Solutions: Mission: Inclusion
Camp Dudley is a 19th-century Adirondack camp for boys on the shores of Lake Champlain. The complex of cabins and impressive lodges are tucked on a hillside off state Route 9N on a namesake road. The camp’s motto is “The Other Fellow First.”
Camp Director Matt Storey typically welcomes visitors in the summer, but on a cloudy March day, MacLean lodge was filled with the toasty smells of breakfast, the warmth of a crackling fireplace and the laughter of 20 students from SUNY Potsdam.
It was spring break in the Adirondacks.
Clifton Harcum, director of the college’s Center for Diversity, watched his students perform icebreaker games instigated by Claudia Ford, chair of Potsdam’s environmental studies. After hitting roadblocks during the coronavirus pandemic, the two were thrilled the one-week trip was happening. Many of the students are from New York City, and though they attend college about 20 miles outside the Blue Line, most had never heard of the Adirondack Park.
Ford, who grew up in the Bronx, said she didn’t know about the park either when in her youth. Her parents would take her to the Catskills, but it wasn’t until she moved to Potsdam that she realized there was a park nearby the size of
