The Story of Camp Skote

The idea for Camp Skote began long before Youtube or Skote Outdoors.

When I was young, my father used to daydream out loud about a place he called Camp Freedom. He would talk about an outdoor camp that felt magical and open — a place where people who loved the outdoors could come together, share what they knew, and pass that knowledge on to newcomers. A place steeped in grassroots values, where real experiences mattered and people could learn by doing. A place that could give someone an outdoor experience they might never have had otherwise.

Those ideas stuck with me. I’ve been thinking about them ever since.

Over the years, the dream never left, but it quietly evolved. Somewhere along the way, Camp Freedom became Camp Skote in my own mind. The name changed, but the heart of the idea stayed the same: a place where anyone — regardless of background or age — could learn skills, build confidence, and connect with the outdoors in a meaningful way through guided, structured learning experiences.

For most of that time, I never imagined the internet or YouTube playing any role in how this dream would unfold. Camp Skote was always something physical in my mind — a place you could go, a fire you could sit around, a community you could feel. But standing at the doorstep of this project now, it’s clear that there has never been a better way to bring people together than by using the tools we already have.

The internet has given us something powerful: the ability to connect people who care. Through shared stories, shared values, and shared effort, the people themselves can help shape what Camp Skote becomes. The support and encouragement we’ve received — both online and in real life — has shown us that this idea resonates far beyond one place or one age group.

Again and again, we hear similar reflections from people of all generations. Grandparents worry that hands-on knowledge isn’t being passed along the way it once was. Old skippers feel the loss of local traditions and time on the land. At the same time, many people — young, middle-aged, and older — speak openly about feeling disconnected from nature, unsure how to begin again, or simply missing the sense of grounding that comes from time spent outside.

This past winter marked the moment when Camp Skote moved from a daydream into something real. Kelly and I made the decision to take the leap and openly tell the world: this is what we’re going to do. What started as conversations between the two of us quickly turned into long nights of planning, learning, and putting ideas on paper. We reached out for help — to lawyers, accountants, and bookkeepers — to make sure the foundation was solid and aligned with our long-term charitable and governance objectives.

Then we turned to the Skote community.

We asked for help, and the community answered. From that response came a volunteer Board of Directors — every member stepping forward from within the Skote community itself, donating their time, experience, and energy to help bring Camp Skote to life under a formal governance structure. Around them, more volunteers stepped up, working behind the scenes, especially within our online spaces, helping keep connections strong and information flowing.

We began holding weekly Camp Skote town hall meetings on YouTube — open conversations about the vision, the challenges, and the path forward. Through that openness and trust, the community has helped raise nearly $40,000 to support this next chapter of organizational development and foundation-building.

At this point, Camp Skote is no longer just an idea in my head. It has stepped into the real world as a formally incorporated, volunteer-led organization in it's development phase. There are smart, dedicated, and generous people working right now to help shape what this becomes, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Camp Skote is being built the way it was always meant to be built — together.