Camp Walt Whitman
1000 Cape Moonshine Rd., Piermont
Despite the name, Walt Whitman is not a poetry camp. (Although it does open with a campfire-side reading of Whitman's "I Hear America Singing.") Arnie and Chick Soloway, who started this New Hampshire–based camp in 1948, chose the name because they were both fans of Whitman's poetry and his philosophy on community, which they wanted to incorporate into the experience. Today, Camp Walt Whitman is run by the grand-nephew of Arnie and Chick, and it's a favorite jack-of-all-trades sleepaway camp: sports, water games, outdoor adventure, and the arts. (For kids who are into sports, this is a particularly fun camp as many of the athletic coaches are current or former collegiate athletes/coaches.) And although there is plenty of room to explore and play on campus—300 acres set on the shores of Lake Armington—older campers also have the opportunity to head out on three-to-five-day expeditions (backpacking, biking, canoeing), as well as weeklong trips to the Maine seacoast and cities like Montreal. Camp Walt Whitman is designed to be a summer-long experience, but kids (second to seventh grade) can sign up for a shorter three- or four-week session, and there's also…