A Way for Camp Kids to Zap Mail Home Faster

July 8, 2005 — -- In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look at a new setup that lets kids at summer camp zap electronic messages back to mom and dad -- without using a computer. Plus, if you're looking for fun and amusements close to home, there's a Web site you should check out before you hit the road.

Quick Camp Communiques Without a Computer

Your child's away at summer camp, and you're dying to know what and how they're doing. But since sleep-away camp is all about getting kids away from computer e-mail and experiencing the great outdoors instead, letters from camp may arrive at, literally, the pace of "snail mail."

However Bunk1.com, a New York City company that builds Web sites and online communication setups for more than 2,000 summer camps in the United States, has developed a way for kids to send word home nearly as fast and easy as e-mail -- and without using a computer.

Called Bunk Replies, the system is fairly simple to use. Parents sign up for the service by registering their e-mail addresses at Bunk1's Web site. The e-mail address is converted into a barcode which can then be printed onto blank paper and given to kids when they head off to camp.

When kids take time out of their busy camp activities, they can write letters to mom and dad using the bar-coded stationary. The notes are then given to camp directors who will fax them to Bunk1's toll-free fax line.

Computers at Bunk1 automatically scan the barcodes and route the digital faxes to the appropriate, registered e-mail addresses. The faxes arrive in parents' inboxes as digital images, allowing them to see their child's handwriting and whatever else they might have scrawled on the paper.

Ari Ackerman, founder and chief executive officer of Bunk1, says this hybrid approach offers the best of both old-fashioned mail and digital e-mail systems.

"It's like an e-mail in that the transition time is instantaneous, so as soon as the kid hand writes the note, basically [camp operators] can fax it through and [parents] can get it immediately," says Ackerman.

And since no computers are required, it's a lot less of a hassle for both camp operators and kids. Camps don't have to set up computer rooms or manage campers' access and kids can write and send letters home anytime -- without using envelopes or stamps.

What's more, "It's more 'real' to see the actual handwritten note than to just get an e-mail," says Ackerman, who fondly remembers writing home when he was a kid at summer camp. "It's more of a connection for a parent to have with a child."

Of course, making it easier and faster to get a message out from camp won't necessarily mean kids will write home more often. Nor will it be cheap for parents.

Bunk1 charges registered parents $1 per message sent via the Bunk Replies system.

-- Karen Chase, ABC News

An Online Guide to Amusement Park Rides

There's good news for roller coaster fans. Amusement park operators have gone out of their way to add thrilling new rides and other summertime attractions to fill your need for excitement.

"There have been, already announced this year, more than 150 new rides and attractions in the United States," says Beth Robertson, a spokeswoman with the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

One of the biggest and baddest rides is found at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J.

"It's called 'Kingda Ka' and it is 426 feet tall," says Robertson. It's not only the tallest roller coaster in the United States, but it's also the fastest. A high-tech hydraulic launch system propels the coaster's car -- and its riders -- from zero to 128 miles per hour in just 3½ seconds.

If you're the type that enjoys big dips and loops instead of intense speed, Robertson says "The Scream Machine" at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Fla., may be more your speed. Riders climb 200 feet into the air, experience a vertical drop, a loop and "a second 138-foot dive into an underground tunnel and a water feature finale," says Robertson.

Not into spine-chilling thrills? The IAAPA has set up a Web site, TicketForFun.com, which lists thousands of amusement parks, family entertainment centers, museums and theme parks around the world. So finding what might tickle your sense of summertime fun is a matter of taking a simple plunge -- online.

-- Larry Jacobs, ABC News

Cybershake is produced for ABC News Radio by Andrea J. Smith.