Parents plug in to kids at camp

Even though Adam Holland's 11-year-old daughter left for camp weeks ago, he's seen a lot of her this summer. Zoe is 85 miles away at Camp Echo in Burlingham, N.Y., but from his New York City apartment, Mr. Holland has watched her swim, play soccer, kayak, eat breakfast on the beach, and perform in a camp skit.

"The camp puts literally hundreds of pictures on their website every day," he says. "All I need to do is turn on my computer and there she is."

The ubiquity of broadband Internet and digital cameras has connected Mom and Dad to the previously parent-free bubble of summer camp. Now counselors can capture all the group dances, jubilant laughs, and general camper hijinks in photos and video they post on secure websites for parents.

"A lot of camps are giving parents new options on how to check in and communicate with their children while at camp," says Peg Smith, director of the American Camp Association. "And as more parents ask for these options, more camps are plugging in."

For the past several years, camps have weaved the World Wide Web into their summer packages. This summer, 82 percent of camps accredited by the American Camp Association have websites and 92 percent have their own e-mail address, according to Ms. Smith.

Hundreds have turned to services like eCamp and Bunk1, which provide camps with easy e-mail tools, digital-video postcards, and Holland's personal favorite, daily photo galleries.

Checking the Camp Echo website has become a nightly activity for Holland, a chance to learn all about his daughter's day. At first, flipping through the camp's online photo gallery was like leafing through a "Where's Waldo" book, Holland says. He'd scan the faces, trying to pick out Zoe. But now he recognizes many of his daughter's friends. "I feel like I know them," he says, "which is funny, because I've never met any of them. I don't know their names, but I know all about them."

Like Camp Echo, Blue Star Camps in Hendersonville, N.C., turned to eCamp for a number of Internet options to give parents a "one-way mirror" look into camp life. After running a wildly successful photo gallery - which got 13 million visits last year - Blue Star director Tom Rosenberg says the camp began uploading videos.

"This Father's Day, we had a carnival, and one of the booths let kids send a video message to their families," he says. "They weren't much more than, 'Hi Mom. I love you. Pet the dog for me.' But it gave parents the chance to hear their kid's voice."

This doesn't replace writing letters, Mr. Rosenberg stresses. The camp still encourages kids to write home twice a week. But even letter-writing has entered the digital age. Bunk1 offers a "fax-back" feature, which allows campers to write letters on special stationery with a bar code. Counselors collect the original letters and fax them to Bunk1 headquarters, which then e-mails the handwritten notes to the parents. The idea is to cut out the snail mail, allowing for same-day delivery, while keeping kids away from computers.

"Most kids don't go to summer camp to sit in front of a computer," says Ari Ackerman, founder of Bunk1. "This way, kids can still write letters the old- fashioned way, but talk with their parent in near real time."

Parents can then e-mail the camp, which will print their responses and hand out the mail to campers around mealtimes.

Last week, Holland got a letter from Zoe wishing her sister a happy birthday, describing all the fun she's had at camp, asking her dad to send more e-mails than letters - she likes the immediacy of e-mail - "and at the bottom was a little note saying that her glasses needed adjustment," Holland says. "I contacted the camp's office and they took her to a local optometrist. Good thing she told me. With normal mail, who knows how long it would have taken to fix her glasses."

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