How many U.S. presidents attended summer camp? It’s easy to speculate about such outdoors-loving chief executives as Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. However, their autobiographies only hint at childhood stints out in the woods with other kids.

Other presidents recounted affectionately the great time they had at camp.

We know young Theodore Roosevelt loved his summers in the woods near Oyster Bay on Long Island, N.Y.—although he had severe asthma. His dad encouraged his fascination with animals, particularly those he gathered during his summer adventures. He brought favorites back to the family’s Manhattan home, filling the upscale brownstone with animal odors.

Today, Long Island is home to some of the best summer camps in America—camps that believe in The Power of Camp—including Quinipet Camp and Retreat Center, Camp DeWolf and New Horizons.

Nearby in Bronxville, N.Y., young John F. Kennedy was a member of Boy Scout Troop 2, where he achieved the rank of Star Scout, but Gerald Ford was the first Eagle Scout in the White House. Ford spoke fondly of his summers at camp in a rustic wooded area near Lake Michigan—which he attended as both a camper beginning at age 12 and then as a counselor at age 15.

Some of the finest Christian Camps and Conference Association camps can still be found in those same woods around the Great Lakes, such as Camp Zion on Wisconsin’s famed Green Bay, Michigan’s Camp Lake Louise and Lake Ontario’s Lighthouse Christian Camp.

Not far away in Dixon, Ill., young Ronald Reagan spent many days tromping through the woods surrounding the town, swimming and fishing, trapping muskrats, and getting himself into fair amounts of mischief. At the age of 11 he decided after a weekend youth retreat that he wanted to be baptized and remained a man of prayer for the rest of his life. At the age of 16, he began lifeguarding at Rock River, a summer job he continued for seven years. Over those seven summers, local legend has it that Reagan saved 77 swimmers from drowning. Reagan often showed Oval Office visitors a picture of Rock River while telling them that his lifeguarding job was “one of the best jobs I ever had.”

Meanwhile, down south, young Bill Clinton delighted in music camp, where he learned the saxophone. “I went there every summer for seven years, until the summer after high school graduation. It proved to be one of the most important experiences in my growing up,” he writes in his autobiography My Life. “Band camp also proved an ideal place for me to develop political and leadership skills. The whole time I was growing up, it was the only place being a ‘band boy’ instead of a football player wasn’t a political liability. We all had a grand time … all the while feeling very important.”

Music camps continue to impact thousands of young lives each summer, such as at Washington State’s Tall Timber Ranch, Camp Mihaska near the University of Missouri and Camp Wanake—all found on The Power of Camp website.

Located in the beautiful rolling hills of Beach City, Ohio, this year Wanake is offering “Let’s Do A Musical” for grades 4-7: “Casting call for actors, actresses, singers and stage hands—rehearse and perform a musical, plus create a set and props.” Older teens are offered “Showtime” week. “What do Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera and The Sound of Music have in common?” asks Wanake’s website. “They’re all musicals, and Wanake’s giving you the chance to help create one this summer. Plus take time off stage for swims, cookouts, horseback riding, Bible study, games and more. Since 1946, Wanake has served campers quite a variety of programs in a rural, wooded, nature-surrounded setting.

It was just such an outdoor camp that nurtured young George W. Bush. Throughout his presidency, he returned to Texas, to his own sprawling ranch where he found solace in God’s magnificent nature.

Today outdoor camps still predominate nationwide—such as Hidden Falls Camp near Bedford, Ind. The 706-acre facility offers miles of nature trails, fishing, a challenge course, paintball “and worship experiences like no other. Over 600 campers come every summer for the experience of a lifetime.

“Slow down, relax and enjoy nature,” challenges Zion Christian Retreat and Nature Center in Ohio. It offers 800-plus acres of rolling hills, green fields, sparkling ponds “and beautiful sunsets. The woodlands are filled with eagle, deer, turkey, raccoon, ducks, geese and scores of birds. Our 27-acre lake and 14 ponds are filled with many species of freshwater fish. All fishing is catch-and-release except for catfish and carp.” The scenic Zion Trail around the lake remains open to the public year-round from dawn to dusk.

Such a return to nature is exactly what Sasha and Malia Obama have enjoyed several summers in a row. While campaigning in New Hampshire, their Commander-in-Chief dad revealed that his daughters love summer camp in New Hampshire where they get away from Washington, D.C., and get to be just kids, enjoying water sports, playing basketball and tennis and doing arts and crafts as well as enjoying “some ice cream” in the beauty of God’s creation.