Camp Quest NorthWest has served humanist, atheist, agnostic and other freethinking families since 2012.
Our Objectives
Fun.
Camp Quest NorthWest is a residential summer camp for kids ages 8-17. We provide a traditional sleepaway summer camp experience with a wide range of activities including sports, crafts, games, swimming, and campfires. Additionally, Camp Quest NorthWest offers educational activities focused on critical thinking, ethics, scientific inquiry, philosophy, and comparative religion.
Friends.
Camp Quest NorthWest is open to all children and teenagers within the age range, but it is particularly geared towards building a community for children from atheist, agnostic, humanist and other freethinking families. Our goal is to provide a place where children can explore their developing worldviews, ask questions, and make friends in an environment that is supportive of critical thinking and skepticism.
Freethought.
The purpose of Camp Quest is to provide children of freethinking families a residential summer camp dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation of religion and government.
Philosophy of Inclusion
In alignment with our humanist values, Camp Quest NorthWest believes that we are all made better by celebrating differences, cooperatively learning from one another, practicing empathy, and questioning cultural constructions that are designed to exclude individuals.
We are committed to providing youth with a safe, non-judgmental, bully-free environment that embraces human diversity and to make every reasonable effort to be inclusive to individuals of all creeds, ages, genders, sexualities, races, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds including financial poverty and homelessness, disabilities, and medical conditions.
We affirm the right of all people to be treated with respect and encouraged to understand and accept others, including the use of pronouns that align with their gender identity. We, as an organization, acknowledge that this policy represents the minimum of our obligation to inclusion.
Our History
In the beginning…
Camp Quest was founded in 1996 by a small group of dedicated and energetic people with the Free Inquiry Group of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The idea to offer a summer camp program designed for children from atheist, agnostic, humanist, and other freethinking families originated partially in response to the Boy Scouts of America’s increasing enforcement of their policy requiring boys to profess a belief in God. It became clear that children from nontheistic families needed their own place to belong and enjoy the summer camp experience.
The first Camp Quest session, serving 20 campers ages 8-12, was held in Boone County, Kentucky in August of 1996. As Camp Quest grew, it expanded to include teenagers ages 13-17 as well. Campers traveled from across the U.S., as well as from Canada, the UK, Japan, and the Curacao Islands to attend Camp Quest sessions.
In the early 2000s, a desire to expand was met with grants and independent incorporation. By summer of 2006 there were a total of six Camp Quests in North America. As the number of camps increased, a need developed for coordination among the independently operated programs. In 2007 Camp Quest, Inc., the operator of the original Camp Quest, expanded its mission to also serve as an umbrella organization supporting all of the Camp Quest camps in North America.
Local Roots
A dedicated group of freethinkers in the greater Seattle area began envisioning Camp Quest NorthWest in 2010. A board was incorporated, and thanks to generous grants from Humanists of North Puget Sound and Seattle Atheists, CQNW was able to hold its inaugural summer session in August of 2012.
Where we have been
Camp Quest NorthWest has hosted camp sessions and planning retreats at Camp Kirby in Samish Island, WA since 2012. We have also hosted retreats and camp sessions at Oregon 4-H Center in Salem, OR in 2015 and at Camp Waskowitz in North Bend, WA since 2019.
National Organization
There are over a dozen North American locations across the country. We continue to be guided by the mission, vision, and values of our parent organization. Learn more about what kids will do while they’re at camp!
