By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Kids moved back and forth through the trees at Clarkston Family Farm as they kept finding just the right piece for their fort during the activity during Camp Wild last Thursday.
The theme was Fantastic Forests and the campers enjoyed fort building, making tree cookies and a game of owls and mice.
“I’ve liked every day,” Malini Mata said about her second time at the camp. “Every day is a new day and I can try again if I made mistakes. I like how every day is a different theme like Fantastic Forests, Marvelous Meadows and What’s Under Our Feet. I love that one because I found a worm two times that day.”
Camper Colton Malzahn added he had favorite moments from each day.
“My favorite part was my first day with Wonderful Wetlands when I got to catch wetland creatures,” he shared. “The second day, I met my friend when we worked together to take down this big weed. The third day we learned about bees and butterflies. I got a caterpillar. Today I am getting to make a fort.”
CFF Executive Director Chelsea O’Brien shared it was their biggest camp yet with 45 signed up.
“It’s a nice mix of new and returning,” she said. “It’s not just Clarkston. We have kids from Oxford, Lake Orion and all over Southeastern Michigan. We have the space and have so many wonderful counselors. It’s still a one-to-three ratio.”
Elijah White, of Oxford, is one of the counselors. He has helped at CFF for five years and enjoys being a counselor at the camps.
“For me, it has been a big part of the young man I have become in the way of life skills that most young individuals could not learn anywhere else like compassion, responsibility and respect,” White shared. “Having the experience working with the kids, seeing them get older and even becoming a counselor themselves.”
White added it’s a good experience for the kids as well.
“I believe that what Ms. O’Brien does for the kids is a priceless experience – showing them that learning can be fun, they should want to learn and find joy in learning,” he said. “It is just something I believe especially in this day in age schools don’t excel at. I can say that confidently because I am on my final year of high school, and I have struggled to find ways to retain information and make learning an enjoyable and productive experience for myself. So for her to show kids that at such a young age I know will be a valuable part in there life forever.”
For Logan Malone, being a counselor helps as the recent graduate of Western Michigan University wants to start tutoring.
“I was looking for a job. I was thinking about what I wanted to do and one thing was to give back to the community a bit more,” he said. “I thought working at the farm and helping out there would be a good way to give my name out and have like minded people to help me with my endeavor.”
O’Brien added an addition to this year’s camp is there are more animals.
“We are incorporating more and more of our animals,” O’Brien said. “The goats love the kids. They just want to be around the people.”
O’Brien added Camp Wild continues to be a multisensory experience for the kids and the counselors. Each day at Camp Wild has a different theme and is about different ecosystems with the themes being Wonderful Wetlands, What’s Under Our Feet, Marvelous Meadows, Fantastic Forests and Getting Our Thumbs Green.
“Each year we do new activities with the same theme,” said O’Brien. “It keeps it fresh for us and keeps it fresh for our campers, too, because we have so many kids who want to come here year after year.”
Last week, July 15-19, was the first of five sessions of Camp Wild held this year. All sessions are five days with the first two weeks held for three hours and the next two weeks are longer sessions. The final session is Camp Wild Arts. Each camp is geared towards children ages 6-to-12-years-old.
They also hold two sessions of Camp Sprout, for ages 3-to-6-years-old, at the beginning of the summer.
O’Brien shared next summer they are adding Camp Wild About Music.
“It’s exciting,” she said, adding her sister, Jamee Berg Kyson, will run the camp. Kyson has a PhD in neuroscience and is a professional musician in Nashville, Tenn.
“We have done a lot of curriculum development together,” O’Brien said. We put so much of music into our camp already, why not have it the centerpiece.”
CFF hosts the Clarkston Monarch Butterfly Festival on Saturday, August 24, 4-7 p.m. Please register for the event on their website.
“It’s a great way for families to get involved even if they were not able to be a part of Camp Wild,” said O’Brien.
For more information and upcoming events at Clarkston Family Farm, visit www.clarkstonfamilyfarm.com.