‘Learning about dangerous things in a safe way:’ Camp Danger is in session

NORTH BENNINGTON — If you were to poll any parent or professional that works with children – teachers, coaches, day care – and they’ll probably all tell you: The quickest way to get a kid to do something you don’t want them to do? Forbid it.

Camp Danger takes a different approach.

“I call it supervised risks,” says Matthew Perry, who runs the two-week camp with his son Max out of the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington.

The aim of the camp is getting kids outdoors, helping them explore, and – living up to the camp’s name – getting them exposed to potentially dangerous things in a controlled, educational setting.

“It’s learning about dangerous things in a safe way,” Perry explained. “Before you do it in an unsafe way, like in your backyard with your buddies, which is how I learned growing up.”

Perry recounted one such experience from his own childhood where he “learned the hard way,” putting lighter fluid in a squirt gun and spraying his father’s already-lit grill. The flame jumped from the grill and started heading for his hand. Perry dropped the squirt gun in time and escaped injury, but learned a valuable lesson.

Inspired by experiences like that, Perry started Camp Danger in 2017 and, with a couple of years on hiatus due to COVID, has been running it ever since. The 2023 iteration – his fifth group of campers – began this past Monday, and will run through Aug. 4.

Friday morning, the 16 campers learned the finer points of building and maintaining a fire. The Perrys, in addition to their critical safety guidelines, imparted practical wisdom like what makes for good sources of kindling and identifying the best wood for fires. The lesson also included tracking down good sticks for roasting marshmallows, or whittling one themselves.

“It’s really about all of those things combined, and having fun,” Perry emphasized.

Some of the campers migrated over to a nearby axe-throwing station, where they learned that skill on Thursday from “Wild Bill” Peacock – a friend of the camp. Perry supervised the campers that wanted to practice their new technique, having the campers put on helmets and goggles when it was their turn to throw, with everyone waiting in line at a safe distance.

Max, who has worked Camp Danger with his father for four of its five years, supervised those that stayed with their fires.

One might think the camp’s curriculum, and the name itself, might scare a lot of parents off. The result has been quite to the contrary, as the camp's 16 slots are now filled within a few hours when Perry makes them available by reaching out to his mailing list.

“People want their kids to do this. They see all these guys on the computers a lot,” Perry said, then turning his attention to several of his campers. “Is this a nice balance? Being outside and doing stuff away from the screen?”

Perry’s query got a few nods of agreement, and then the campers took the chance to tell the Banner about their experience at camp thus far.

“This is my last year here,” said Perry’s son, Jack, a seventh-grader. “Next year I’ll probably work here.”

A couple of other campers back for their second year – Gus Sobolowski, sixth grader at Sacred Heart, and James Sauer, sixth grader at Shaftsbury Elementary – chimed in with their favorite parts of camp so far.

“You get to make your own things,” said Sobolowski. “I’m making a set of darts for my dad for his birthday, so that’s cool.”

“You get to eat whenever you want,” added Sauer.

Otter Godfrey, a third-grader at Sacred Heart, particularly enjoyed dismantling some aged electronics that had otherwise outlived their usefulness, both with the proper tools, or with some small explosives.

“We explored broken devices,” Otter said. “Like a CD player.”

“They had the wick running all through it. They took sparklers and they shaved it all down and put it in tinfoil and made little bombs,” Perry explained.

When asked what he took from that activity, Otter’s answer was very definitive:

“Safety first and stay back.”

Perry, co-founder and executive director of the Vermont Arts Exchange, also takes his knack for creativity and uses many of the lessons during camp to inspire the kids to find their own, putting the art studio at VAE to good use.

On Friday, the campers all donned black t-shirts with orange splotches made from a spray bottle of bleach. Each shirt included a “Camp Danger” logo on the front, and the rest was personalized with the kids’ own choices of unique “stencils,” like circular saw blades, knives, and other fun shapes or messages that meant something to them.

The shirts, of course, are far from the only artistic expression at Camp Danger. The campers’ woodworking projects are strewn all about the studio, as well. Max was quick to mention the confidence, growth and sense of independence that many of the kids show in their short time at the camp.

“I’ll give them a tool and just tell them to explore it. I’m not going to cut it for them. I’m not going to do it for them,” he said.

Perry echoed a similar sentiment, saying how rewarding it is to show his students what they’re capable of doing on their own.

“I’ve gotten more little girls into power tools…” Perry said with pride. “They’ll tell me, ‘Oh, my dad has one of these.’ And they’re right there holding the screw gun, or the drill, and for the first time. I call them empowering tools, because that’s what they do.”

The progress isn’t just evident in the workshop. Max mentioned one camper who he met several years ago while working at the Sage Street Mill Camp, and how far he’s come since then.

“When he would go to the creek and he was afraid to go in, because of crayfish, too scary, sharp rocks, snapping turtles, cold water, whatever…” Max explained. “The next year, he's one of the first kids showing other kids how to catch crayfish and explain to them how they're an invasive species…”

The Camp Danger team has plenty more fun planned for next week that Perry is excited about, including some sanctioned, artistic graffiti within the walls of a culvert on Overlea Road.

Tory Rich can be reached at [email protected]