Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror after enduring a huge wind storm? That’s kind of how I feel after this summer. I survived it but I’m a bit of a hot mess.

Why, you ask? At the beginning of the summer we found out that we did not receive any grant funding for education staff. At that point I had to decide if I was going to cancel all the partnerships for camps and programming I had been working on or try to do it all myself with the help of volunteers. Because I didn’t want to lose the momentum from the connections I had been making, I chose the latter. And while it was challenging, I am glad that I did and here’s why…

While it meant A LOT of extra work for one person, the camps and programs were overall successful. During 14 full days of Nature Camp, offered in 3 different towns, 50+ children enjoyed hands on nature activities. As well, 74 campers joined interpretive events at 2 different provincial parks including bird walks, bug hunts, guided interpretive walks and an evening about bears and bear safety. And to finish the summer off over 300 people stopped by the booth at the fall fair to learn about the project and add a leaf to the tree sharing what they do to care for creation.

One absolute blessing was a gift from an anonymous donor that meant we could hire a nature centre attendant for the summer. While I was off galavanting around the countryside, Shanine, (along with several wonderful volunteers), expertly kept the Nature Centre running and hosted 200+ visitors in her 6 weeks with us.

What I learned:

• 9 am – 4 pm is way too long to run a camp (especially in 35+ weather). 10-3 seems to be the sweet spot, not too long and not too short.

• 17 boys and 2 girls makes for a very different experience than when the mix is more even (ie. the amount of wrestling and physical activity is a bit more than this old woman wants to deal with anymore).

• 4 experienced people (staff and/or volunteers) is the perfect amount of adults to have for 15-20 kids.

• Kids love singing but not all kids have experience with and understand how to do a repeat after me song (This blew my mind – doesn’t everyone have a Dad who taught them how to sing around a campfire?).

• The nature centre is the best location for nature camp with everything we need to run amazing events – supplies, great location, enough space, air conditioning – we just need funding for more people (something I hope to work on this winter).

• I love sharing knowledge about creation but I am not built for taking care of kids day in and day out for long periods of time (something I already knew but was pointedly confirmed this summer).

• Interpretive programming is still my favorite way to share that knowledge.

If we are to offer Nature Camps next summer we will need to find funding for staff because, while it was successful, I have no desire to repeat this summer. It is just too much for one person. We were also reminded that we are far too dependent on summer grants to run our programming so are looking for individuals to partner with us on this. If you have any thoughts of people who would love to support nature camps, either financially or by running them, I would love to hear from you. Please contact us or donate here.