October 8, 2020: Nor’wester’s Next Steps in Anti-Racism Work

Dear Camp Community,

The recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and too many others have sparked a larger conversation touching on many topics, including institutionalized racism and the justice system. With the support of Board leadership, our Executive Director, Sheila Tallmon, released a public statement in support of Black Lives Matter in June 2020. Since then, Board and community members have held several conversations to brainstorm a list of immediate and future action items, and to continue to seek out camp community member feedback and involvement.

Over the last ten years, Nor’wester has built upon its strong foundation of values of inclusion.   We have augmented our efforts to address concerns related to diversity and equity by creating a more robust diversity committee, which then changed names to the C5 committee (Creating Cultural Competence in our Camp Community). Focused efforts from Camp leadership and the C5 committee have led to improvements in the camper and staff experiences at camp and have brought areas of improvement to light. As we look forward, we recognize there is much work to do.  This work is essential to our growth as an organization, as well as fulfilling our mission in service to our community.

Looking Ahead – Our Areas of Focus:

  • Open and candid conversations around specific aspects of Nor’wester’s culture and processes that result in a less-inclusive space for individuals based on various identity factors, including race, class, gender identity, and more
  • Thoughtful promotion and enrollment that invites campers/families of color into our community
  • Looking at the Nor’wester experience and how we can be more conscious of race and how our practices and traditions promote/dissuade campers and staff of color
  • Intentional approach for hiring staff of color
  • Board commitment to DEI, which will include assessment of all committee work and organizational decisions moving forward
  • Commitment to being open to suggestions and developing avenues for feedback/input from current community members and those not yet connected to Nor’wester

Above all, Camp Nor’wester stands firm in its commitment to building anti-racist practices amongst its community members and to developing a more anti-racist culture at Camp and beyond. Toward that end, we hereby would like to share the following pledge:

Nor’wester Anti-Racism Pledge: 

As an organization that serves a multi-generational community around the world, Camp Nor’wester is committed to the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.  Toward that end, we affirm our commitment to the practice of anti-racism, while recognizing that each of us connected to Nor’wester is at a different place along this path of awareness, education and engagement.  Camp Nor’wester seeks to be intentional in its pursuit of recognizing bias, as well as creating a courageous space for all to engage in the work of dismantling racism and ethnic oppression.

Thank you for going on this journey with us. It will take all of us doing this, and we will not necessarily ever “arrive” and do everything right, but we will grow stronger and better through this process of doing this imperative and necessary good work… together.

Camp Nor’wester C5 Committee

Creating Cultural Competence in our Camp Community


June 5, 2020

Dear Nor’wester Community,

We are compelled to share with you our sadness, frustration, and anger given the events of the last week following the murder of George Floyd. We see and hear how all People of Color, and all people, are affected by the tragic, senseless murders of Black Americans. It’s not just the events of this last week that are traumatizing; it’s a pervasive legacy of generational trauma and systemic racism that makes these recent events such painful reminders that we are all not yet equal as people. These acts of injustice run counter to everything we stand for at Camp Nor’wester – as an organization and as a community.

We want to name that we stand in solidarity with People of Color – our Black, Brown, and Indigenous campers, families, alumni and staff members – and People of Color around the world. We also name that we have work to do in order to grow and become even better stewards of inclusivity by role modeling this for our community. Just as our mission states, we take on the responsibility to help young people grow and learn about themselves, their communities, and the environment – and this means helping them envision and create a better future where there is zero tolerance for racism.

Nor’wester stands for inclusion and denounces all forms of racism, hate, and bigotry. Black Lives Matter. We are taking this opportunity to recommit to serving our mission with all members of our community and throughout the organization. We must all do the work for change to happen. We want all campers, staff and members of our community to feel safe, welcomed and inspired to live freely to their highest potential.

We have an opportunity to change the lives of future generations, so please join us in having your voice heard, however that looks, and take time to listen to your kids.  We encourage everyone to be courageous by creating a safe space to talk about race and historic patterns of injustice in order to help everyone understand what this critical time really means…and what we can do to contribute to the solution. 

Start with listening and having conversations, then get involved, find local resources and educate yourself on the issues. In supporting young people through this, there are many online resources – here are a few suggestions for parents to explore:

With everything going on in the world around us, anxiety is incredibly high. It’s OK to not be OK. Please take good care of yourselves and if you need it, reach out for help. Even though Camp is not running this summer, we take our mission very seriously and will strive to be a beacon of hope and light through this awakening.

Together we are stronger,

The Nor’wester Board of Directors

The Nor’wester Year-round Team

*June 6, 2020 – An oversight was brought to our attention after publishing this letter. Although we expressed that we stand with Black members of our camp community and People of Color around the world, and that we stand against injustice and for inclusion, we did not make it clear that Camp Nor’wester believes Black Lives Matter by stating those words in our first release. We graciously accept the invitation to do better – and appreciate the individual who spoke up to bring this missed opportunity for clarity to our attention.