About Us
Who we are:
Maine Summer Camps (MSC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with more than 140 member camps and adventure programs and more than 150 business members who offer goods and services to camps.
Our mission:
MSC’s mission is to support and promote meaningful developmental, educational, environmental, and recreational experiences for children.
What we do:
Using our online presence, publications, workshops, trainings, meetings, and conferences, MSC serves two primary audiences: the camp seeking public and camp professionals. MSC enhances the public’s understanding of the value of camp experiences in Maine and we assist families in identifying camp options that are a fit for campers’ current interests and needs by publishing an annual directory, offering an online Find A Camp tool, and sharing additional resources. MSC offers camp professionals a broad range of in-person and virtual educational opportunities. We aggregate and share essential resources and legislative and regulatory news, and stay poised to deliver what camps need now, as the organization has proudly done throughout its ninety-year tenure.
In addition to serving camps and camp seeking families, MSC administers two programs: Established in 1937, the Junior Maine Guide (JMG) Program, was designed in partnership with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to furnish youth with formal certification based on outdoor living skills in Maine. The Level Ground Initiative, established in 2018, serves children who are immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. The Level Ground Initiative coordinates free camp experiences donated by MSC member camps and collaborates with twenty community partners based at schools and nonprofit organizations to make camp experiences possible for some of Maine’s most vulnerable new residents.
Our background:
Maine Summer Camps (MSC) is the public face of the Maine Youth Camping Foundation (MCYF) and the Maine Youth Camp Association (MCYA), its 501 (c)(4) legislative arm. Founded in 1934, the organization continues as a pioneer in the field of youth camping after creating the first state camp licensing law in the country. The American Camping Association (ACA) still uses many of those original standards in its accreditation of youth camps nationally. MYCA continues to promote social welfare through support or opposition to legislation and regulation affecting youth camping in Maine.
Maine summer camps are a heritage industry along with timber harvesting, fishing, boat building and farming! Summer camp provides an opportunity in a natural outdoor setting for children to build confidence and grow in ways that ensure they become successful, happy, functioning adults that contribute to a better way of life for themselves and those around them. THAT’s the heritage of camp in Maine.