About
R.M. Pyles Boys Camp offers a multi-year wilderness camp experience for boys that is supplemented by year-round mentoring. The program includes winter follow-up, a second-year summer camp, leadership development, and college scholarship programs.
• Ages: 12–14 years old
• Schedule: Skills Weekend, Work Party, staff training, and three summer sessions offered across late May through July 2026
Since its establishment in 1949, more than 28,000 boys have participated in R.M. Pyles Boys Camp. The program selects over 450 boys from Southern California counties each year to attend one of five first-year sessions, and families of the boys who come to the camp do not pay any costs. The camp operates on a non-discriminatory basis and serves local communities, and it is sustained through fundraising events, private industry and foundation donations, and individual donors. R.M. Pyles Boys Camp is associated with the American Camp Association and the Western Association of Independent Camps, and in 1992 President George Herbert Walker Bush visited the camp and recognized it as one of his Thousand Points of Light.
The mission of R.M. Pyles Boys Camp is to develop leadership skills and character in boys between 12 and 14 years old through its wilderness camp experience and related programs. The program focuses on building self-confidence, setting goals, developing decision-making abilities, and teaching that success comes only through significant personal effort, following the vision of founder Robert McDonald Pyles “to find the poor and needy, the underprivileged children… to find and rebuild them into healthier and happier generations of Americans.” The camp states that it promotes long-term positive behavioral change for low-income, disadvantaged boys by building life skills and instilling the values of hard work, education, and positive choices, and it notes that Pyles Camp is not for juvenile delinquents.
One camper, Wally from the class of 2013, stated that R.M. Pyles Camp made a positive influence in his life and became as important as his family, friends, and school, and that the things he learned there would help him in life and in obtaining a job.
Last updated June 11, 2026.
• Ages: 12–14 years old
• Schedule: Skills Weekend, Work Party, staff training, and three summer sessions offered across late May through July 2026
Since its establishment in 1949, more than 28,000 boys have participated in R.M. Pyles Boys Camp. The program selects over 450 boys from Southern California counties each year to attend one of five first-year sessions, and families of the boys who come to the camp do not pay any costs. The camp operates on a non-discriminatory basis and serves local communities, and it is sustained through fundraising events, private industry and foundation donations, and individual donors. R.M. Pyles Boys Camp is associated with the American Camp Association and the Western Association of Independent Camps, and in 1992 President George Herbert Walker Bush visited the camp and recognized it as one of his Thousand Points of Light.
The mission of R.M. Pyles Boys Camp is to develop leadership skills and character in boys between 12 and 14 years old through its wilderness camp experience and related programs. The program focuses on building self-confidence, setting goals, developing decision-making abilities, and teaching that success comes only through significant personal effort, following the vision of founder Robert McDonald Pyles “to find the poor and needy, the underprivileged children… to find and rebuild them into healthier and happier generations of Americans.” The camp states that it promotes long-term positive behavioral change for low-income, disadvantaged boys by building life skills and instilling the values of hard work, education, and positive choices, and it notes that Pyles Camp is not for juvenile delinquents.
One camper, Wally from the class of 2013, stated that R.M. Pyles Camp made a positive influence in his life and became as important as his family, friends, and school, and that the things he learned there would help him in life and in obtaining a job.
Last updated June 11, 2026.
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