Some of those camp fees are ridiculous. Are these councils trying to make camp a profit center to pay for all of their operating costs, not just camp? In SW Ohio, the prices are:

District Day Camps (9am – 3pm) or Twilight Camp (5pm – 9pm) run 5 days (Monday – Friday). Cost is $85 per Scout and they get a t-shirt and patch. All ranks from Tigers through Webelos about to enter 5th grade are eligible to attend. The Tigers must have an adult partner with them, but there is no charge for the adult. It relies heavily on district and unit level volunteers with staff support from the DE.

Council Adventure Camp is a resident camp that starts at 9am on Monday and runs until about 9pm on Thursday. Includes lodging, meals, t-shirt and patch, cost is $110 per Scout. Boys attend with leaders. This is open for Wolves through Webelos about to enter 5th grade. The camp itself is fully staffed by paid counselors. Parents do not need to attend, but appropriate levels of leadership must be provided by the unit (2 deep leadership and at least a 5:1 boy:adult ratio) for cat herding purposes – the staff handles programming and logistics, the unit leaders get the boys from place to place and keep them in line. Leaders are free for the first two plus one more for every 5 Scouts registered, any more over that are $50 each. I am told that starting this year (unbeknownst to everyone) and definitely carrying over to next year, Tigers will be allowed to attend but an adult partner must accompany them the entire time. This will be interesting to see because the camps are crowded at or beyond capacity every session for the last several years, but I digress…

Council Fun With Son is a family resident camp that is either an overnighter that starts at 5pm on Friday and ends at 3pm on Saturday (or Saturday – Sunday depending upon the session), or a weekend long session that starts at 5pm on Friday and ends at 3pm on Sunday. It is run at the same camp as the Adventure Camp sessions with the same staff and is basically a mini version of the resident camp. The cost for an overnighter is $60 for the Scout and 1 adult and an extra $20 for every additional family member (parent, sibling, etc.). For the weekend long program it is $90 for the Scout & 1 adult and $40 for every additional family member. The price includes lodging, meals, programming a t-shirt and patch for every attendee.

Those are the big three. They have plenty of other camping opportunities throughout the year at varying costs from $8 (Cub-o-Rees) to $50 (overnights at the Cincinnati Reds or Kings Island Amusement Park).

We try our darndest to make camping affordable to all Scouts!

They also still have camperships, which are not free money. The boy (or his family) will fill out an application with very basic information (name, camp session, amount requested, reason for need) along with a plan on what service work the Scout will be doing to earn his way to camp (it's not a coupon or a handout) and the unit leader will review and approve and send to council for them to review and approve (which I've never heard of them rejecting an application before). The amount they can receive is up to 50% of the cost of the camp session they are attending.

In our unit and in our council we will work with all families to make sure no boy misses camp due to finances. If it means a payment plan of $1 a week for the next two years, then that's what it means. We'll do whatever we can to get that Scout to camp so long as the Scout and family are willing to put some ownership into the process.