Posted at: 07/29/2010 5:53 PM
Updated at: 07/29/2010 9:50 PM
By: Mark Mulholland

Letter writing alive and well at summer camps

Lake George - About 90 happy campers come to Hidden Lake Camp off Route 9N every week during the summer.

They sleep in tents, canoe, and participate in archery, but they don't text, e-mail or Facebook their friends and family.

At this Girl Scouts camp and thousands of others,campers can't bring cell phones, computers or any other electronic devices.

"Usually if I want to talk to someone, I text them or FaceBook them," says Raquel Fisher of Troy, a counselor-in-training.

But at Hidden Lake, Raquel has found it possible to survive without phones and computers. Campers are encouraged to write old-fashioned letters. And they do.

9-year old Jade Baker, shared some of her letter that she wrote in orange-colored pencil: "Dear Mom, camp is going good and I feel so happy right now."

She says she looks forward to writing letters while at camp. "It's really fun because you get to write in all different colors and you write whatever you want."

And the girls look forward to getting letters in return.

Raquel Fisher got one from her mom.

"You get this letter and it's handwritten and someone sat down and wrote to you and told you about their day. It's nice."

Camp Director Kristen Post wrote letters to home as a young camper in the 1990s and she hopes the practice never stops.

"If there is that day, I don't know if I want to be here," says Post. "It's special to come to camp and it's a unique experience and to be without a cell phone and electronic devices is something that is appreciated more when they have this experience."