way to let off steam.  I don't actually know if this idea would be of any value.  I realize, also, that there are a lot of problems that would have to be worked out: who, when, where, and money.  But this is what I—as an individual—a "Nudist who happens to be a teenager"—think is a good idea, one that deserves at least some careful consideration.
Camp Sun Eagle—Prospectus

    In 1976, Forest City Lodge in Vermont announced plans for a nude youth camp, directed by Kenneth Webb, newly retired from the Farm and Wilderness Camps.  It probably never happened.  But they did produce a detailed prospectus.  Though several line drawings showed nude children doing typical camp things, nudity was assumed, and only got this brief mention:

WHAT'S A TYPICAL DAY LIKE?

    Details must be left to directors, staff, and campers to settle when they arrive.  In general, the ordinary day will include a brisk set of simple gymnastics—it used to be called "calisthenics"—on the athletic field to warm up; then a short game of follow-the-leader, ending with a quick plunge in the little pool beyond the lower edge of the playing field.  Then the group scatters for chores.  First, tidying up the sleeping quarters—putting blankets or sleeping bags out to air if the day is pretty sure to be good.  Then a group builds up and tends the fire; another group will set out for the farm to feed the animals; another to cook breakfast.  A larger group will be formed to cut and/or bring in wood for the cooking fires and for the council fires.

    After breakfast and clean-up, a short silent meeting—like the Quaker meeting at the UN.  Sun Eagle will not promote any sect or creed; but it does want to provide time for serious thought and occasional stimulus by sharing a bit of reading or some insight on the meaning of life.  Youth is genuinely interested in finding some significance in life—and this, to be satisfying, must be a spiritual one.  The search for things of the Spirit takes many forms, according to a youngster's own background and belief.  But without this dimension life can lack motivation and drive.  The dangerous shoals into which one may drift can be seen everywhere today.

    After this brief period of thoughtful silence, the little meeting ends with a handshake all around, and the group turns into an assembly to organize the activities of the day.  Staff may announce special activities in the fields of their skills.  Campers may by a show of hands indicate what activities they prefer.  Certain key activities like aquatics, campcraft, work projects will go on every day.  Not all activities listed above will run every day.  Weather will make some difference too, though not so much as in a clothes-bound camp where children can't afford to get their clothes wet!  A hot day will mean a shorter set of morning activities with more time saved for swimming instruction and enjoying the sun and the lake.  The afternoon will then see a long, leisurely time for swimming and canoeing or just loafing around the waterfront and soaking up the sun....

    When supper is over, the dishes washed and stacked, the animals fed and comfortable for the night, there may be a game of some sort on the athletic field, a quick round of three-deep or capture the flag or perhaps some favorite game of a group of French campers.

    As the sun sinks low and the shadows of the forest steal forth to provide a contrast with the leaping flames of a council fire—this will be a good time for singing, for music of all sorts, for informal dramatic pieces, for a good discussion, then perhaps a story—and off to bed under the tarps of the sleeping shelters along the ridge behind the council fire area.

A PAGE FOR PARENTS

    Some parents who read this may be doubtful that such a program can be offered at so low a fee.  Others, not used to sending children away to camp may find even the low fee something to consider carefully, weighing advantages against budget limitations.  Others may be put off by the naturist aspects.  Some of this latter group may conclude that in view of the general acceptance of nudity on the part of the younger generation, perhaps the advantages in wholesome attitudes and simplification of life can make it worth trying to put aside their own hang-ups on the matter.  "I couldn't ever be a nudist myself," some parents may say, "but I should like my youngster to have the benefits of such a camp."  Still another group will question the whole idea of naturism, but may want what this unique little camp seems to offer in a simple life style, in wholesome attitudes, in its concern for non-material values, in its effort to give every camper the experience of success, in the exposure to real motivation, to some basic training of use later in life.  If it does offer all this, perhaps it's worth a try.  And the kids themselves, after the first few minutes, couldn't care less about being clothed.  Clothes then become, as they should be, an occasional protection against the cold—and even this use, as the unclothed body adjusts to a wide range of temperature changes, even this recourse to raiment becomes less frequent.  However, clothing is always optional; nobody need be embarrassed either way.
Boy Scout Naturism Merit Badge

    In 2009, members of the LDS Skinny Dippers Forum had fun designing an imaginary merit badge for naturism.  Seven contributors each added about one requirement apiece.

    I propose that we collectively write the BSA pamphlet for the "Naturism" Merit Badge.  Think of it as a way to fight the Winter Blahs.  Good place to start is the requirements.
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1.  Spend 6 hours helping with a nude beach or naturist camp clean-up or improvement project.
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2.  Spend one day alone in the woods listening to the sounds of nature and contemplating the various benefits that nature provides to us.

2a.  Spend part of the day nude.
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3.  Perform a number of day-to-day tasks in the nude, like welding, cooking bacon and such.  Just kidding, stuff like cleaning the house, raking leaves or mowing the lawn.  You know, stuff a scout should be doing anyway.

(I would also add that some aspect of earning the badge should involve not being alone while naked, as I believe the main objective of the earning the badge should be developing a positive body acceptance or being comfortable in one’s own skin.  You have to be comfortable with being naked in order to be a nudist/naturist, no matter the time or circumstances you are in.)
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4.  Participate in Skinny Dipping while on a Scout camping trip.
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5.  The naked Scout should demonstrate the ability to cook bacon in a frying pan without splattering hot grease on his naked body, or on those around him.  The naked Scout should prepare a food item with the bacon, possibly a BLT, and consume without undue mess on his chest or lap.  In the likely event that the Scout drips juice and crumbs on his chest or lap, he shall immediately show competency in skinny dipping if conditions permit.  If a body of water is not available, the Scout may wipe it off with his fingers and lick his fingers clean.  The Scout may use a napkin as a last resort.
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6.  Explain the proper way to dress for swimming activities.  Present yourself properly dressed for a swimming activity, and take part in the activity.

7.  Do both of the following:

    a.  Interview the leader of a naturist venue or organization.  Learn what scouts can do to further the acceptance of naturism in your area.

    b.  With your counselor's approval, plan an activity according to what you learned in Requirement 7a.  Carry out the activity.

8.  Explain the difference between voyeurism, exhibitionism, and naturism.  Explain how a scout can be nude in mixed-gender settings without violating the promise to be "morally straight."



    Appendix I
    The Original Proficiency Requirements
    Because some people have asked to see it, the original Proficiency Requirements booklet for the JFANR camp is archived here.  We developed the program through two years of consultation with nudist Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders.  We generally preferred the easily measurable Boy Scout requirements over the vaguer Girl Scout expectations.  Surprisingly, the heaviest Girl Scout contribution came in Wilderness Survival--with their emphasis on keeping one's head clear and body safe.

    The program was never implemented at an AANR camp.  Two months before the first camp, the FANR board started backpeddling.  We were restricted to offering just hour-long demonstrations on each proficiency, with awards given for attendance, rather than any accomplishment.  When the old guard seized control at the end of camp, they dropped the proficiency program entirely--along with any emphasis on nature or working toward rigorous standards.

    Three years after that first frustrating experience, the local Camp Tallasun opened with the full proficiency program.  It could be done.  Of course, there were not enough kids to try out all of the proficiencies, but the ones they chose worked well.


    JFANR Camp

    Seals of Proficiency
    

Camp Skills                                    page
    Cooking............................................ 2
    Camping........................................... 3
    Campfire Leadership........................  4
    Survival............................................. 5

Wildlife
    Nature............................................... 6
    Reptiles ............................................ 7
    Birds.................................................. 8
    Conservation..................................... 9

Water Activities
    Swimming........................................ 10
    Canoeing......................................... 11
    Rowing............................................. 12
    Mile Swim (special award)................ 10
    Lifesaving......................................... 13

Expanding Awareness
    American Indians.............................. 14
    Nude Art........................................... 15
    Greek Athletics................................. 16
    Meaning in Life................................. 17

These proficiencies are clustered into four groups--all of about equal difficulty.  But within each group, they are listed from easiest to hardest.


HOW MANY PROFICIENCIES SHOULD I WORK ON?

    Remember that the biggest activity every day will be learning to take care of yourself—especially helping to get the meals out on time.  Besides that, you need time to participate in group fun such as swimming, and some quiet time to follow your own interests.  Plan to work on 1 to 3 proficiencies:

1—for first-time campers, the young, or the lazy.
2—for the average camper, or someone limited by leadership responsibilities.
3—for the experienced self-motivated go-getter.  Don't let ambitious parents push you into this.  You must sacrifice much of your free time, and it won't be worth it unless this is something you really want to do.

Once you have decided how you will spend your week, remember that there are no awards for trying.  You must still meet all of the requirements.  Yet the experience of learning and succeeding are more important than any award.

    2
COOKING

Bring:  nothing
1.  Plan balanced, nutritious, inexpensive menus for 3 full days of outdoor cooking.  Assume that one complete day will be spent hiking, so you will want lightweight dried foods that can be found in most grocery (not specialty) stores.  Lunch that day should not require a fire.  Assume that on another day you will have a guest who is vegetarian or has other dietary requirements.  Choose foods that can be stored several days without refrigeration.
2.  Compile a grocery list of everything you will need (except water) to feed 8 people the above menus.  Include container sizes, and the number of each.  Do not forget staples.
3.  Choose THREE of these foods:  mushrooms, potatoes, sweet corn, green beans, eggplant, tomatoes, watermelon.
    a.  Tell how you know when each of your 3 foods is both ripe and fresh. b.  Tell when each of your 3 foods comes into season in your area.
4.  a.  Show which local woods make a hot smokeless fire.
     b.  Lay and light a fire suitable for a one-pot meal, and a second fire for 2 or 3 pots.
     c.  Lay and light a charcoal fire without using a liquid starter.  Cook a meal or bake biscuits on it. (All other meals for these requirements should he done on an open wood fire, if available and allowed; otherwise, charcoal is permissible for them too.)
5.  Using 1 assistant, cook BOTH of these meals for at least 6 people.  Plan your cooking so that everything is ready to serve at the proper time.
    a.  A breakfast including 2 foods that need cooking, and a hot drink.
    b.  A supper of 4 dishes, prepared from raw meat, a fresh vegetable, a raw grain or second fresh vegetable, and a dessert that requires cooking.
6.  Bake enough biscuits for 4 people, using a reflector oven or twist on a stick.
7.  Master ONE of these advanced skills:
    a.  Show 2 ways to make gravy or thicken a sauce.
    b.  Show judicious use of 3 herbs or spices, other than black pepper.
    c.  Use a wok or Dutch oven in camp.
    d.  Tell how you would carve a ham or leg of lamb, a turkey, a chicken, and a fish.
    e.  List these courses in their proper order: fish, fruit & cheese, meat & vegetables, salad, soup, sweets, tea or coffee.  Make a drawing of a full formal place setting for the beginning of this meal.
8.  Keep a clean outdoor kitchen while cooking, and clean up after each of these meals.  Properly dispose of all garbage.


    3
CAMPING

Bring: jackknife (optional)
1. a.  Sketch a good campsite layout, showing areas for cooking, eating, chopping, latrine, and at least 3 two-person tents,  Explain how and why weather, season, and water supply are considered when choosing a site.
    b.  Make a work chart for 6 to 8 people on a weekend campout.
    c.  Describe 4 kinds of tents, including one for backpacking.  Cite their good and bad points.
2. a.  Tell how to keep from getting lost.
    b.  Tell what to do if you are lost.
    c.  On a map, point out 10 different symbols, including contour lines.  Tell what they represent.
    d.  Orient a map.
    e.  Point out on a map where you are.
    f.  Show how a compass works.
    g.  Find the four principal directions using the sun by day, and again using the stars at night.
3. a.  Prepare one end of a rope by whipping, and another end by backsplicing.
    b.  Tie these knots:  square knot, sheet bend, two half hitches, clove hitch, taut-line hitch, bowline.  Show their correct use.
    c.  Use lashing to make a simple useful camp gadget.
4. a.  Demonstrate safe handling and use of both knife and axe.
    b.  Chop a four-inch log in two.
    c.  Split kindling.
5. a.  Locate and prepare a suitable fire site.
    b.  Demonstrate 3 different fire lays, and tell which situations are best for using each.
    c.  Build and light a cooking fire of natural materials, using not more than two matches.
6. a.  Show first aid for:
        Cuts and scratches
        Serious bleeding
        Burns and scalds
        Bee sting, chiggers, ticks
        Bites of snakes and mammals
        Fishhook in skin
        Object in eye
        Nosebleed
        Heat exhaustion and sunstroke
    b.  Point out (if possible) or describe the poisonous snakes and plants that cause skin poisoning in your area.
7. a.  Demonstrate proper disposal of:
        Tin cans
        Glass
        Plastic
        Leftover food
        Dishwater
    b.  Leave a clean campsite behind you.
    c.  Spend ½ hour cleaning up somebody else's litter.


    4
CAMPFIRE LEADERSHIP

Bring: perhaps a musical instrument
1.  Discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and best situation for using each of these:
    a.  Circular seating
    b.  Semi-circular seating
    c.  Audience-and-stage seating
    d.  Single fire
    e.  Double fire
2. a.  Name and point out the best local woods for a campfire free from smoke or sparks.
    b.  Observing all safety precautions, properly lay and light a log-cabin fire of the appropriate size for your group, using only natural materials.  It must burn brightly and collapse inward.
3.  Lead 2 cheers in response to skits or songs.
4.  Lead 3 or 4 songs, including all of these:
    a.  A rousing song
    b.  An action song
    c.  A quiet song
    d.  A song new to your audience
5.  Do ONE:
    a.  Play a significant speaking or acting part in a skit.
    b.  Create and direct a new skit.
6.  Around a campfire, tell an appropriate story lasting at least 2 minutes.
7.  Plan and conduct a ceremony for a solemn occasion such as opening or closing a campfire, opening or closing camp, thanking someone, presenting an award.
8.  List the ingredients and sequence of a good campfire program.
9.  Discuss ways to avoid these unexpected problems, and how to handle them if they should occur:
    a.  Late arrivals
    b.  Skit not ready
    c.  Inattentiveness
    d.  Heckling
    e.  Group not together on a song
10.  Plan a campfire program lasting at least 30 minutes, and serve as its Master of Ceremonies.

IF YOU BELONG T0 OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

    If you belong to Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or other organizations, any requirements which you have already met in earning their awards need not be repeated here. Just bring evidence of what you have done.
    On the other hand, our counselors will be happy to sign you off on requirements for those organizations—though it is up to them whether they honor such signatures.  Bring the proper forms.


    5
SURVIVAL

Bring: small jackknife recommended
1. a.  Tell how long the body can function without air, warmth, water, food, and rest.
    b.  Give examples of putting body management first in a survival situation.
2. a.  Describe situations that show why your brain might be called "the most important thing in your survival kit."
    b.  Describe ways to avoid panic when stranded or lost.
    c.  Describe ways to maintain a high level of morale when stranded or lost.
3.  Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses likely to occur in backcountrv outings, including hypothermia, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, frostbite, dehydration, sunburn, ticks, chiggers, snakebite, blisters, and hyperventilation.
4.  Tell what you would do to survive in the following environments:
    a.  Cold and snowy
    b.   Damp (forest)
    c.   Hot and dry (desert)
    d.  Windy (mountains or plains)
    e.   Water (ocean or lake)
5.  Show that you can start fires using 3 methods other than matches.
6.  Show 3 ways to purify water.
7.  Identify 10 edible wild plants, and tell how to prepare each one.  Cook 3 of them.
8.  Make up a survival kit no bigger than 6 cubic Inches. Be able to explain how each item in it is useful.
9.  Taking absolutely nothing (no clothes, no bedding) but the survival kit you have made—and possibly a canteen of water if all nearby sources are polluted my man—do ALL of these:
    a.  Find and improvise a natural shelter, minimizing damage to the environment.
    b.  Prepare your evening meal of wild plant or animal life other than birds, mammals, or turtles.  Because this is not an emergency, you should not take chances on any questionable food.  Nor should you resort to the emergency food supply in your survival kit.
    c.  Spend the night in your shelter, taking care to stay warm.


    6
NATURE

Bring: insect or shell collections (optional)
    evidence of accomplishment for 6a, b, or c (optional)
1.  Name 3 ways in which plants are important to animals.
2.  Name 3 ways in which animals are important to plants.
3.  Explain the term "food chain."  Give an example of a four-step land food chain and a four-step water food chain.
4.  Explain the term "plant succession."  From reading or talks with your counselor, tell what successions have occurred in the area you are camping in during the last hundred years and what would probably happen in the next hundred years if the area is undisturbed by man.
5.  Do all of the requirements in FIVE of the following fields:
    BIRDS
        a.  In the field, identify 8 species of birds.
        b.  Recognize 3 bird species by sound; OR identify 1 species by nest.
    MAMMALS
        a.  In the field, identify 3 species of wild mammals.
        b.  Make plaster casts of the tracks of a wild mammal.
    REPTILES OR AMPHIBIANS
        a.  Show that you can identify the poisonous snakes in your area.
        b.  In the field, identify 3 species of reptiles or amphibians.
        c.  Recognize 1 species of frog or toad by voice; OR identify 1 reptile or amphibian by eggs, den, burrow, or other signs.
    INSECTS OR SPIDERS
        a.  In the field, identify 10 species of insects or spiders; OR collect, mount, and label 10 species (can be done before camp).
        b.  List the plants where 3 species of butterflies prefer to lay their eggs; OR identify 2 species of spider by web alone.
    FISH
        a.  Catch and identify 2 species of fish.
        b.  Collect 4 kinds of animal food eaten by fish in the wild.
    MOLLUSKS AND CRUSTACEANS
        a.  Identify 4 species of live mollusks and crustaceans.
        b.  Collect, mount, and label 8 shells.  (Can be done before camp.)
    TREES
        a.  In the field, identify 12 species of native trees.
        b.  Read the rings of a stump or log, and tell the history of the tree, pointing out such things as age, variations in rainfall, or competition from other trees.
    PLANTS
        a.  In the field, identify 12 species of wild plants, other than trees.
        b.  Collect and label seeds of 6 plants; OR collect the flowers of 4 plants or grasses and point out their parts.
6.  Do ONE of these:
        a.  Present evidence that you have raised frogs or toads from tadpoles, OR that you have kept an adult reptile or amphibian so it stayed healthy for 1 month.
        b.  Present evidence that you have set up a simple aquarium with fish and plant life (OR a terrarium with 3 species of plants), and kept them healthy for 1 month.


    7
        c.  Present evidence that you have raised wildflowers from seed, OR transplanted one from the wild and kept it healthy through its growing season.
        d.  Carefully examine 1 square yard of land selected by your counselor.  List every type of soil, rock, plant, decaying vegetation, animal, or evidence of earlier animal presence you can find.

    -----

REPTILES

Bring: sketches for #2, if done
    evidence of accomplishment for 8a or b (optional)
1.  Know approximately the number of species and general distribution of reptiles and amphibians in the United States.
2.  From observing live examples, make sketches showing markings and color patterns of 10 reptiles or amphibians found in the United States.  (Half of these may be done before camp.)  Record the habits and habitats of each of these species.
3.  Describe the main differences between (a) alligators and crocodiles, (b) toads and frogs, (c) salamanders and lizards, and (d) snakes and lizards.
4.  List 10 reptiles or amphibians useful to man.  Tell how they take in food.  List food habits of each species. If there are laws in your state for their protection, tell why each is protected.
5.  Describe how reptiles and amphibians reproduce themselves.
6.  From observing live examples, describe how snakes move forward.  Describe the functions of the muscles, ribs, and belly plates.
7.  Describe in detail 6 poisonous snakes and 1 poisonous lizard found in the U.S.  Describe their habits.  Demonstrate first aid for snakebite.
8.  Do ONE of these:
        a.  Present evidence that you have maintained a reptile or amphibian for a month.  Report the food accepted, methods employed in eating, changes in coloration, shedding of skins, and general habits.
        b.  Present evidence that you have raised frogs or toads from tadpoles.  Report the sequence of changes.
        c. Go out at night and identify 3 kinds of toads or frogs by their voices. Stalk each with a flashlight and discover how each sings and from where (water, tree, etc.). Imitate for your counselor the song of each.
        d.   Give a brief talk to a small group on the subject of reptiles and amphibians. Use 3 live non-poisonous specimens.


    8
BIRDS

Bring: binoculars, if you have
    alarm clock, if you have
    evidence of accomplishment for 5a, b, or c (optional)
1.  Spend 2 hours on each of 5 days looking for birds in camp.  At least half of that time should be spent in the company of an experienced birdwatcher.  List the species you identified by sound or sight.
2.  Recognize 10 birds by sound.
3.  In a taxonomically arranged bird book complete for your area, and without using index or table of contents, locate any common bird named by your counselor 8 times in 8 minutes.
4.  List the common birds found in summer near your home or at a beach you sometimes visit, but which are not found at camp.  Explain why.  (If you live on the grounds where camp is held, contrast the birds found in 2 habitats there.)
5.  Do ONE of these:
    a.  Present evidence that you have watched a bird nest for at least 10 days, and for a total of at least 10 hours.  Describe what you saw.
    b.  Present evidence that you have kept a bird feeder stocked with food for 3 months.  Describe what birds used it.  Tell what kinds of food were liked best.
    c.  Present evidence that you kept a birdbath filled for 3 months.  Tell what kinds of birds used it.  Describe any interesting things you. saw.
    d.  Write a life history of 500 words on one bird that nests where you live.
6.  Do ONE of these:
    a.  Make a list of common birds found in your area only during winter, and another list of those found only during spring and fall.  Explain where each bird spends the rest of the year.
    b.  List 6 birds introduced to parts of the U.S. by man.  Explain why you believe each introduction was or was not a success.
    c.  List 10 extinct or endangered birds of the United States.  Describe the chief causes of this.

    9
CONSERVATION

Bring: ambition
1.  Define these terms: Ecosystem, plant succession, limiting factor.
2. a.  Tell what soil is.  Tell how it is formed.
    b.  Tell how the living and non-living elements of nature are related.
    c.  Point out 6 plants used by animals for food, shelter, or cover.
3.  Show you understand THREE of these:
    a.  The causes of water pollution.  Tell what it does to rivers and lakes.
    b.  The causes of land pollution.  Tell what it does to the environment.
    c.  The causes of air pollution.  Tell what it does both to living things and to historical monuments.
    d.  How noise pollution affects people and animals.
    e.  How some chemicals get into the tissues of animals miles from where they were used.
    f.  Why energy should be conserved.  List 10 ways you and your family can do this.
4.  Tell how EACH of these global problems affects you, and what you can do about it:
    a.  Destruction of the rainforests
    b.  Depletion of the ozone layer
    c.  Overpopulation
    d.  Acid rain
5.  List the advantages and disadvantages of FOUR of these conservation practices:
    a.  Preventing forest fires
    b.  Harvesting larger trees
    c.  Prohibiting hunting or fishing
    d.  Putting a bounty on "varmints"
    e.  Draining swamps
    f.  Building dams
    g.  Using pesticides
6.  Plan, review with your counselor, and carry out THREE individual or group conservation projects requiring 2 hours of intense physical labor per person for each project.  They should include:
    a.  A project to reduce soil erosion, water pollution, or air pollution.
    b.  A project involving plants, such as beautification through natural landscaping, repairing 1 or more damaged trees, or improving a stand of trees or wildflowers.
    c.  A project to improve wild animal habitat or nesting.
    Try to recycle any waste products from one project into useful materials for another project.
7.  Do ONE of these:
    a.  Thinking back over the native plants and wild animals that live within several blocks of your home, prepare a list of those that are good for your neighborhood, and a second list of those that are bad for it.  Explain why you placed each one where you did.  Suggest plans for increasing desirable wildlife in your neighborhood.
    b.  List 10 endangered species still living in your state.  Include plants, mammals, birds, and animals that live in water.  Tell what is being done to save each one.


    10
SWIMMING

Bring: clothes for #6
1.  Explain how swimming should be conducted safely for a group (Safe Swim Defense plan).
2.  Swim continuously for 150 yards using the following strokes in good form: a.  Sidestroke for 50 yards
    b.  Elementary backstroke for 50 yards
    c.  50 yards doing ONE of these" trudgen, crawl, back crawl, breaststroke
3.  Enter water without sound, swim silently for 50 feet, leave water without sound.
4. a.  Surface dive headfirst into water over your head but no deeper than 8 feet and bring up an object from the bottom.
    b.  Repeat using a feetfirst surface dive.
5. a.  Show a headfirst dive from a dock.
    b.  Show a racing start.
6.  Enter water over your head wearing shoes, socks, long pants, and long-sleeved shirt.  Remove shoes and socks. Inflate shirt and show that you can float using the shirt for support.  Remove the pants and use them for support while floating.  Swim 50 yards using inflated clothing for support.
7. a.  Float motionless on your back for 1 minute.
    b.  Float face down for 10 minutes, using minimum motion of arms and legs to raise the head for breathing.
8. a.  Explain why swimming rescues should not be attempted when a reaching or throwing assist or boat rescue can be done.
    b.  Explain why and how a person making a swimming rescue should avoid contact with the victim.

MILE SWIM
(This is a special award, available only when camp is held at a large enough and safe enough lake.  Because it takes little time, it can be done in addition; to a regular full schedule.
1.  Swim laps for a quarter mile inside an enclosed area without tiring.
2.  On another day, accompanied by a boat or canoe, swim a mile-long course on open water.


    11
CANOEING

Bring: clothes for #5
1.  Before doing other requirements, pass the No. 3 swimmer test.  (Jump feetfirst into water over your head, swim 75 yards any style, and another 25 yards with a resting backstroke; then float motionless on your back for 1 minute.)
2.  With a companion:
    a.  Properly carry, launch, and get into the bow of a canoe from dock or shore (both if possible).
    b.  While kneeling on one or both knees in the bow position, paddle on one side only for 100 yards; turn and paddle back, showing proper form in:
            Bow stroke
            Draw stroke
            Quarter sweep
            Reverse sweep
        Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    c.  Change places with your companion while canoe is afloat.
    d.  While kneeling on one or both knees in the stern position, paddle on one side only for 100 yards; turn and paddle back, giving proper signals to your companion and showing ability to keep the canoe on a straight course with a proper J stroke. Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    e.  Make a proper landing.
3.  While alone in a canoe and using a single-blade paddle, paddle a straight course for 100 yards and return, demonstrating 2 kneeling positions for a person alone, and correctly do the following on one side going out, and on the other side coming back:
        J stroke
        Draw stroke
        Push over
        Stopping
4.  While alone in a canoe on deep water and wearing a life jacket, jump safely out of a canoe, and get back in without capsizing.
5.  With a companion, and while wearing shirt, pants, shoes, and socks:
    a.  Capsize a canoe in deep water 50 yards from shore.  Secure all loose gear.  Get in and paddle with hands or paddles for 25 yards.
    b.  Disrobe, secure clothing to thwarts, go overboard, and, holding on with one hand, swim and tow or push the swamped canoe to shore.
    c.  Empty the swamped canoe in shallow water.
6.  With a companion in your canoe and while giving instructions to persons who have capsized a canoe in deep water, empty the swamped canoe over your own canoe and assist the persons in reboarding the emptied canoe.
7.  Discuss:
    a.  Care and maintenance of canoeing equipment.
    b.  Laws on availability of personal flotation devices.
    c.  The differences between river (moving water) canoeing and lake (flatwater) canoeing.


    12
ROWING

Bring: nothing
1.  Before doing other requirements, pass the No. 2 swimmer test.  (Jump feetfirst into water over your head, and swim 50 yards any style.)
2.  Demonstrate correct launching and landing skills:
    a.  Launch a rowboat from shore, and land it again.
    b.  Bring a rowboat alongside a dock.  Help a passenger into it.  Row 50 feet, stop, pivot, and come back to the dock.  Help the passenger from the boat.
    c.  Tie a rowboat to a dock or post using:
        Clove hitch
        Round turn and two half hitches
        Bowline
        Hitching tie OR mooring hitch
3.  With another person in the stern:
    a.  Row in a straight line for a quarter mile.  Stop, make a pivot turn, and return to the starting point.  (If the lake is too small, row back and forth in a straight line for a half mile.)  Feather after each stroke.  (Pin oarlocks cannot be used.)
    b.  Backwater in a straight line 200 yards.  Make a turn under way still backing water.  Return to the starting point.  Feather after each stroke.
    c.  Change places with your passenger while afloat.
    d.  Show sculling in good form over the stern for 25 yards.  Turn under way, and return to the starting point.
4.  Alone or with a companion, tip over a rowboat in shallow water.  Turn it right side up, get in, and paddle 10 yards with your hands or an oar.  Tell why you should stay with a swamped boat.
5.  Alone in a rowboat, push off from shore or dock.  Row 25 yards to a swimmer.  Turn the boat so that the swimmer may hold onto the stem.  Tow him to shore.
6.  Show and explain the proper use of anchors for rowboats.
7.  Describe:
    a.  Types of craft used in commercial, competitive, and recreational rowing.
    b.  Four common boat building materials.  Give some good and bad points of each.
    c.  Types of oarlocks used in commercial, competitive, and recreational rowing.  Give two reasons why pin oarlocks are not recommended.
8.  Discuss:
    a.  The advantage of feathering oars while rowing.
    b.  How to handle a rowboat in a storm.
    c.  Laws on availability of personal flotation devices.
    d.  How to maintain a rowboat and oars.  How to store them.


    13
LIFESAVING

Bring: evidence of accomplishment for la and 1b
     clothes for #6
1.  Before doing other requirements:
    a.  Present evidence that you hold the Swimming Seal of Proficiency OR Boy Scout Swimming Merit Badge OR Red Cross Intermediate Swimmer Certificate OR another equivalent.
    b.  Demonstrate a simulated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).  (Get training beforehand from the Red Cross or other source.)
    c.  Swim 400 yards.
2. a.  Explain the Safe Swim Defense.
    b.  Explain the order of methods in water rescue.  Demonstrate each method, including the accurate throwing of a ring buoy.
3.  With a helper and a subject, show a line rescue both as tender and as rescuer.  Use a 50-foot length of line.
4.  Explain the importance of avoiding contact with a subject; explain "lead" and "wait" tactics; and explain why equipment should be used in a swimming rescue.
*5.  Swim 30 feet and make the correct approach to a tired swimmer.  Move the person 30 feet to safety using:
    a.  Underarm swim-along
    b.  Two-person assist
    c.  Tired swimmer carry
6.  Explain the importance of disrobing before a swimming rescue.  Starting on shore in long-sleeved shirt, long pants, shoes and socks:
    a.  Remove clothing in 20 seconds or less.
    b.  With shirt in your teeth, swim 30 feet with a strong stroke, and tow a subject back to shore.
    c.  Remove the practice victim from the water and place in position for resuscitation.
    d.  Repeat these steps, but instead of a shirt rescue, use a front approach and wrist tow.
*7.  Keeping the victim in sight at all times, leap from a dock, swim 30 feet with a strong stroke, and tow the subject back to the dock using a rear approach and cross-chest carry.  Remove the practice victim from the water and place in position for resuscitation.
*8.  Show in deep water your defense against grasps by blocking, and escaping.  Free yourself from both front and rear holds.
9.  Make 4 surface dives in 8 feet of water.  Retrieve an object 3 times.  Bring up a 10-pound weight once.
10.  Show search techniques:
    a.  As part of a lost swimmer drill.
    b.  As a diver using mask, fins, and snorkel.

*  At the request of rescuer, victim, or counselor, these will be same-sex only.


    14
AMERICAN INDIANS

Bring: nothing
1.  Study the variety of native American practices across North America and over tine, until you can do ALL of these:
    a.  Tell when and where EACH of these was used: horse, birch-bark canoe, tepee, ceremonial mounds, totem pole, eagle-feather bonnet, cotton farming.
    b.  Tell when partial or total nudity was appropriate in 4 different regions of North America.
    c.  Properly wear EACH of these costumes (and nothing else) for 1 hour while doing camp chores such as cooking or gathering firewood.  Boys: breechclout, 1 or 2 aprons, loincloth.  Girls: short wrap-around skirt, 1 or 2 aprons, fringe belt or sash. Tell which regions or tribes wore each of your outfits.
 2.  Tell the history and customs of one tribe, group, or nation that lives, or has lived, near you.  Include details such as dwellings, food preparation, dress, crafts, religious beliefs, type of government, attitude toward war, means of getting around, where the members (if any) now live, and how they now live.
3.  Do TWO of these:
    a.  Learn 3 Indian games.  Teach and lead 1 of them.
    b.  Find 2 wild foods (at least 1 of them from a plant) used by Indians, and cook them with modern utensils; OR, using ingredients from the store, cook 2 foods by Indian methods.
    c.  Show Indian ways of hunting, fishing, or trapping.
    d.  Learn in English an Indian story of at least 300 words, and tell it at a campfire.
    e.  Learn an authentic Indian dance lasting at least 2 minutes, and perform it at a campfire.
    f.  Learn an Indian craft, and make an authentically designed article.
4.  Do ONE of these:
    a.  Write or tell about 8 things adopted by others from American Indians.
    b.  Learn 25 Indian place names.  Tell their origin and meaning.
    c.  Name 5 important American Indians.  (No more than 2 of them should be war leaders.)  Give their tribes. Tell what effect they have had on history.
    d.  Read a treaty or agreement made by the U.S. government and an American Indian tribe or nation.  Tell why you believe the terms were or were not fair. Tell how well each side has lived up to them.


    15
NUDE ART

Bring: art supplies, if you have them
1.  Select ONE artist from EACH of the 4 groups below. Point out 2 photographs or reproductions of nudes by each of the selected persons, and explain what each of your 4 artists has contributed to our understanding of the nude.
    a.  Myron, Polykleitos, Praxiteles
    b.  Michelangelo, Titian, Dürer, Rubens
    c.  Muybridge, Gauguin, Rodin, Picasso
    d.  Suzanne Valadon, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Malvina Hoffman, Harriet Frishmuth, Imogen Cunningham, Alice Neel
2.  Assemble a portfolio of nude artworks done entirely by you, and including:
    a.  Realistic and detailed renderings of a hand, a face, and one other body part.
    b.  Three two-minute sketches of a nude figure in a variety of poses.
    c.  Demonstrate your command of 3 different two-dimensional media in rendering 5 nude figures, including a mature man, mature woman, adolescent boy, adolescent girl, and child.  The figures may be part of a larger composition.  If you depart from realistic depictions, explain your artistic intent.
    d.  Demonstrate your command of a three-dimensional medium by rendering a nude figure.  Explain-your use of space in the composition.
3.  Paint or otherwise decorate your own body, or the body of someone approved by your counselor, in both of these ways:
    a.  An original variation on traditional designs, using traditional materials or less permanent replacements.
    b.  An original design using modern materials.


    16
GREEK ATHLETICS Bring: nothing

1.  Demonstrate that you know the ancient rules for the 5 pentathlon events.
2.  Practice nude Greek athletics for an hour a day for 5 days.
3.  Meet the following standards* in FOUR events:
    weight under        75    95    110    125    140    160    on up
    Stade race (sec.)    33    32    29    20    25    29    31
    Long jump (ft.)    12    13½    14½    15½    16½    18    19
    Discus (ft.)        45    60    72    84    96    102    108
    Javelin (ft.)        32    43    51    60    68    73    77
    Stand-up wrestling  Win half of the time in your weight group.
4.  Name one ancient athletic festival other than the Olympics.  Tell when and where it was held, in whose honor, the events, and the prize or prizes.
5.  Tell why you think the ancient Olympics remained honest for so many centuries.  Discuss whether these things might make the modern Olympics more honest.
6.  Explain the religious significance of appearing nude in athletic competition.
7.  Explain THREE of these:
    a.  Layout of a gymnasium, and meaning of the word.
    b.  Why the pentathlon winner was honored above winners of heavier sports.
    c.  Significance of Apollo being god of the sun, athletics, and music.
    d.  Why philosophers such as Socrates taught in gymnasia.
    e.  Effect of the Olympics on the Greek calendar, and on peace.
    f.  Restrictions on girls and women at Olympia.
    g.  Effect of professionalism on Greek athletics.
    8.  Examine an ancient poem, inscription, vase painting, or sculpture featuring one or more athletes.  Point out any details which tell us about training, rules, or the honor in which athletes were held.
9.  Discuss the education of boys in both Athens and Sparta, and also the education of girls in both cities.  Explain which city you would rather have lived in.

* All proficiency requirements—ESPECIALLY THE STANDARDS IN GREEK ATHLETICS #3—are subject to change without notice during the first experimental year.


    17
MEANING IN LIFE

Bring: any books for #1 that you may have
1.  With a little help from your counselor, choose 3 writings (or groups of writings) from the list below.  Read a total of 50 pages from among the 3 you chose.
    a.  Chandogya Upanishad. chapter 6
    b.  Confucius, Analects
    c.  Plato, Apology of Socrates
    d.  The Bible: Ecclesiastes 1 and/or Matthew 5-7
    e.  American Indians: Navajo Mountain Chant and/or Chief Joseph, "I shall fight no more forever," and /or Smohalla, "My young men shall never work."
    f.  Thoreau, Walden. chapter 2 and/or "Civil Disobedience"
    g.  Gibran, The Prophet
2.  Explain your beliefs, as well as the extent to which you agree and disagree with the thinkers read for requirement 1, on EACH of these questions:
    a.  What is important in life?
    b.  What is your place in nature?
3.  Spend two hours outdoors, nude and alone; quietly observing nature.  Be alert for the small as well as the large, the slow as well as the fast.  Report on what thoughts passed through your mind.
4.  Explain what living close to nature can teach us about using:
    a.  Medicinal drugs
    b.  Social drugs
    c.  Mind-altering drugs
5.  Moral decisions do not come easy.  Keeping in mind the values your family has taught you since infancy, explain what you believe would be the right thing for YOU to do on ONE of these controversial issues:
    a.  Becoming a soldier
    b.  Working in a weapons factory
    c.  Owning a handgun
    d.  Having an abortion
    e.  Letting capital punishment happen
6.  Explain who your heroes are, and why.
7.  From your reading in nudist publications and elsewhere, explain the significance of nudity to:
    a. Ancient Greek athletes and students
    b.  Holy men of India
    c.  Early Christians
    d.  Painters, sculptors, and photographers
    e.  People living in tribes today
8.  Tell what, to your way of thinking, is the relationship (if any) between nudity and...
    a.  Honesty           d. Thinking for yourself
    b.  Pride                e.  Freedom
    c.  Appreciating nature
9.  Do ONE of these:
    a.  Plan and conduct a brief interdenominational service which demonstrates that 3 very different religions can agree on an important value.
    b.  Write an essay of at least 500 words on some aspect of nudity, and enter it in a contest.


    Appendix II

    Attendance and Locations of AANR and TNS Youth Camps
FLORIDA WEST EAST SO'WEST COLLEGE AANR TOTAL TNS
jun. acad jun. acad jun. acad jun. acad n u y a
1993 23 23
1994 22 22
1995 22 22
1996 26 26 5
1997 28 28
1998 30 total 30
1999 26 total 26
2000 10 14 24
2001 27 total 8 35
2002 24 total 10 total 10 weekend 10 weekend 6 50
2003 8 4 5 1 21 total 8 47
2004 20 total 15 total 17 total 22 weekend 0 74
2005 12 total 9 total 24 total 3 3 51
2006 0 0 12 total 22 total 12 total 3 6 55
2007 3 4 1 3 5 2 6 3 2 18 49
2008 0 0 17 5 14 total 2 24 62 9
2009 0 weekend 24 total 0 0 5 29 18
2010 3 total 12 5 4 24 21
2011 5 total 6 3 5 19 24
2012 8 1 0   9

AANR & TNS camp attendance



Locations of AANR and TNS Youth Camps

1993    FL    Lake Como--FL
1994    FL    Lake Como--FL
1995    FL    Cypress Cove--FL
1996    FL    Cypress Cove--FL
           TNS  Tallahassee Naturally--FL
1997    FL    Lake Como--FL
1998    FL    Lake Como--FL
1999    FL    Sunnier Palms--FL
2000    FL    Sunsport Gardens--FL
2001    FL    Lake Como--FL (including Nude U)
2002    FL    Sunsport Gardens--FL (including Nude U)
           W     DeAnza Springs--CA
           E      Serendipity Park--GA (weekend only)
           SW    Wildwood Resort--TX (weekend only)
2003    FL    Lake Como--FL (including Nude U)
           W     Swallows Sun Island--CA
           E      White Tail Park--VA
2004    FL    Lake Como--FL
           W     DeAnza Springs--CA
           E      Cedar Creek--SC
           SW    Oaklake Trails--OK (weekend only)
2005    FL    Cypress Cove--FL (including Nude U and Youth Ambassadors)
           W     Swallows Sun Island--CA
           E      Cedar Creek--SC
2006    FL    Cypress Cove--FL (Nude U and Youth Ambassadors only)
           W     Olive Dell Ranch--CA
           E      Cedar Creek--SC
           SW    Oaklake Trails--OK
2007    FL    Gulf Coast Resort--FL
                   Cypress Cove--FL (Nude U and Youth Ambassadors only)
           W     Swallows Sun Island--CA
           E      Juniper Woods--NY
           SW    Oaklake Trails--OK
2008    FL    Cypress Cove--FL (Nude U and Youth Ambassadors only)
           E      Juniper Woods--NY
           SW    Oaklake Trails--OK
           TNS  Sunsport Gardens--FL
2009    W     Shangri La Ranch--AZ (Nude U only)
           E      Juniper Woods--NY
           TNS  Sunsport Gardens--FL
2010    W     Shangri La Ranch--AZ
           E      Cedar Creek--SC (including Nude U)
           TNS  Sunsport Gardens--FL
2011    W     Shangri La Ranch--AZ
           E      Juniper Woods--NY (including Nude U)
           TNS  Sunsport Gardens--FL
2012    E      Juniper Woods--NY
           TNS  Sunsport Gardens--FL


Appendix III
The 1991-92 FANR Youth Census

    When the Florida Association for Nude Recreation organized in 1991, Paul LeValley was appointed Youth Director.  Because we had no idea how many kids there were or where they were located, we began with a census of the Florida clubs.  The results showed that the drop-out age was between 13 and 14--with a further falling off once kids got their own driver's licences.  And so the summer camp was designed to challenge the growing abilities of our 14-year-olds (though children 11-17 could attend).  Later camp directors watered down the program, so the more rigorous Youth Academy had to be added for the intended group.

    This census is by now totally outdated, because:
1.  All of these children have grown up.
2.  Some local club youth programs have withered away, while others have expanded over the years.
3.  We quickly learned that the youth populations of the smaller clubs can fluctuate greatly from one year to the next, as families move in or out.
An attempted survey of Florida clubs in 2007-08 got little response, so these are the only figures we have.  Lake Como estimated their figures, and probably estimated a bit high, but their numbers were not very far off.
                   age
                   sex		     5
B     G		     6
B    G		     7
B     G		     8
B     G		     9
B    G		    10
B     G		    11
B     G		    12
B    G		   13
B   G		   14
B   G		   15
B  G		   16
B  G		   17
B  G		   18
B  G		    TOTALS
  B    G      all
A la Nude T. C.     0     0       0
Bay Bares   0     0       0
Beach Travel C.   0     0       0
City Retreat  1  1        1        1        2  1    1 1   1     1  4     7      11
Cypress Cove  2    2  1    2  2    1  3    3  2   2  2    2  2    3  1    1 3   3 1 1 20   19     39
Ethos Trace        1      1     1     1   0     0       4
Island Group   0     0       0
Lake Como 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 5   5 5  5 2  2 1 1 1 1 1 1  95  95   190
N.E. Fla. Natur.  1        1   1     1       2
Paradise Lakes  1  1  1        1 1   1 1  1 1  3   6     6     12
Riverboat Club   0     2       2
Sanibel Natur.        1        1   0     0       0
Seminole   0     0       0
S. Fla. Free Bch.   0     0       0
S.W. Fla. Natur.        1   0     1       1
Sunburst Resort        1        1     1     1   0     4       4
Sunnier Palms   0     0       0
Sunny Sands        1   0     1       1
Sunsport Garden   0     0       0
Tallahassee B-D  1    1  1 1   3     1       4
Tara Oaks   0     0       0
Travel Naturally   0     0       0
TOTALS 13  13
    26		 13  14
    27		 14 14
    28		 14 13
    27		 13 13
    26		 13 14
    27		 12 16
    28		 12 14
    26		 11 11
   22		 6  6
  12		 4  5
   9		 2 6
  8		 1 1
  2		 1 1
  2		 129 141  270


Appendix IV
How Adults Can Kill a Naturist Youth Organization

    When the Florida region began in 1991, the youth committee put four programs into motion:

1.  Encourage youth activities at the local clubs through a resource committee of experienced youth workers from each club with youth activities, and a file of program ideas for local use.
2.  Establish a thriving statewide nudist youth organization.
3.  Start a week-long summer camp to provide bigger challenges for young people over 10 than any local club could.
4.  Establish a scholarship program for our older students.
By 1993, all four programs were well under way.  But after that, the first two died of neglect.  Only the camp and scholarship survived.

    In establishing a statewide youth organization, we sought advice from Nancy Volak of the highly successful Midwestern regional youth program.  She emphasized two points:  “Let the kids make and enforce the rules, and let the kids handle the money.  They will do a better job of both than the adults will.”  After months of planning, the young people met in convention in 1993, and created the following bylaws.  But any leader who tried to lead was quickly quashed.  For a few years, elections to meaningless titles were held during the camp.  Then the organization fizzled away completely.

    But irrelevancy never stops the wheels of bureaucracy.  In 1997, some unnamed adult rewrote the bylaws, translating the purposes into gobbledygook that no child (or adult) could understand.  Somehow, all mention of young people influencing adult decisions or handling money disappeared.  Though the organization had long been dead, a mysterious hand in 2001 eliminated any provision for the young people to amend their own bylaws.  When the region changed its name in 2007, all documents, including this one, were revised accordingly.  But there is no youth organization, and the kids have never changed their original document.


    JFANR BYLAWS
    (as written and passed by the young people)

ARTICLE I—DEFINITIONS AND PURPOSE

    A.  The Junior Florida Association for Nude Recreation (JFANR) is the youth division of the Florida Association for Nude Recreation, a region of the American Sunbathing Association, and is subject to the rules of both parent organizations.
    B.  The purpose of JFANR is to encourage children from nudist families to grow into nudist adults by:
        1.  Providing youth activities on a larger scale than individual clubs can.
        2.  Providing opportunities for young nudists from around the state to meet and share their common interests.
        3.  Providing a structure through which young people can develop leadership skills—as well as express their concerns, and influence FANR decisions.
        4.  Providing guidance as young people develop their own reasons for living naturally.

ARTICLE II—MEMBERSHIP

    A.  While all children of FANR members are considered members of JFANR, only those JFANR members aged 11 through 18 are voting members.
    B.  A person turning 11 within 3 months, or 18 during an annual JFANR convention may participate in all convention activities.
    C.  Officers who turn 18 during the year may serve out the remainder of their terms.

ARTICLE III—OFFICERS

    A.  Officers of JFANR are president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer.
    B.  Officers shall be nominated, and elected by JFANR members meeting in convention.  There shall be a waiting period (preferably 24 hours) between nominations and elections.
    C.  Only practicing nudists may be nominated for office.
    D.  JFANR officers must live in Florida, or within 100 miles of the Florida border.
    E.  The president and vice-president cannot be from the same club.
    F.  Terms of office are one year.  No person may serve in the same office for more than two consecutive years.
    G.  If the president resigns or is no longer a JFANR member, the vice-president shall take over the duties of the president.  Acting with the advice of the FANR  Junior Chairperson, the president may fill any other vacancies by appointment.

ARTICLE: IV—RELATION TO FANR OFFICIALS

    A.  The FANR Junior Chairperson (appointed by the FANR president) is responsible for JFANR organization, and acts as its advisor.
    B.  JFANR meetings are open to all FANR or JFANR members.  FANR members may have voice but no vote.
    C.  All JFANR decisions, including those made by the JFANR membership, the JFANR officers, or the FANR Junior Chairperson are subject to approval by the FANR board.

ARTICLE V— VOTING

    A.  Decisions shall be made by majority rule.
    B.  Proposed bylaw amendments must be published at least two weeks in advance, and must be approved by a 2/3 majority of members present at the convention.


    AANR-Florida Youth Bylaws
    (as secretly mangled by adults)

Article I Definition and Purpose

    A.  The American Association for Nude Recreation-Florida Region Youth (AANR-Florida Youth) is the youth division of the American Association for Nude Recreation-Florida Region, Inc., a region of the American Association for Nude Recreation, and is subject to the rules of both parent organizations. 
    B.  The purpose of AANR-Florida Youth is to encourage children from nudist families to grow into nudist adults by:
        1.  Providing youth leadership activities that are fun and natural and by promoting mature decision making in designing, managing and maintaining these events. 
        2.  Providing opportunities for AANR-Florida youth from diverse clubs to meet and share common interests and discover new abilities. 
        3.  Providing a structure for developing leadership skills through interaction with counselors, peers and the AANR-Florida board. 
        4.  Providing guidance through counseling as AANR-Florida youth develop their individual reasons for living naturally. 

Article II Membership

    A.  All children of AANR-Florida members, but only adolescent members eleven (11) through seventeen (17) years, are voting members and are eligible for camp. 
    B.  A person turning eleven (11) within three (3) months or eighteen (18) during the annual AANR-Florida youth camp may still participate in all activities. 
    C.  Officers who turn eighteen (18) during the year following their election may serve out the remainder of their terms. 

Article III Officers

    A.  The officers of AANR-Florida Youth are: President, vice president and secretary. 
    B.  Officers shall be nominated and elected by AANR-Florida youth at the annual AANR-Florida Youth Camp. 
    C.  Only practicing nudists will be nominated for office. 
    D.  AANR-Florida Youth must either belong to an AANR-Florida club or pay an additional fee to attend the camp. 
    E.  The president and the vice president may not be members of the same club.
    F.  Officers serve for one (1) year.  They may not serve for more than two (2) consecutive years. 
    G.  If the president resigns or is no longer an AANR-Florida Youth member, the vice president shall take over the duties of the president.  Acting with the advice of the AANR-Florida Youth chair, the president may fill any vacancy by appointment. 

Article IV Relation to AANR-Florida Officials

    A.  The AANR-Florida Youth chair is responsible for the AANR-Florida Youth organization and acts as its advisor. 
    B.  AANR-Florida Youth meetings are open to all AANR-Florida members and all AANR-Florida youth.  AANR-Florida adult members have a voice, but no vote. 
    C.  All AANR-Florida Youth decisions, including those made by the AANR-Florida Youth membership and officers or the AANR-Florida Youth chair, are subject to approval by the AANR-Florida board. 

Article V Voting

A.  Decisions shall be made by majority rule. 



    BIBLIOGRAPHY ON NUDIST YOUTH CAMPS

Note:  Much of the national controversy in 2003 was accessible through Internet search engines, which did not bother with such bibliographic niceties as page numbers.


COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY

Paul LeValley.  "Naturist Youth Camps in America: A History."  Naturally, no. 23 (Spring 1997).  pp. 10-13.

* Paul LeValley, ed.  Professors and Researchers SIG Newsletter #9: Youth Camp Special Edition, August 2003.  [This and Professors and Researchers SIG Newsletter #12: Youth Camp Supplement, May 2004, were bound together and published as The 2003 AANR Youth Camp Controversy.  Tallahassee: Professors & Researchers SIG, 2004.]  The third and final installment was published as Professors & Researchers SIG Newsletter #28: Youth Camp Concluding Supplement, Feb. 2008.

* Paul LeValley.  Professors & Researchers SIG Newsletter #44: Youth Camp Special Edition, May 2012.  [Mostly Farm & Wilderness Camps]

* Paul LeValley.  "Nude Youth Camps in America: A History."  Nude & Natural, 36.3 (Spring 2017).  pp. 11-18.


FARM AND WILDERNESS CAMPS (not ASA)

Kenneth B. Webb.  "Farm Camps: Where Work Has High Place in Camper's Day."  The Christian Science Monitor, June 12, 1948.  p. 10.

Kenneth B. Webb.  "Camp Activities Suited to the Environment."  The Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 9, 1949.  p. 10.

Kenneth B. Webb.  "Color-blind Summer Camps."  Nation,  Apr. 30, 1949.   pp. 493-495.

Kenneth B. Webb.  "Wholesome Ideal of Camp Life Needed by Growing Youngsters."  The Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 1950.  p. 9.

Kenneth B. Webb. "Camp Teaches the Joy of Effort: Helps a Child to Find Himself."  The Christian Science Monitor,  June 10, 1950. p. 10.

Kenneth B. and Susan H. Webb.  Summer Magic: What Children Gain from Camp.  New York Association Press, 1953.

* Kenneth B. Webb  "The Fifth Freedom."  Solaire Universelle de Nudisme, vol. 10, no. 5 (May 1960). pp. 16-20.

* Kenneth B. Webb.  As Sparks Fly Upward: The Rationale of the Farm and Wilderness Camps.  Canaan, NH: Phoenix Publishing, [1974].

Leonard K. Cadwallader.  Letter to Paul LeValley, Nov. 19, 1991.

Mark Oppenheimer. "At August's End: Serving Time in Leftist Summer Camps."  Sleepaway: Writings on Summer Camp.  ed. Eric Simonoff.  2005.

Mark Oppenheimer.  "My Summer at a Quaker Nudist Camp."  National Public Radio interview, Aug. 12, 2005.   m.npr.org/news/front/4797910?singlePage=false

* Message from the Board of Trustees, 2007.

* Farm and Wilderness Camps Staff Handbook, 2008.

* Penolan.  "Dolphin Finds the Sofa."  Menopausal Stoners Blog, Aug. 1, 2009.  menopausalstoners.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

* Kirk Kardashian.  "Nature and Nurture: At Plymouth's Farm and Wilderness Summer Camps, It's All About Simplicity and Stewardship."  Seven Days, Aug. 19, 2009.

* Reggie Darling.  "My Name is White Rainbow."  July 31, 2011.  reggiedarling.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html


CAMP HY-LEE CREST (originally SUNNY CREST)

* William Albert [pen name of William Slater]. "The Story of Sunny Crest. American Nudist Leader, no. 43 (July 1955). pp. 2-7, 26.

* June Lange.  "A Romp with the Rompers(less) Set."  Modern Sunbathing and Hygiene, vol, 25, no. 8 (Aug. 1955).  pp. 19-26,  39.

* June Lange. "For Children Only!"  Sunbathing for Health, vol. 9, no. 10 (March 1956).  pp. 18-19, 28-29.

[Ed Lange's 1954 photographs for all of the above have also appeared in at least three unrelated articles.]

* Richard Shaw. "Plentiful Pandemonium."  Modern Sunbathing and Hygiene, vol 28, no. 6 (June 1958). pp 32-33, 42-43.

Lawrence Casler.  "Some Sociopsychological Observations in a Nudist Camp: A Preliminary Study."  The Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 64 (1964).  pp. 307-323 [camp: p. 321-322].

"Farewell to Chaplain William Slater."  The Bulletin, Nov. 1999.  p. 18.


JWSA YOUTH CAMP

"Nudist Youth Camp Scheduled."  Sunscope, vol. 1, no. 6 (Mar. 1964).  pp. 1-4.  The letter, "Why Couldn't We Have a Youth Camp?" by Linda of Oak Leaf was reprinted in The Bulletin. Apr. 2006.  p. 4.

"First JWSA Youth Camp Great Success"  The Western Sun, Aug. 1964.  pp. 1-5.

"JWSA Youth Camp Roaring Success."  The Bulletin, Sept 1964.  p. 1, 5.

* Nudist Holiday, no. 2 (Sept 1965).  [The entire issue is devoted to the 1964 season]

1965 program.

Teenage Nudist,  no. 9 (1965).  pp. 5-6.

Carl Apgar.  "The 1966 JWSA Convention Story.  Teenage Nudist,  no. 13 (1966).  pp. 6-7, 16-17, 44.

* Chubby Gumshoe.  "Psychedelic Fantasy."  Teenage Nudist, no 16 (1967). pp. 5-7, 12-13.

* Carl Apgar.  "Remembrance of Times Past."  Teenage Nudist, no. 16 (1967).  pp. 20-21.

Forrest Emerson.  "Forrest Emerson Reports on the Convention Circuit."  The Bulletin, Sept. 1968. p. 6.

Forrest Emerson.  "Western Association Juniors Hold Independent Convention."  The Bulletin, Oct. 1969  p. 5.

"JWSA Junior Man & Woman."  The Bulletin, Sept.-Oct. 1970.  p 14.

* Andy [Last name not given].  "Linda Shockley."  c.2010.  http://www.nudistclubhouse.com/group_topic.php?topic=3222


CAMP SUN EAGLE (probably never materialized)

* Prospectus [1976]


CO-ED EXPLORER POST 2498 (probably did not camp)

Roxanne Liscomb  "Teen Nudists Busy Explorers."  The Bulletin, Apr. 1976.  p. 9.


BOY SCOUT TROOP 66 AND GIRL SCOUT TROOP 746

"City Retreat."  The Bulletin, Jan 1977.  p 14.

* "A Naturist Milestone: Troop 66."  The Natural Life, March 1977.  pp. 3-6.

* "Personality Spotlight Troop 66."  The Natural Life, April 1977.  pp. 11-13, 16.

"And Now the Girl Scouts."  The Natural Life, June 1977.  p. 2.

Associated Press stories (all alike) ran under different headlines:
    "A Merit Badge for Nudity?"  Arizona Daily Sun [Flagstaff, AZ], Aug. 4, 1977, p. 6.
    "Bare Patrol?  Nudist Camp Scouts Flourish." The Spokane Daily Chronicle, Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 25
    "Bare Scout Troop's Brave, Loyal...'in Buff.'"  Newport Daily News, Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 19.
    "'Bare' Scouts Bold."  Naples Daily Times [Naples, FL], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 9.
    "Bare Scouts Don Uniforms."  North Adams Transcript [North Adams, MA], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 7.
    "Bare Scouts Meet in Uniform."  The News [Frederick, MD], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 23.
    "Bare Scouts of America?"  Jacksonville Courier [Jacksonville, IL], Aug. 5, 1977.  p. 7.
    "Bare Scouts of Tampa?"  Biloxi Daily Herald, Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 1.
    "Bare Scouts Strip When Meet Concludes."  The Daily Inter Lake [Kalispell, MT], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 11.
    "Bare Scouts: They Are Nudists."  Gastonia Gazette [Gastonia, NC], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 1.
    "Bare Scouts: Trustworthy, Brave and Nude."  The Sumter Daily Item [Sumter, SC], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 1.
    "Boy Scouts in the Nude."  Oakland Tribune, Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 2
    "Nudist Colony Scouts Wear Uniforms in Troop Meetings."  Hattiesburg American [Hattiesburg, MS], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 22.
    "Only the Bare Facts: No Place to Sew on Merit Badge."  Reno Evening Gazette, Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 33.
    "Scouts Loyal, Brave—and Nude."  Blytheville Courier News [Blytheville, AR], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 4.
    "There's a Time for Uniforms—Even for the 'Bare' Scouts."  Herald Palladium [Benton Harbor, MI], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 12.
    "These Scouts DO Love Nature."  The Chronicle Telegram [Elyria, OH], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 4.
    "These Scouts Are Trustworthy, Brave, Loyal and Nude!"  The Evening News [Newburgh, NY], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 1.
    "These Scouts Loyal, Trustworthy and Nude."  [Unknown newspaper], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 11.
    "Where Does Merit Badge Go?"  Charleston Daily Mail [Charleston, WV], Aug. 4, 1977.  p. 1 .
    "It's Bare Scouting in Florida Sunshine."  Robesonian [Lumberton, NC], Aug. 5, 1977, p. 15
    "Loyal, Brave and Buck Naked."  Denton Record-Chronicle [Denton, TX], Aug. 5, 1977.  p. 24.
    "Nudists OK Scout Uniforms."  Racine Journal Times, Aug. 5, 1977.  p. 19.
    "Trustworthy, Loyal, Brave... and Nude."  The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, VA], Aug. 5, 1977.  p. 4.
    "Nude Boy, Girl Scouts in Florida."  Sentinel and Enterprise [Fitchburg, MA], Aug. 6, 1977.  p. 15.
    "Scouts Go Back to Nature."  Pacific Stars and Stripes [Tokyo], Aug. 7, 1977.  p. 1.
    "Boy Scouts are Different." The Bee [Danville VA], Aug. 17.  p. 21.

"City Retreat."  The Bulletin, Nov. 1977.  p. 11.

"City Retreat."  The Bulletin, Jan. 1978.  p. 10.

"City Retreat Naturist Park." The Bulletin, June 1978.  p. 12.

Ralph Bleumke.  "Bob Van Ness, Nudist Scout Troop Sponsor, Dies at 62."  The Bulletin, Feb. 1980.  pp. 1, 10.

* Naturism Merit Badge.  LDS Skinny Dippers Forum, Jan. 12-15, 2009.  http://www.ldssdf.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=908  [vanished, but preserved in this file]

Lee Gregory [Lee St. Mary].  "History Unveiled: City Retreat Park and the First Nudist Boy, Girl Scouts."  Land O' Lakes Patch [Land O'Lakes, FL], Sept. 27, 2012.


JESA SUMMER YOUTH CAMP

"Summer Camp Set for Nudist Youth."  The Bulletin, Feb. 1978.  p. 1, 3.

"City Retreat Naturist Park."  The Bulletin, June 1978.  p. 12.

"City Retreat to Host JESA Convention."  The Bulletin, July 1978.  p. 6.

Laura Bluemke. "J.E.S.A. Jottings."  The Bulletin, Sept. 1978.  p. 13.

"JESA Convention to be Held at Sunsport Gardens in June."  The Bulletin, Apr. 1979.  p. 10.

"Kids' Korner."  The Natural Life, May 1979.  pp. 20-21.

"Naturist Youth Camp: Something Just for the Kids."  The Natural Life, June 1979.  pp. 19-21.

* The Natural Life, Aug-Sept. 1979.  pp. 7-24.

Laura Bluemke.  "Sunsport Hosts Weeklong JESA."  The Bulletin, Sept. 1979. p. 10, 23.

"Sunsport Offers Nude Summer Camp for Kids."  The Bulletin, July 1980. p. 9.


PARADISE MOUNTAIN JUNIORS CAMP

"Juniors Camp Set for August."  The Bulletin, March 1983.  p. 19.

1983 information sheet and application.

Glorie Marryatt.  "Paradise Mountain's Juniors Camp Big Hit; Another Planned.  The Bulletin, Oct. 1983. p. 13.

Glorie Marryatt.  "1985 Junior Camp Features a Brochure."  The Bulletin, Apr. 1985. p. 8.

Gloria Marryatt.  "Junior Camp Week Promises Fun and Learning."  The Bulletin, July 1987. p. 10.


JFANR CAMP

Paul LeValley.  "Camping Possibilities for Florida Youth"  The Bulletin, Dec. 1991.  p. 14.

* Family Information booklet, 1993 (never implemented)

* Proficiency Requirements booklet, 1993 (never implemented)

Shirley Heaton.  “JFANR Goes Camping at Convention.  Join Us.”  FANR Quarterly, Feb. 1993.  p. 5

"Juniors to Inaugurate Convention Campout."  The Bulletin, Apr. 1993. p. 19.

Shirley Heaton.  "Calling All Florida Juniors."  The Bulletin, May 1993. p. 17.

“FANR Convention / JFANR Camp.”  FANR Quarterly, May 1993.  pp. 5-6.

Shirley Heaton. "Camp Provides Full Time Fun and Sun."  The Bulletin, Aug. 1993. p, 22,

Jimmy Johnson.  "To All JFANR Members."  The Bulletin, Aug. 1993.  p. 23.

"Florida Junior Camp Anything But Ordinary."  The Bulletin, June 1994.  p. 17.

Sally DePree.  "Junior FANR Camp a Success."  The Bulletin, Aug, 1994,  p. 14.

Shirley Heaton.  "Florida Eyes Junior Camp."  The Bulletin, Nov. 1994.  p. 18.

Shirley Heaton.  "Events Set JFANR Camp."  The Bulletin, Mar. 1995.  p. 19.

“Cypress Cove Hosts 1995 JFANR Camp.”  The Florida Nudist, Spring 1995.  p. 2.

Shirley Heaton.  "JFANR Camp."  The Bulletin, May 1995.  p. 22.

"Say JFANRS, Pack Your Camping Gear."  The Bulletin, June 1995.  p. 13.

Sally DePree.  "FANR Perfects Junior Camp." The Bulletin, Aug. 1995.  p. 17.

Sally DePree.  "Florida Camp Pitches Renaissance."  The Bulletin, Nov. 1995.  p. 17.

Shirley Heaton. "Junior Leadership."  The Bulletin, Feb. 1996.  p. 18.

"JFANR Camp Begins 4th Season."  The Bulletin, Mar. 1996.  p. 21.

1996 JFANR Leadership Camp brochure.

Florida Juniors to Camp at Cypress Cove."  The Bulletin, May 1996.  p. 18.

"JFANR Camp."  The Bulletin, June 1996.  p. 17,

Sally DePree. "Junior Leadership Grows in JFANR Camp." The Bulletin, Aug. 1996. p. 15.

* Sally DePree.  "Revised JFANR Philosophy."  Attachment #12 to the FANR board minutes, Jan. 22, 1997

Sally DePree.  “JFANR’s Junior Camp Program Catching On.”  FANR Quarterly, Jan. 1997.  p. 3.

1997 JFANR Leadership Camp brochure.

Sally DePree.  “JFANR Camp for Juniors 11-17.”  FANR Quarterly, Apr. 1997.  p. 2.

* "Junior Camp Provides Leadership Opportunities."  The Bulletin.  Sept. 1997.  pp. 14-15.

1998 JFANR Leadership Camp brochure.

1998 Junior Nudist Leadership Academy brochure. [Used again in 1999]

Sally DePree.  "Attention: All High School Students!"  The Bulletin, Mar. 1998. p. 22.

Anthony Falcon-Sapp.  “From the Desk of the JFANR President.”  The FANR Quarterly Bulletin, Fall 1998.  p. 3.

Burr Watters.  “1998 JFANR Camp Gives Birth to Leadership Academy.”  The FANR Quarterly Bulletin, Fall 1998.  p. 3.

* Sally DePree.  "JFANR Camp Expands Scope and Participation."  The Bulletin, Nov. 1998, p. 17.

Marian Watters.  “JFANR Speaking Out: An Editorial--Expect the Unexpected.”  The FANR Quarterly Bulletin, Winter 1999.  pp. 3-4.

1999 Camp JFANR brochure.

* Linda Pace.  "Camp in the FANR Lane.  The Bulletin, Oct. 1999.  p. B2.

2000 JFANR Camp and Academy brochure

Judy Grisham.  "JFANR Leadership Academy."  The Bulletin, June 2000.  p. 19.

Judy Grisham.  "JFANR Camp Creates Many Firsts."  The Bulletin, Aug. 2000.  p. A19.

"Youth Form New Travel Club."  The Bulletin, Aug. 2000.  p. A20.

"How to Introduce Nudism to the Next Generation."  The Bulletin, Jan. 2001.  p. 17.

"Odyssey 2001, Traveling the AANR Regions."  The Bulletin, Feb. 2001.  p. 15.

Kameron Goodin.  "Spread the Word--From a Kid's Perspective."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2001.  p. 19.

Don Sloan.  "Donations Needed for JFANR Camp."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2001.  p. 19.

"JFANR Camp, Academy, and Nude U Just Around Corner."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2001.  p. 19.

Glyn Grisham.  "Youth and Experience Meet in the Sunshine State."  The Bulletin, May 2001.  p. 25.

Jeanene Watters.  "Camp Can Be Fun... Or at Least This One!"  The Bulletin, Aug. 2001.  p. A21.

"JFANR Camp Song."  The Bulletin, Aug. 2001, p. A21.

Billie Strickland.  "Going to a Nudist Camp."  The Bulletin, Feb. 2002.  p. 15.

* Judy Grisham.  "JAANR Report, 2002 AANR Convention."  Includes camper survey.

Sally DePree.  "Nude and Free Dominates FANR Camp and Convention."  The Bulletin, Sept. 2002.  pp. 14-15.

Amanda Brooke Williamson.  "Junior AANR Woman of the Year: The Benefits I Have Derived From Being a Nudist."  The Bulletin, Nov. 2002.  p. 15.

* Kate Zernike.  "Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude."  [alternate headline in other editions: "Where Skin Is Typically Bare, but Lust Is Verboten."  The New York Times, June 18, 2003.  Reprinted in Travel Naturally, No. 48 (Fall 2003), pp. 58-59.

James Thorner. "Nude Youth Camps Cause Stir."  St. Petersburg Times, June 19, 2003.  p. B1.

Jill Barton.  "Official: Nudist Camp is Dangerous:  A Congressman Urged Florida Officials to Investigate a Children's Camp Near Tampa."  Orlando Sentinel, June 20, 2003.

Paul Walfield.  "Nude Camping: It's Not Just for Adults Anymore."  <MichNews.com>, June 20, 2003.

Jan Glidewell.  "Can't Critic See Camp Is Nude but Not Lewd?"  St. Petersburg Times, June 22, 2003.

The Naturist Society Position Statement, June 25, 2003.  Reprinted in Travel Naturally, No. 48 (Fall 2003), pp. 20-21.

AANR Position Statement, June 26, 2003.

Tom Jackson.  "Naked Truth Meets Culture's Slippery Slope."  Tampa Tribune, June 26, 2003.

Willoughby Mariano.  "Lawmaker Aims to Button up Children Away at Nudist Camp."  Orlando Sentinel, June 26, 2003.

South Florida Free Beaches Position Statement, June 28, 2003.

* John Cloud.  "Nude Family Values: Looking for a Healthy Escape, More Parents Join Nudist Camps.  But Are They Any Place for Kids?."  Time, June 30, 2003.  pp. 52-55.

“Children’s Nudist Camp Legal, Governor’s Office Reports.”  The Tampa Tribune, July 1, 2003.  p. metro 3.

Esther Hartstein.  "Ban Teen Nude Summer Camps."  <intellectualconservative.com>, July 4, 2003.

* Nano Riley.  "Naked Without Shame: Families Enjoying a Classic Pastime Endure a Desperate Politician's Campaign."  The Weekly Planet, July 5, 2003.

Peter Walsten.  "Nudists: Foley's Attack on Camp Is Malicious."  The Miami Herald, July 7, 2003.

"Nudists Ask Leader to Butt Out of Camp."  Orlando Sentinel, July 8, 2003.

Howard Goodman.  "Foley's Fears About Camp Barely Worth Mention."  South Florida Sun-Sentinel, July 8, 2003.

* Marvin Frandsen.  "Don't Ban Nudist Youth Camps!  Government Should Leave the Parenting of Nudist Children to Nudist Parents."  <intellectualconservative.com>, July 9, 2003.

Emily Minor.  "Naturists Bare Truth About Nudist Camps."  Palm Beach Post, July 22, 2003.

Mark Woods.  "More to See at Camp These Days."  <jacksonville.com>, July 25, 2003.

James Thorner.  "Nudist Selling Nude Kid Videos: The former organizer of Pasco nude youth camps claims the tapes are 'a genuine nudist product.'"  St. Petersburg Times, July 25, 2003.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.  "Nude Kids: A Conscience Seared."  MichNews.com.  July 28, 2003

Mark Foley.  "Nudist 'Kids Camps' Pose Risks."  The Herald Tribune, August 1, 2003.

Nancy Cook Lauer.  "Nudists Fight for the Right to Run Camps."  Tallahassee Democrat, August 1, 2003.  pp. 1B-2B.

Pete Williams.  "Blitzed! Media Exposure Reaches New Level."  The Bulletin, August 2003.  pp. 1, 8-11.

Pat Brown.  "Working Together."  The Bulletin, August 2003.  p. 3.

Partial staff picture.  The Bulletin, August 2003.  p. 20.

Bob Morton.  "NAC Commentary: Candidate Foley Seeks to Exploit a New Nude Issue: Congressman Attempts to 'Shame' Former ASA President Over Sales of Nude Videos."  The Nude & Natural Newsletter, August 2003.  pp. 6-7.

* Shirley Mason.  "A Summer of Education, Defense and Offense: Anatomy of an Anti-nudity Battle."  Beach Buzz, September 2003.  pp. 1, 10, 16-17.

"Coalition of Naturist Leaders Confronts Rep.  Foley and the Media."  Beach Buzz, September 2003.  p. 13.

Paul LeValley.  "Some Perspective on Naturist Youth Camps."  Beach Buzz, September 2003.  p. 18.

* Kyle Hoffman.  "My First Nude Youth Leadership Camp Experience."  Beach Buzz, September 2003.  p. 14.

* "Teen Nudist Camps: Healthy or Harmful?" [Promotional blurb for the John Walsh Show of 9/9/03.]  Beach Buzz, September, 2003.  pp. 16-17.

* Michael Kush.  "Nudist Youth Camps: A Wedge Issue."  Beach Buzz, September 2003.  pp. 1, 11.

"FANR Convention--Summerfest Splash."  The Bulletin, August 2004.  pp. 20-21.

Chaye Brown, FANR Youth Junior Woman of the Year.  "Activities at Camp I Like to Do Nude."  The Bulletin, August 2004.  p. 22

Beaner Frandsen.  "Memorable Moments of JFANR Camp."  The Bulletin, Sept. 2005.  p. 25.

Bryan Graves.  "FANR Junior Man of the Year."  The Bulletin, Sept. 2005.  p. 24.

Maddie Schuttauf.  "FANR Junior Woman of the Year."  The Bulletin, Sept. 2005.  p. 24.

Josh Hafenbrach and Anthony Man.  "Florida Republicans Angry at Foley's 'Hypocrisy.'"  South Florida Sun-Sentinal, Oct. 1, 2006.

Steve Bosquet.  "Pasco Nudists Recall 'Hypocritical' Campaign".  St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 2, 2006.

"From Foley, Naked Display of Weirdness."  The New York Daily News, Oct. 3, 2006.

Chuin-Wei Yap.  "Nudists Angered Anew by Foley."  St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 5, 2006.  Reprinted as "Lake Como's Nudists Angered Anew by Foley."  Oct. 8, 2006.

Jan Glidewell.  "Democrats Will surely Mess This One Up, Too."  St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 9, 2006.

Mike Kush.  "Foley's Folly: 'Family-Values' Congressman's Hypocrisy Exposed."  Nude & Natural 26.2 (Winter 2006).  p. 6-7.

Sally DePree.  "FANR Youth Camp: Building for the Future."  The Florida Region Gazette, Sept. 2007.  p. 7.

Sally DePree.  “Florida Youth Camp Set for June 15-21 at Lake Como.”  Pasco Naturally, Apr. 9, 2008.  p. 8

* Ken Meyer.  Youth Committee Report.  Mid-Winter Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, American Association for Nude Recreation--Florida Region.  Jan. 23, 2010.

James Sheldon  "The 2003 Naturist Youth Camp Controversy: A Case Study of Youth Agency."  Nude & Natural, 36.2 (Winter 2016).  pp. 56-61.


CAMP TALLASUN

* Proficiency Requirements Booklet, 1996.

* "Local Kids' Camp Builds Enthusiasm: Camp Experiment Provides Answers, Guidelines for Future."  The Bulletin, Oct. 1996.

* 1997 Camp Tallasun brochure.

* "Announcing Camp Tallasun This Summer."  Nude & Natural, 16.4 (May 1997).  p. 93.

"Camp Tallasun Gets Back To Nature"  The Bulletin, May 1997. p. 28.

"Get Ready for Camp Tallasun."  The Bulletin, July 1997.  p. 12.
1998 Camp Tallasun brochure.

"Growing Into Naturism at Florida's Camp Tallasun."  Nude & Natural, 17.3 (March 1998).  pp. 4-5.

"Notable Events."  Naturally, no. 26 (Spring 1998).  p. 23.

"Camp Tallasun for Kids 11-17."  The Bulletin, April, 1998.  p. 21.

Closing notice, November 22, 1998.


CAMP SOARING EAGLE (not AANR)

* "Camp Soaring Eagle."  The Bulletin, Feb. 2002, p. 15.

"Camp Soaring Eagle--A Naturist Weekend for Fathers and Sons!"  <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FCN-Announcements/message/71>.  July 15, 2002.


AANR YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMPS (in general)

* Paul LeValley.  "How to Plan a Naturist Youth Camp."  Report mailed to all AANR regional youth chairmen, 1998.

Bill Williamson.  "Preservation of Our Future."  Report mailed to all AANR clubs, Sept. 2001.

Danielle Faber.  "Plan your Summer Fun Now!"  The Bulletin, Jan. 2002.  p. 15.

"Summertime Adventures."  The Bulletin, May 2002.  p. 15.

Charles Byram.  "Junior AANR Man of the Year: My Way of Life."  The Bulletin, Nov. 2002.  p. 15.

"AANR Youth Leadership Camps."  The Bulletin, Feb. 2003.  p. 15.

Judy Grisham.  "The AANR Youth Leadership Camp Staff: Meet the Camp Directors."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2003.  p. 18.

"Word Search Puzzle: Junior Camp."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2003.  p. 19.

Picture in tree.  The Bulletin, May 2003.  p. 1.

Bill Williamson.  "An Open Letter to Nudist Parents: The Future Is In Your Hands."  The Bulletin, May 2003.  p. 20.

"Donations Needed to Support AANR Youth Camps."  The Bulletin, May 2003.  p. 21.

Michael Heaton.  "Legislators Sound Alarms on Nudism, Children."  Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 8, 2003.  p. E4.

"Congressman Seeks Closure of Nude Youth Camps."  Nude & Natural, 23.1 (Autumn 2003).  pp. 18-20.

Nicky Hoffman.  "Seize It!"  Nude & Natural, 23.1 (Autumn 2003).  pp.

Charles Byram.  "Proud to Be a Nudist."  The Bulletin, November 2003.  p. 27.

Kyle Hankins.  "What Nudism Means to Me."  The Bulletin, January, 2004.  p. 21.

"Youth Camps Offer Great Learning Experiences.  The Bulletin, April 2004.  pp. 22-23.

Scott Mason.  "Nudism Is a Way of Life."  The Bulletin, May 2004.  p. 23.

Bob Morton.  "What About the Children?  A Target-Rich Environment: The Assault on Family Naturism."  Nude & Natural, 23.4 (Summer 2004). pp. 42-43.

Pool photograph.  The Bulletin, June 2004.  p. 23.

Judy Grisham.  "Nudist Youth Enjoy a Fun-Filled Summer."  The Bulletin, July 2004.  p. 21.

Jeannene Watters.  "Good Memories Through AANR."  The Bulletin, Auguat 2004.  p. 22.

Mark Mullins.  "I Love the Freedom."  The Bulletin, August 2004.  p. 23.

William E. Williamson III.  "Nudism for Me."  The Bulletin, November 2004.  p. 18.

"AANR Youth Leadership Camps."  [brochure 2005].

Bill Williamson.  "Kids tell All About the Camps."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2005.  p. 22.  [reprints of statements by Kameron Goodin, Morgan Salomon, and William Williamson III]

Bill Williamson.  "In Their Own Words...Part 2."  The Bulletin, May 2005.  p. 20.  [reprints of statements by Amanda Williamson, Adem Biesterfield, Amy Wicks, Lloyd Strickland, Burr Watters]

Bill Williamson.  "Keep the Family in Social Family Nudism."  The Bulletin, May 2005.  p. 15.  Reprinted Dec. 2005.  p. 15.

Pat Brown.  "President's Podium."  The Bulletin, Mar. 2006.  p. 3.

Bill Williamson.  "Summertime is Camp Time."  The Bulletin, May 2006.  p. 20

Sally DePree.  "Why You Should Send Your Youth to Camp."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2007. p. 14.

"Be Part of the Future of Nudism."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2007. p. 14.

Judy Grisham.  "Be a Part of the Future of AANR."  The Bulletin, May 2007.  p. 19.

Judy Grisham.  “Follow Me to the Fun.”  The Bulletin, June 2007.  p. 12.

* Judy Grisham et. al.  "AANR Youth Report: 2007 AANR Convention."  Annual Meeting Minutes, 2007.  pp. 40-56.

* Mike Parker.  "Report from AANR Youth Program Evaluation Committee Chair, Including a Synopsis of Committee Information and Personal Recommendations."  Annual Meeting Minutes, 2007.  pp. 97-103.

Paul LeValley.  “Young Adult Programs Survive Challenge--For Now.”  Professors & Researchers SIG Newsletter, # 26 (Nov. 2007).

Judy Grisham.  “Response from the AANR Youth Chairman.”  Professors & Researchers SIG Newsletter, # 27 (Dec. 2007).

Judy Grisham.  “Duck Races.”  The Bulletin, May 2008.  p. 10.

* William Hardin, Jr.  “Send Your Teen to Camp; It Could Change Their Life.”  The Bulletin, May 2008.  p. 10.

“Duck Races.”  The Bulletin, July 2008.  p. 6.

* Paul LeValley.  "AANR Youth Camps 25 Years Old."  The Bulletin, July 2017.  pp. 18-19.



NUDE U and YOUTH AMBASSADOR PROGRAM

Sally DePree.  "We Are the Future--JAANR's Nude U."  The Bulletin, Mar. 2001.  p. A17.

Photo of Nude U and Academy students.  The Bulletin, Sept. 2001.  p. 19.

Brianna Krentz.  "Nude U Graduate."  The Bulletin, Jan. 2003.  p. 13.

Chris Jordan.  "My Time at Nude U."  The Bulletin, Feb. 2003.  p. 15.

Burr Watters.  "The Benefits of Nude U."  The Bulletin, Mar. 2003.  p. 18.

Jason Cochran.  "Nude U Grad Promotes Youth Camps."  The Bulletin, April 2004.  p. 22.

Bill Williamson.  "AANR Launches New Youth Ambassador Program.  The Bulletin, Apr. 2005.  p. 29.

Bill Williamson.  "AANR Youth Ambassadors--The Best of the Best."  The Bulletin, Feb. 2006.  p. 20.

Jessica Harpin.  "Great summer Experience for Nude U Graduates."  The Bulletin, Aug. 2006.  p. 27.

 Brian Davis.  "Young Adults Meet at Cypress Cove."  The Bulletin, Aug. 2006.  p. 27.

“Youth Ambassadors Program.”  The Bulletin, June 2007.  p. 12.

Sarah G. Myers and Nick Roessler.  “Youth Ambassadors: Preserving the Future of the Nudist Community.”  The Bulletin, Oct. 2007.  p. 29.

“Join the Nude Revolution.”  [slides on disc]  2007.

Brian Hill.  “We Want YOU for the Nude Revolution.”  The Bulletin, Apr. 2008.  p. 10.

Brian Hill.  “NudeRevolution TV: Youth Ambassadors to Broadcast the Nude Revolution.”  The Bulletin, June 2008.  p. 5.

Arlene Reed.  "Lake Como Overrun by a New Species... Young People!"  Pasco Naturally, July 2, 2008.  p. 7.

*     Lou Suarez.  “2009 Budget Request for Vita Nuda (AANR Young Ambassadors).”  2009 AANR Mid-Winter Board Meeting Minutes.  pp. 43-45.

* John Kinman.  “President’s Podium.”  The Bulletin, Mar. 2009.  p. 3.



AANR WEST YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP

M. Phillips.  "AANR Youth Leadership Camp."  The Bulletin, Oct. 2002.  p. A11.

Rob Phillips.  "A Parent's Perspective of AANR Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, Oct. 2002.  p. A11.

Yvonne Smith.  "AANR Youth."  The Bulletin, Nov. 2002.  p. 14.

Mel Kramer.  "Support Our Youth: Youth Learn the Value of Nudism."  The Bulletin, Dec. 2002.  p. A14.

"Nude Summer Camp Draws About 30 Kids."  The Arizona Republic, June 20, 2003.

* Karina Bland.  "Youth Nude Camp Faces Criticism from Politicians."  The Arizona Republic, August 1, 2003.

“AANR-West Young Woman of the Year.”  The Bulletin, Jan. 2008.  p. 19.


AANR EAST YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP

"The JESA Camp Program."  <www.E-S-A.com/jeasacamp.htm>.  Apr. 2002.

Robert Roche.  "AANR East Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2003.  p. 21.

Bill Geroux.  "Happy (Nude) Campers Heading to Southampton."  Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 20, 2003.

* Bob Lewis.  "Some Youth Attending Nudist Camps."  Richmond Times-Dispatch.  June 23, 2003.  [Many other southeastern newspapers printed this Associated Press story.]

* Patrick Bagley.  "Teenage Nudist Camp Raises Concerns of Safety, Propriety.  Washington Times, June 24, 2003.  Section A.

* Linda McNatt.  "Youth Nudist Camp at White Tail Raises Questions."  The Virginian-Pilot, June 26, 2003.  pp. A1, A11.

* Dave Shiflett.  "Naked Came the Teenagers: Winning the Culture Wars by Embracing Public Nudity--for Kids."  National Review, June 27, 2003.

* Martha Kleder.  "Teen Nudist Camps Increasing."  Concerned Women for America web site, July 2, 2003.

* Bill Williamson.  "Inaugural AANR East Youth Camps a Resounding Success."  The Bulletin, September, 2003.  p. 31.

William E. Williamson III.  "Junior Man of the Year Essay: What Nudism Means to Me."  The Bulletin, October, 2003.  p. 36.    

"Music Set the Mood for AANR East Convention.  The Bulletin, October, 2003.  pp. 34-36.

Bob Lewis.  "House bill would ban summer camp for nude kids in Virginia."  The Associated Press, January 5, 2004.

* Kerry Dougherty.  "Lawmakers Should Focus First on Bare Necessities."  The Virginian-Pilot, February 5, 2004.

* "Butt Out: On Nudism, Delegates Won't Look Other Way."  The Daily Press (Newport News, VA), February 14, 2004.

Christina Bellantoni.  "House Votes 98-1 to Ban Teen-Only Nudist Camps."  The Washington Times, late February, 2004.

Erich E. Schuttauf.  "Task Teams Fight Virginia Bill."  The Bulletin, March 2004.

Justin Bergman.  "Senate Panel Approves Bill Banning Teen Nudist Camps."  The Associated Press.  March 4, 2004.

"What Went Wrong in Virginia?"  Clothing Optional Digest, Volume 11, Issue 48 (March 17, 2004).

* T. Dietrich.  "New Bill a Looser Fit for Teen Nudism."  The Daily Times, March 24 2004.

Bob Morton.  "Sore Loser."  The Nude & Natural Newsletter, March 2004.  p. 3.

Erich E. Schuttauf.  "Government Affairs: The Value of Your Team."  The Bulletin, April, 2004.

Bill Williamson.  "Time for a Display of Unity."  The Bulletin, May 2004. p. 29.

Lynn von Hagel.  "Virginia HB 158 Update."  The Bulletin, June 2004.  p. 6.

Pat Brown.  Letter to Governor Warner.  The Bulletin, June 2004.  p. 6

Horst Kraus.  "Victory in Defeat."  The Bulletin, June 2004.  p. 4.

Christina Bellantoni.  "Teen Nudist Camp Law Faces Challenge."  The Washington Times, June 21, 2004.

"Nude Camps Must Have Parents Present."  The Associated Press.  July 15, 2004.

AANR Press Release.  July 16, 2004.

"So They're Naked..." The News Leader (Staunton, VA), August 13, 2004.

Pete Williams.  "ACLU Appeals Virginia Youth Camp Decision."  The Bulletin, Oct. 2004.  p. 6.

Bill Williamson.  "An Outstanding Effort by All: Youth camp successful Despite Legal Controversy."  The Bulletin, Jan. 2004, p. 26.

Erich Schauttauf, "Virginia Bill to End Family Nudism crushed."  The Bulletin, Mar. 2005.  pp. 1, 8.  Reprinted Dec. 2005, p. 8.

Erich Schuttauf.  "Fourth Circuit OKs AANR East's Suit Against Virginia."  The Bulletin, Aug. 2005.  p. 1.  Reprinted Dec. 2005.  p. 21.

Jim Bishop.  "Awesome Camp."  The Bulletin, Nov. 2005.  p. 4.

Sarah Bage.  "I Am Right for Nudism and Nudism Is Right for Me."  The Bulletin, Jan. 2006.  p. 22.

Teja.  “See You at Camp.”  The Bulletin, May 2008.  p. 10.

Walt Iliff.  “Winter in JAANRville.”  The Bulletin, May 2009.  p. 16.

Josh Godby, Martin Bowers, and Ronne Kent.  “Attention All AANR Youth.”  The Bulletin, Jan. 2010.  p. 14.

* Gloria Waryas.  "My First Week at Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, Nov. 2013.  p. 20.

Gloria Waryas.  "Time for Camp.  The Bulletin, April 2014.  p.__

Jarad (of Serendipity Park).  "What Nudism Means to Me."  The Bulletin. November 2015.  p. 22.

Tessa (of White Tail Park).  "What Nudism Means to Me."  The Bulletin. November 2015.  p. 22.


AANR SOUTHWEST YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP

Nikki Morton.  "Feeling Left Out?  Find a CHANT Camp."  The Bulletin, Sept. 2002.  p. 27.

"National Fallout Continues from Promotional Newspaper Article: In Texas: Lawmaker Files a Bill Seeking to Prohibit Nude Camps for Youth."  The Nude & Natural Newsletter.  August 2003.  pp. 1, 7.

Weldon Cook.  "Youth Teach Youth."  The Bulletin, September 2004.  p. 4.

"News/In Brief."  The Bulletin, November 2004.  p. 25.

Bob Morton.  "Texas House Bill 772."  Naturist Action Committee Update, Apr. 25, 2005.

Erich Schuttauf.  "AANR Uncovers Texas Regulation."  The Bulletin, June 2005.  p. 7.

Jim Ray.  "Youth Camp Travels to the Southwest Region.  The Bulletin, Mar. 2006.  p. 28.

Jim Bishop.  "AANR Southwest Inaugural Youth Leadership Camp.  The Bulletin, Oct. 2006.  p. 38.

Dennis Duncan.  "Plans Underway for 2007 Youth Leadership Camp."  The Bulletin, Nov. 2006.  p. 29.

Jim Bishop.  "New Cargo Trailer Aids Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, March 2007.  p. 18.

Jim Bishop.  "AANR Southwest Youth Leadership Camp."  The Bulletin, May 2007.  p. 18.

Jim Bishop.  “Fun for All Ages.”  The Bulletin, June 2008.  p. 5.

Nikki Cowan.  “A Magical Camp.”  The Bulletin, Sept. 2008.  p. 4.

Jim Bishop.  “The Naked Campers.”  The Bulletin, Sept. 2008.  p. 24.  Reprinted with fewer pictures Dec. 2008.  p. 13.


SUNSPORT GARDENS YOUTH CAMP

Morley Schloss.  Press Release.  Feb. 26, 2007.

Morley Schloss.  "Sunsport Gardens Youth Camp.  The Bulletin, May 2007.  p. 19.

* Michael Raymond.  “Sunsport Garden’s 1st Annual Youth Camp.”  Nude & Natural, 27.2 (Winter 2007).  pp. 52-53.

* Sandra Reamer.  “Naturist Youth Camp.”  The SunDial vol. 8, no. 2 (April-June 2008).  pp. 5-6.
 
* Stephanie Reamer.  “Sunsport Gardens Youth Camp.”  Nude & Natural 28.2 (Dec. 2008).  pp. 38-39.

* Morley Schloss.  “Body Acceptance at the Youth Camp.”  Nude & Natural 28.2 (Dec. 2008).  p. 39.

* Grey Vanaman.  “The Sunsport Youth Camp: A Unique Experience for Young Naturists in Florida.”  Going Natural/au Nautural, Winter 2008-09.  pp. 16-19.

* Sandra Reamer.  “Naturist Society Youth Camp.”  Nude & Natural 29.2.  (Winter 2009).  pp. 42-43.

* Anna Phillips.  "Kids at Play with Minds of Clay."  Nude & Natural 30.2 (Winter 2010).  pp. 52-53.

Morley Schloss.  "Youth Are Invited to Sunsport Gardens."  The Bulletin, May 2011.  p. 13.

* Lee Wilson.  "Sunsport Youth Camp 2011: How Sunsport Gardens Summer Youth Camp Made a Difference for a Father and His Special Needs Child."  Nude & Natural 31.2 (Winter 2011).  pp. 30-32.

* Bettina Levy.  "Sunsport Gardens Youth Camp 2011: My First Summer Camp Adventure."  Nude & Natural 31.2 (Winter 2011).  pp. 32-33.

Morley Schloss.  "Sunsport Gardens Annual Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, July 2012.  p. 19.

* Scott Cleary.  "A Youth Camp Counselor Experience."  Nude & Natural 32.1 (Autumn 2012).  pp. 40-41.

Morley Schloss.  "Youth Camp July 13-21."  The Bulletin, July 2013.  p. 19.

Morley Schloss.  "Sunsport Naturist Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, May 2014, p. 19.

* Michael Bootzin.  "A Youth Camp Worth Talking About.  Nude & Natural 34.1 (Autumn 2014).  pp. 28-31.

Morley Schloss.  "Sunsport Annual Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, May 2015.  p. 31.

Erin Brown.  "Our Natural Vacation."  Nude & Natural 35.1 (Fall 2015). pp. 27-28.

Morley Schloss.  "Sunsport Gardens Annual Youth Camp Scheduled."  The Bulletin, May 2016.  p. 25.

Samantha Joe Bonno.  "Naturist Youth Camp at Sunsport Gardens."  Nude & Natural, 36.1 (Fall 2016).  p. 27.

Michael Bootzin.  "An Inspiration for Our Naturist Youth."  Nude & Natural, 36.1 (Fall 2016).  p. 28.

Morley Schloss.  "Naturist Youth Camp."  The Bulletin, June 2017.  p. 32.


PARADISE GARDENS KIDS CAMP

* Susan Cappa.  "Paradise Gardens KiDS KAMP Has Survivor Theme."  The Bulletin, May 2015.  p. 29.

* Paradise Gardens Kids Kamp.  (Online brochure, www.nudelife.com).  2015.

"Kids Kamp Thanks AANR Midwest."  The Bulletin, Sept. 2016.  p. 27.

Rick Matthews.  "Kids Kamp 2017, Paradise Gardens."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2017.  p. 15.

Taryn Matthews.  "From a Kid's Perspective."  The Bulletin, Apr. 2017.  p. 15.


* A major presentation

Bibliography revised April 2017
Paul LeValley


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