For one person, it was particularly so. Erik C. Bertelsen Jr., the camp’s co-founder 22 years ago, is retiring because a new job is taking him to Connecticut. But he’ll be available as an adviser, and also hopes to raise some scholarship funds for the camp.

Bertelsen said leaving the camp directorship “will be a real void for me, although having a vacation will be nice.” For him, the four weeks of the sports camp each summer is “the fun time,” but a lot of the work has to be done during the winter.

Darren Littlefield, his longtime associate director, takes the reins next year.

A vision for the kids

“I have no doubt he is the right man for the job,” Bertelsen said. “Darren and I share a common vision of what the camp is all about.”

That vision originated with Bertelsen, a 1972 Bates College alumnus, and his roommate, Dan Doyle, who was co-captain of the basketball team and later a Bates director. About 10 years after graduating, the pair went to college administrators to convince them that there should be a summer camp at the college for kids. It should emphasize life values through exposure to healthy competition in a variety of sports, they said. Doyle ran the program in its first year in the early 1980s, and Bertelsen took over after that.

“The bottom line is it has to be fun for the kids,” he said. “I think my play on it has been to sort of look at sports as a vehicle through which kids could feel good about themselves.”

The camp has two, two-week sessions in July. More than half of the youngsters are from the Lewiston-Auburn area. The rest are resident campers who stay in the Bates dorms. The day campers also take part in the evening offerings whenever possible, such as a dance or movies.

Bertelsen’s three children, Christian, 14, Drew, 12, and Jane, 8, were among this summer’s resident campers.

The broad range of activities includes aerobics, basketball, field hockey, fitness, floor hockey, football, lacrosse, martial arts, racquetball, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. A swimming program is an integral part also.

Some easy, some challenging

“I’ll say to every kid at the beginning, You’ll find something that you’re very good at while you’re here, and you’ll find something that’s really hard for you – really challenging. You’re going to learn a lot from both.'”

The kids don’t have to be good at any sport. In fact, they try some sports they’ve never played, Bertelsen said. “Some of the kids who come here are not very good athletes at all, and I think this camp gives them the chance to experience sports more fully than at school, where they aren’t as good as other kids, they may not have that opportunity.”

He said, “We’re different from other camps in that we’re opposed to kids specializing in one sport.”

Bertelsen said the camp also emphasizes certain standards, such as the rules about appropriate language.

“A lot of what we do is corny and old-fashioned,” Bertelsen said. “We have pretty high expectations of the kids, and they’ll respond in very positive ways.”

In its 22 years, the Bates All-Sports Camp has enrolled more than 8,000 campers from across the country, as well as from at least a dozen foreign countries. The campers range from ages 8 to 15. About 60 percent are boys. Many are repeat campers, who later may return as staff. Bertelsen said about 70 percent of his current staff of 46 were former campers, and many are teachers and coaches.

Campers learn of the program “largely through word-of-mouth,” Bertelsen said. For example, over the years groups of campers from Spain have attended. A staff member who’d spent a year abroad had recommended the camp to some people in Spain.

“The campers from Mexico knew a family in Spain, so once you get one camper here, the word spreads,” Bertelsen said.

Former Bates President Donald W. Harward endorsed a program of scholarships some years ago, and the Libra Foundation provides financial support for local campers.

Bertelsen and his wife, Abby Jones, and the three children will be moving to Connecticut in a few weeks where he’ll become assistant headmaster at Pomfret School, a co-ed secondary school. Most recently, he’s been in the admissions office at Colby College. Before that, he was in the guidance department and a basketball coach at a school in Massachusetts.