|
 Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spends his summer traveling the country in an RV; retired basketball star Shaquille O’Neal is such a dedicated RVer that his farewell gift from the Boston Celtics was a new motorhome, and Oprah Winfrey camped in a pop-up trailer at Yosemite last year.
But these well-known black figures in the political, sports and entertainment worlds are the exception. If you look around at campgrounds, you won’t see many black faces.
Participation in camping is low for all minorities. An Outdoor Foundation survey in 2009 found that nearly 86 percent of all campers were white. Hispanics were under 6 percent and both blacks and Asian/Pacific Islanders were around 3 percent, with the remainder classified as “other.” The U.S. Census Bureaus breaks the U.S. population down this way: 63.7 percent non-Hispanic white, 16.3 percent Hispanic, 12.6 percent black, 5 percent Asian and Pacific Islander and the rest of various races and ethnicity.
Compare the numbers and you’ll see that minorities are greatly underrepresented at campgrounds. A National Park Service survey recently reported similar results, with 78 percent of its visitors being non-Hispanic white. The figures are troubling to the national park system and campground owners because the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that non-white minorities will represent at least half the American population in 40 years.
Spotlight on RVing
How do you get minorities interested in camping?
The California Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds and Rue Mapp, a black woman who runs a website called outdoorafro.com, are trying to do it by example. Mapp, her 26-year-old nephew and her three children, ranging in age from 8 to 14, took their first RV trip in August, and trumpeted their experiences on the outdoorafro.com website, Facebook, Twitter and other media.
The campground association arranged for Mapp and her family to get a teardrop trailer from American River Sales and Rentals in Auburn, a three-day stay at the Ponderosa Ranch RV resort on the American River, and a rafting trip from American Whitewater Expeditions, all to demonstrate the joys of camping and RVing.
The trip was short and close to her home in Oakland, Mapp said, to show that you don’t need to travel a long way or spend a lot of time to have fun camping.
True to expectations, they didn’t encounter other black RVers. “We were the only African-Americans in the park,” Mapp said, “but it didn’t matter—everyone was so welcoming.”
Mapp and Seth, her 14-year-old son, went whitewater rafting on the American River. “It was fantastic,” she said, especially because her son is at an age when it’s hard to find things that they can do together and enjoy equally. The family also spent time at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, panning for gold and exploring California gold rush history, and, said Mapp, “came away with lasting memories.”
Using Social Media
Mapp is youth investment program officer at the Stewardship Council, a nonprofit foundation in San Mateo whose mission includes funding programs that provide outdoor opportunities for underserved youth. Three years ago, she started her website, outdoorafro.com, to inspire black people to explore the outdoors and to connect with each other for outdoor activities. The site contains photos, videos and blogs of African-Americans engaged in activities such as bicycling, hiking, skiing, whitewater rafting, scuba diving and camping, and Mapp promotes the effort through Facebook and other social media.
Mapp said many black families lost their connection to the outdoors years ago when they moved from rural communities to cities. Regaining that connection, she thinks, can improve lives by making people more active, reducing obesity. Her goal is to get entire families involved in outdoor recreation so that they can begin passing a love of the outdoors from one generation to the next.
 One barrier, she said, is the misperception that outdoor recreation is costly. She points out that taking your children on a hike is cheaper than taking them to the movies and will be more memorable. “That’s the case we’re trying to make,” she said.
Mapp’s work has earned her invitations to the White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors and to a brainstorming session for Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign.
The weekend camping excursion in the teardrop trailer was the first of a series of RV trips that Mapp has planned to promote camping, including a trip to the Redwoods this fall.
Tradition Lacking
Mapp’s trips are sponsored by camp-California.com, the website of the California Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds. Debbie Sipe, the association’s executive director, said there are many reasons camping participation is low among minorities. One is simply a lack of tradition. Camping is an activity that is handed down to children from parents and grandparents. If you didn’t go camping as a child, you may not think of it as something to do as an adult.
Then, there is the problem of how to get started in camping if the experience is totally new. What equipment will you need? How much will it cost?
A lot of newcomers don’t know where to begin, Sipe said. She suggests they start by renting camping equipment. There’s an Internet site, lowergear.com, where you can rent everything you need for a camping trip and have it shipped to your home or destination. And, of course, there’s always the option of renting a fully equipped RV.
There are clubs and a national association that promote RVing among African-Americans. The National African-American RVers Association, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, claims 1,400 members and holds a national rally each year. Formed in 1993, it has more than 50 affiliated clubs across the U.S.
One of those clubs is the Funseekers/Rain City Travelers in Seattle. Audrey Martin, the group’s president, said there are about 30 RVs in the club, and most, though not all of the members, are African-American. Members take trips about once a month from March to October to destinations that can be reached in under eight hours and that meet the interests of members, whether it’s fishing or visiting a casino. Traveling in a group, Martin said, can encourage friendships, and “we feel safer, too. There’s safety in numbers.”
Martin and her husband have a Class A motorhome and have been RVers for more than 20 years, traveling widely in the U.S. Martin thinks more people will become RVers as they learn about it through word-of-mouth. Once they try it, she said, they will find out how enjoyable it can be.
Write to Mike Ward, editor at RV Life magazine, 18717 76th Avenue West, Suite B, Lynnwood, WA 98037 or e-mail editor@rvlife.com. Find First Glance online at rvlife.com.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
