“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” – John Muir.
Looking back on my own childhood, many of my most influential summer experiences were outdoors. Turning over rocks in a small creek to find dragonfly larvae, building forts in the woods behind our house, riding my uncle’s horse on trails I was not very familiar with (the horse always found the way back home), and foraging mushrooms to eat for a delicious dinner. I hope to give similar experiences to the children attending the Nature Explorers Summer Camp.
Nature Explorers catching plankton in the Sinepuxent Bay.
Since 2014, campers in the first two weeks of camp discover eight beautiful places across Delmarva and explore the habitats from various perspectives. In 2023, we added two weeks of science camp dedicated to creating backyard habitat and empowering children to find creative solutions for pressing environmental challenges.
All kids love our active outdoor adventures. Some of the campers have never been on a trail or in the bay water. Trying our stand-up paddle boarding, horseback riding, canoeing, and hiking is always so much fun! Catching (and releasing) animals such as crabs, minnows, tadpoles, or even tiny plankton is also very popular. The Coast Kids program is well equipped with crab lines, fishing poles, nets of all sizes, magnifying glasses, microscopes, and field guides to identify and learn about local animals. Plants are not forgotten either. A visit to Coops-to-Co-ops in Princess Anne is a treat, where kids learn about wild edible plants and make amazing smoothies with said greens and fruit. The pollinator garden and grounds at the ACT office give campers lots of space to plant native flowering perennials, shrubs, and trees. This year, we planted 20 milkweed plants to make the garden more attractive to monarch butterflies, an elderberry bush to provide fruits for birds, and five hardwood trees to soak up carbon dioxide and serve as habitat for backyard fauna.
We always incorporate a little bit of history in the camp as well. The kids learned about traditional trades such as broom making at Furnace Town and discussed how the lives of children in the 18th century residing at the Rackliffe House were vastly different from their own lives. Playing, whether colonial games, modern backyard games, or pretending to have fantastic adventures is definitely part of the camp. Some of the best camp experiences happen when kids let their imagination run wild!
I always love to observe how children change over the course of the camp. Some become much more confident to be in natural areas. Others change their view on energy consumption or plastic use. Some make new friends and others proudly show me how their team built a bird house. It’s a great joy to see the kids’ excitement and happiness, when they catch their first crab, or show the group a beautiful beetle, a cool spider, or a baby toad they found.
Evidently, I’m not the only one loving the camp. In this year’s camp survey 100% of parents choose ‘Absolutely loved it!’ when asked how much their children enjoyed the camp. One of the parents commented: ‘We have done tons of different camps, and my son loved this one the most by far. It made us so happy that every single day we picked him up he was so excited to tell us everything he did. Every other camp when we pick him up and ask him what he did he always says "I don't remember". This camp was soooo amazing!’. According to the survey, 100% of campers learned a lot, rated the staff as excellent, found the registration process very easy, and were very satisfied with the camp’s safety. One of the campers wrote: ‘It was really fun and I recommend it to all my friends. I can’t believe I was brave enough to try horseback riding this year and I loved it!’
After learning about different nest types and materials, Nature Explorers built a giant nest.
THANK YOU!
Thanks to a very generous donation from Ray and Carol Armstrong and a Mini Grant from Maryland Coastal Bays Program we were able to give out 16 weekly scholarships to children from low-income minority families and keep the camp tuition for all others affordable. Choptank Electric Trust kindly provided funding for camp T-shirts.
Many thanks for your invaluable help to Nikki Milholin (camp counselor) and Nancy Holland (camp health supervisor)
Thank you to our partners: Assateague Island National Seashore, Assateague State Park, Janet Phillips at Coops-to-Co-ops, Explorer Nature Cruise, Furnace Town, Hazel Outdoor Discovery Center, Sandy Winter and her volunteers at Hoof Prints Trail Riding Center, Pocomoke River State Park, Rackliffe House, Paul S Sarbanes Center for Coastal Ecology, US Coast Guard, and Worcester Youth and Family.
Thank you for helping: Debbi Dean, Leslie Dixon, Marc Emond, Laura Lawton-Smith, Anna Long, Lizy Maratea, Fred Stiehl, Eric Vinson, and Kristen Wood.
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