Camp Quest North

Help us as we build a strong secular community of critically thinking, well-rounded young people!

Camp Quest North is an overnight secular summer camp aimed towards critical thinking, skepticism, and open discussion. While campers partake in traditional camp activities, such as field games, swimming, archery, crafts, and campfires, what sets Camp Quest North apart from traditional summer camps is our focus on humanist values and ethics. Our unique programming encourages rational inquiry, free speech, active citizenship, and respect. Our campers are ages 8-17, and we offer a Counselor-in-Training Program for 16 and 17 year olds. All camp counselors are trained volunteers. All lodging assignments are gender inclusive, meaning they are based on age alone, not gender. Camp Quest North is held during the last half of July at facilities west of the Twin Cities and in early August in Iowa near Des Moines. 

A full price registration for camp in 2024 was $735, about 20% under what other residential camps charge for a week-long stay. This fee is less than what it costs us to have a camper in our program, and we rely on donors to help make up the difference. But even with our below-market rate there are many families that want to give their child the transformative Camp Quest experience yet still cannot afford the entire fee. This past summer we awarded over $13,000 in financial aid to families in need, which supported nearly 30 campers across both of our camps. Many families are able to pay some portion, but some cannot and we strive not to turn away any campers due to ability to pay. Please help support our reality-based, confidence-building, and environmentally conscious camp program with a donation today!  

Camp Quest fulfills its mission by following these principles:

• We ask questions and are open-minded, critical thinkers
• We help others and practice service within our communities
• We use a secular basis as a starting point in conversing and connecting with others
• We negotiate and seek compromise to solve conflicts
• We are committed to scientific discovery and technology as contributions to the betterment of human life
• We aim to be honest, responsible, compassionate, and empathetic
• We are committed to the arts as a form of human expression
• We strive to protect and sustain the earth, its resources, and other species
• We use reason and science to seek natural explanations to events in the universe and to solve problems
• We hold to the principle of the separation of church and state
• We recognize human rights, justice, fairness, and diversity as essential elements of society
• We strive to experience life and develop as individuals
• We work to learn both from and about personal and world histories