Well, for generations, summer camp has been a rite of passage where friendships are forged, memories are made, and lessons last a lifetime.

Across the country, nearly 12,000 camps welcome millions of kids each year, one of them is at King's Mountain State Park.

Camp Wildwood is giving campers more than just outdoor fun, it's shaping tomorrow's leaders.

Producer John Branscum takes us outdoors to check it out.

(dramatic whooshing) (upbeat rock music) - Camp Wildwood is a wonderful leadership, stewardship conservation camp that we have here in South Carolina, not a lot of people know about it, been around for almost... A little over 70 years, and the majority of these kids come from all over South Carolina.

- I was terrified on the first day.

- I didn't know anyone here.

- And I wanted to just put myself out there.

- We keep them hopping from when they wake up at seven o'clock until they go to bed at midnight, they are in classes, but they're not your normal class.

- My personal favorite is fisheries, and then, wildlife.

Fishery's a lot of fun, I love fish, I love to fish, and today, we went electro-fishing.

- [Dan] And the males will get those, so we can pass... (indistinct) - [Evans] Looking at different types of fish, like, in the creek.

- [Dan] We saw one that came up that was brilliantly colored.

- [Evans] And different varieties of wildlife and, like, how they grow.

- All right, guys.

- [Evans] Wildlife class is a lot of fun.

- Can anybody tell me what this is?

- [Evans] Today, we used a tracker.

- [Person] Need to go a little bit slower.

- You hold it up above your head and it searches for a collar, and it'll make, like, a beeping noise when you hit it.

Forestry, learning how to identify trees, that's another fun class, and then, we did hunter's ed, so that was a good way to, you know, get involved in hunting.

(upbeat rock music) - The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is our biggest sponsor, including the Garden Club, and we have a lot of technicians and biologists that teach these kids about our natural resources, and the kids have a great time and they get interested in doing that for a career.

- I wanna be a game warden when I get older.

Just being around them, I like what they do.

You get a lot of perks with it, like, you get trucks, and boats, and all these other things, but the retirement plan is also really nice.

- I'm interested in a job at DNR, maybe, like, a game warden or something like that, and I'm hoping to go into wildlife and fisheries biology at Clemson.

- Our focus is leadership, and stewardship, and conservation of our natural resources while using King's Mountain as our backdrop.

I think there are natural leaders out there that never see their potential until they're put in their natural habitat, and this is a good place that they can do that.

- One of my personality traits is confident, so I'm very confident when I do things, so I think coming out here, it's just, like, meeting all these people and you have to talk to them.

- We put all these campers in different situations that they're not accustomed to... - I've been working on this for three years, so I appreciate that.

- [Dan] And they learn, through those processes, how to be leaders.

- You don't have to be a leader to come to this camp, but it definitely helped...

It helped me personally grow into being a leader.

(audience cheering) Just, like, stepping up and... During games, during chance, if you put hype into it, other people around will start to put, you know, energy into it and stuff like that, and so, this camp has helped me a lot to develop into more of a leader.

(upbeat guitar music) - No phones, you leave 'em in the car.

- The Garden Club of South Carolina realized that kids were not getting into the outdoors like they were, and you can imagine in the '50s, and we see it more than ever today, that these kids need to get off their phones, they need to enjoy what we have around us.

- [Evans] The view out here in nature is gonna be better than just about everything you're gonna see on your phone.

- I think a camp like Camp Wildwood is very important for young people to go through because as our population is growing, we're tapping into these natural resources more and they're going away some, so it's important for these young people to realize just how special it is.

- I wanna protect the Earth, how we're destroying it and people are being careless with it, and I just wanna help prevent that.

- All the knowledge I've gained, fisheries class, wildlife, forestry, all those classes are amazing, and then, the friendships I've made, I knew one person coming here and I now have at least six new friends.

- And making friends just makes me wanna, like, wake up knowing that my niche is gonna be there, and, like, be hype and excited to, like, be there and be with me, and I'm excited to be with them.

- [Dan] By the end of the week, they don't wanna leave, there's tears and there's tears of joy, and they keep up with each other.

- [Person] I think that's one of the best things, is just making friendships.