Woman of the Year

Kado Stewart is the woman behind the annual OUTdoors! gay camp.

By Glenn Gullickson

Photo by Cinthia Schmidt

Echo Magazine Woman of the Year

Kado Stewart

An annual camp provides Arizona gay youth with the acceptance that its creator sought for herself while growing up

Growing up in a small town in the Midwest, Kado Stewart remembers that what made her different also isolated her at home and at school.

Years later, for a college project, she got the idea for something that would help other young people who were suffering that same kind of isolation to become empowered and find friends.

This year, in its fourth year, Stewart's creation — OUTdoors! gay camp — continued to grow, attracting a record number of LGBT youth from Arizona and around the country as it became one of the most important experiences offered to the community.

For her work creating and building OUTdoors! gay camp, Kado Stewart is Echo Magazine's Woman of the Year for 2011.

Positive energy

Stewart acknowledged that the idea for OUTdoors! stemmed from her own struggle to be accepted as a lesbian as a youth. "But that can't sustain why you do it," she said. "You keep doing it because it's awesome."

Campers must agree, as the event near Prescott has grown from about 40 young people the first year to a record 150 this year.

Held over Labor Day weekend, and adding a fourth day for the first time this year, OUTdoors! might appear like another summer camp, with music, art projects and horseback riding. But there's a twist to some the activities and workshops here that include topics like LGBT history and dealing with bullying.

And perhaps the most important thing that camp offers is fellowship that can help make LGBT youth feel like part of a group.

Stewart remembered her favorite part of camp. "It's the energy. The energy at camp is like nothing I've every felt before," she said. "This year, specifically, the energy was so positive. Everyone had an open heart this year."

Youth from every type of background who attended camp this year can consider themselves lucky — they were selected from more than 350 applicants, screened by a committee in what Stewart called a difficult process.

Potential campers have to prove their dedication by completing a five-page application that asks why they want to attend and what they think they will learn.

Some youth come back year after year. "We have tons and tons of repeat applicants," Stewart said.

Besides Arizona youth, this year about 25 campers came from out-of-state, including New York, Utah, New Mexico, Washington State, Michigan. There were also youth from Mexico at camp.

Stewart said she looks for a mix of young people — and she's especially drawn to the youth from rural areas since she shares their background. "If I had something like this growing up it would have influenced me in a really positive way," she said.

Skit night at camp

A life of wonderlust

Stewart, 26, grew up and graduated from high school in West Bend, Wis., near Milwaukee. She remembered what she described as her hometown's "Midwestern, small town feel."

"It was definitely tough growing up there," she said. "I knew one or two people gay people there. It was not very accepting."

Coming out to her family and friends by age 16 was a difficult process, but life changing, Stewart said. "I finally got it. I finally knew who I am."

She said she was bullied at school; called names by other students and even teachers. But she and a few friends started the school's first gay-straight alliance. When other students cheered a visit by the Westboro Baptist Church, Stewart and her allies confronted the anti-gay group.

Stewart said she had an "awesome childhood," growing up learning to hunt and fish. But after her coming out there was trouble in a home that Stewart described as "not a good living situation."

She said the family rift has healed and she's becoming closer to her parents and older sister, who all work as commodity brokers in Wisconsin. "It's taken them awhile, but they've started to come around after 10 years," she said.

After a year of community college, Stewart was ready to make her break. She headed to Alaska, where she worked at a Girl Scout camp, leading backpacking trips. "That really sparked my interest in community building," she said.

Stewart acknowledged that she's bounced around, finishing an associate degree in Wisconsin, then back to Alaska for a second summer, then working for a year with youth at a YMCA in Estes Park, Colo., then back to Wisconsin to work at an outdoors store.

Her first Arizona experience came when she attended a Wilderness First Responder class in Flagstaff. By 2005, when she wanted to pursue her education, she decided to return to Arizona to attend Prescott College.

The college allows students to design their own program, so Stewart studied gender and sexuality and adventure education. Orientation was a 30-day backpacking trip with 15 other people, an experience that Stewart said was a lesson in interpersonal skills. The curriculum also included study in Africa.

During her college years, Stewart became involved with the Prescott Pride Center and helped to start the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at Prescott College.

Kado on Drums

The idea for camp

To graduate from Prescott College, Stewart had to come up with a senior project, something that was challenging since it needed to combine her diverse studies of social justice and adventure education.

She remembered that she was thinking about organizing a gay backpacking trip when a friend suggested conducting a camp for LGBT youth.

"That's all I need to hear," Steward said. "It was on."

She talked to a local gay youth group, asking, "If I did this camp, what would you want to learn?" It's a technique that Stewart likes. "If you ask before you decide, you're a lot more educated," she said. "Ten brains are better than one."

The youth told Stewart that they wanted to do the fun camp stuff, but they also wanted to know about LGBT culture. "They wanted to learn about LGBT history, that was a big one," Stewart said. "In high school they don't learn about LGBT role models."

Stewart said she got good reaction to the proposal at school. "People got really excited about it," she said.

As part of her effort to promote the camp, Stewart went to Phoenix for a community fair, where she met Micheal Weakley, program director of 1n10 youth services. She remembered that Weakley was immediately enthusiastic about the camp idea and brought 25 youth to the first event. "That blew my world," Stewart said.

That first camp occurred over three days in October 2008, and when everyone gathered on the first night, Stewart said she knew that it was going to be more than a college project. She remembered thinking, "This is going to last forever."

By the next year, Stewart was involved in AmeriCorps VISTA and camp became a part of her work with the national service program, along with help from 1n10 and Prescott Pride. There were more programs and the number of campers nearly doubled to 80, although there were even more applicants.

In 2010, Stewart's AmeriCorps experience was over and she worried about the future of the camp. But that year 1n10 took over sponsorship and 105 youth attended.

At the first camps, participants were asked to make donations to cover the price of food, but this year a grant covered expenses for Arizona campers and out-of-staters paid $400 to attend.

2011 OUTdoors! Gay Camp

Come out, go to camp

This year, OUTdoors! changed campgrounds to provide activities like a zip line and horseback riding in an atmosphere that Stewart described as more rustic than the previous venue.

Camp is open to youth between the ages of 12 and 24, and Stewart said she's noticed that the crowd has skewed younger in the past two years as the camp has gained a reputation.

Since parents must give permission for attendance by underage campers, Stewart said some youth come out to their families for the opportunity to attend camp.

At camp, the kids are housed according to age in cabins designated by the colors of the rainbow. With up to 13 youth sharing a cabin with two counselors, participants are forced to get to know each other, Stewart said.

During camp, Stewart enforces a no cell phone policy, which she said helps keep youth present to talk about their issues.

A day at camp starts at 7 a.m. with optional yoga, then breakfast, which Stewart called "a loud and fun experience."

During morning and afternoon sessions, campers have the choice of as many as eight different 90-minute workshops running at the same time. Topics include self-defense, safe relationships and HIV prevention. This year, the camp offered more music programs to meet the campers desires for voice lessons and songwriting.

At noontime, there's a group activity, such as a scavenger hunt. At night, Stewart schedules surprises, like a drag show or a dance. Then there are the campfires, where Stewart indulges in a passion for drumming by leading drum circles.

Cabin counselors work with campers on team- and spirit-building by creating theme songs and cheers, and in a tradition on the final night of camp, each cabin presents skits based on their camp experience.

Stewart said some youth tell her they feel accepted for the first time at camp. "People say, ‘I didn't know I could feel this good,'" she said.

The camp is staffed by up to 40 volunteer counselors who Stewart said come from all over and must attend a one-day orientation session before camp begins. In a major initiative for the future, Stewart said she is developing a counselors-in-training program to create a group of junior camp counselors ages 20 to 24.

Since Stewart is concerned that OUTdoors! may have reached its capacity with 150 campers, she is considering offering multiple camp weekends in future years if the funding can be obtained.

Stewart joined the 1n10 staff fulltime earlier this year and after she tried living in San Francisco briefly, she finally moved to Phoenix recently. Besides working as camp director, she is also program coordinator, responsible for running 1n10's weekly program in Phoenix.

And while the camp she created based on her personal experience is obviously one of the anchors of her life, Stewart said she is not concerned about sharing OUTdoors! with the growing youth services agency. "I don't need that kind of control over it," she said. "It's not about me." -E