Monday, April 8, 2013

Camp Quest Oklahoma Kicked Out Of Their Own Fundraiser

During a fundraiser for Camp Quest Oklahoma at Oklahoma Joe's, they were asked to leave, specifically because they are a secular organization.


You can see the various details on Reddit[1].  Oklahoma Joe's stance appears to be that they didn't realize that the Camp Quest is associated with atheists and is secular[2] when they agreed to the fundraiser[3].  That's their defense, to admit that they would have rejected the fundraiser, for a summer camp for kids, if they had known that the people running the camp dare to run it in a secular manner, which really just means that they don't preach to the kids.  They think that's a defense?

Camp Quest Oklahoma's table at Skepticon was right next to the tables I was volunteering at, so I got to meet a few of their volunteers.  They're wonderful people.  Any kid would be lucky to spend a week at camp with them.

It's unfortunate.  I've often made a point to go to Oklahoma Joe's whenever I'm in Kansas City.  Now I'll be making a point to never go there again.  Luckily, they've made a point of separating themselves from the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma location[8].

You can donate to Camp Quest Oklahoma here[4], or Camp Quest in general here[5].

Update:  Camp Quest Oklahoma also has a Kickstarter for their art project[6][7].

Update2:  I linked to his entries, but I forgot to include that Dave Muscato was on this like Donkey Kong, showing me that American Atheists made a good hire (as if I didn't already know that the moment I learned they'd hired him).

Update3:  I've added a correction regarding the association of the Kansas City Oklahoma Joe's and the one where this incident occurred in Oklahoma.
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1.  http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/1by9y0/camp_quest_oklahoma_was_just_kicked_out_of_their/
2.  http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/1by9y0/camp_quest_oklahoma_was_just_kicked_out_of_their/c9b9fkm
3.  http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/1by9y0/camp_quest_oklahoma_was_just_kicked_out_of_their/c9ba530
4.  http://campquestoklahoma.org/donate/
5.  http://www.campquest.org/donate/
6.  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1029846501/art-4-youth-project-art-that-shoots-for-the-stars
7.  https://twitter.com/pyrojoe711/status/321457006642860033
8.  http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151420453457637&id=120089257636

1 comment:

  1. Great to read so many smart folks speaking up about this.

    Kris

    ReplyDelete