Bike Rides Over the Water & Building Bee Hotels: Nature Campers Have Great Answers for their "What I Did This Summer" Essays
Fall 2023 Newsletter
If you ask one of our campers what they did at camp this summer, you might hear something like...
But if you dig a little deeper, you might also hear about…
… nature scavenger hunts, planting kale in the Folsom Learning Garden, and visits to local farms.
This summer, South Hero Land Trust led three summer camps for students from across Grand Isle County. In our Farmers & Foragers Camps, 7-9 year old children learned about wild and cultivated foods. They made tea from garden and woodland plants, filled nature journals with dried flowers and weather records, and went on farmer-led tours of local farms. In our Explorers Camp, 11-13 year old children biked around South Hero and beyond. These adventurous campers learned about water quality visiting Round Pond, saw farm conservation at work at Snow Farm Winery and Islandacres Farm, and learned bike safety skills.
“Thank you for organizing and implementing camps like this for our children. They are such an essential part in helping the children appreciate and take care of nature!!” - Parent of a camper
For the campers, each week was full of fun and adventure. From our perspective, we love to see the growth of these young and inspiring land stewards. Every day, we fostered appreciation for nature and community, building a foundation that will last the campers far beyond the end of the week.
It was also a lot of fun! At Explorers Camp, we held competitive games of “bike limbo” and “slow racing” (testing balance by going as slow as possible). We checked out the South Hero Bicentennial Museum, and Guy led a bike ride across the Island Line causeway to Burlington. For many, this was their longest bike ride ever!
In the two Farmers & Foragers Camps, we took full advantage of the Rec Park, following animal tracks into the woods, catching (and releasing) frogs in the marsh, and building bee hotels from reed grass.
We did taste tests of crops in the Folsom Learning Garden, and delivered produce to Food for Thought. Overall, we shared adventures with 40 children; connected with 10 local farms and organizations; and created countless memories for the campers. We’re so grateful to the volunteers who helped out along the way and made these camps such a success!
“My kids LOVED it and came home each day happy, and were more interested in eating veggies and telling me about plants to help their bug bites! They even showed me how to make chopsticks, and used them for dinner! What a great camp!” - Parent of a camper
We’re also very grateful to be partnering with the Grand Isle Supervisory Union, which has been using ARPA funding to cover the costs of these camps for the past three years. SHLT strongly believes that nature is for everyone. This year, given the camps’ popularity, we increased the number of camp weeks and made each a full day program (rather than half) so that more children could participate. And finally, we’re grateful for this opportunity to connect with our next generation of leaders and land stewards.