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Displaying items by tag: Summer Camp

Figuring out how to find that summer camp that will besuitable for your child to attend and enjoy can appear daunting at first primarily because of the sheer number of camps to choose from and the range of their programs and offered activities.  The key is to find the summer camp that will match your kid's schedule, skills set, age, personality, and interests.  Part of responsible parenting is making sure that the camp is run in an appropriate and safe manner.  Following are some things that parents can consider first as they begin the process of selecting a summer camp for their children.

 

Make sure that the camp has proper accreditation from the American Camp Association. - This will ensure that the overnight summer camp complies with the 300 or so best industry guidelines for camper safety, health, and conduct of important practices pertaining to the camp's programs.

 

Identify the focus of the camp's overall program. Each camp is unique in terms of program emphasis and philosophy. Some camps allow campers the freedom to pick individual activities that they find interesting while other camps may encourage structured group activities with guided or limited choices.  Some camps promote competition among the participants and some are intentionally noncompetetive. Some summer camps offer traditional activities with an emphasis on recreation, while others focus on particular areas such as drama, sports, or crafts. Some camps may refine programs to focus on one pursuit exclusively.

 

Determine the camper to counselor ratio. This is to [make sure|ensure] that your child will get the right supervision and individual attention appropriate for his or her age.  ACA recommends a maximum ratio of 8:1 for 6 to 8 year old kids.  A 10:1 ratio is ideal for kids aged 9 to 14, while 12:1 ratio is ideal for 15 to 17 year olds.  For overnight camps, the fewest possible campers for every counselor is [recommended|ideal].  Ratios may also vary depending on specific camp situations and activities.

Check out the key people on the camp's staff, starting with the director. According to ACA standards, the camp director should ideally be a bachelor's degree holder with extensive camp administration experience. Check for in-service training during the last 36 months. But keep in mind that there is no substitute for meeting a director in person and asking questions. A camp's policies, philosophy, and overall attitude towards campers begins with the dedication of the camp's director.

Find out from the director and staff about how the camp practices discipline and fair play. Find out if there are policies of encouragement, and find out how rules are enforced. The camp experience is a good way to reinforce a child's perception about the basic principles of a social environment other than home and school .

 

If your child has special needs, make sure that they can be accommodated. Talk to and correspond with the director and the camp nurse, If your prospective camper has a special medical condition such as an allergy or asthma, find out if the camp is capable of handling emergencies that may arise with such cases as well as how a camp approaches general health care issues.

 

Ask about the camp volunteers or staff and talk to one or two of them if possible. A kid's sleepaway camp experience will depend on a camp staff that, aside from helping facilitate activities act as role models. Staff members need to be trustworthy, reliable and prepared for the work they do. They must also have sufficient first aid and CPR training.

 

Check out the camp's references. It is important to find out everything you can about other parents' and campers' past experiences with a summer camp.  The camp Director|should be very accommodating in providing references where you can check out their reputation and track record. There are also websites that offer evaluations written by parents and former campers and the directors' responses to issues. All forms of reference are by their nature incomplete and imperfect as comprehensive guides for choosing a camp, but they can be very helpful nonetheless.

 

Here is more details about Picking a Summer Camp .

 

Provided by Jeff & Lonnie ar Swit Nature Camp

It's REUNION TIME 2017

 

We hope you can come join all the fun at our Swimming Party Reunion. Don't forget your suit!

This is a wonderful time to see camp friends visit with camp counselors and see the SNC Yearbook Video for the very 1st Time. 

Hope you ca make it. No reservation neccessary.

 

Where: Oak Brook Park District (1450 Forest Gate, Oak Brook, Il 60523)

When: January 8th

Time: 1-3:30pm

 

Please bring a friend so they can see what the SNC excitment is all about.

Plus we will have a special gift for all that come.

As a parent and a camp director, I often speak with parents that have their child on the fast track. Life has become all about building their child's resume, one filled with Accomplishment and Direction. When I mention I run a summer camp they are often unwilling to hear why camp is an important part of what today's children need. At Swift Nature Camp we are about people building not about building resumes. The  better the kids,  the better the people. We believe it is people that will change the world not resumes.
Recently the below article was in the Washington Post,  maybe this is what I need to print and hand out to those parents... Tell us what you think.

 

I send my kids to sleep-away camp to give them a competitive advantage in life

- Washington Post

“Do you even like your children?” the woman I had just met asked me.

The audacity of the question took my breath away. I had been chatting with her, explaining that my kids go to sleep-away camp for two months every year.

I quickly realized two things at once: She was obnoxious, and she actually didn’t care if I missed my kids during the summer. She was talking about something else.I didn’t have to tell her the reason I “send them away” for most of the summer is because I like them. They adore camp, and it’s actually harder on me than it is on them. I often tell people that the first year they were both gone, it felt like I had lost an arm. I wandered around the house from room to room experiencing phantom limb pain.

Now, instead of being offended, I got excited.

I was going to be able to tell her something that my husband and I rarely get to explain: We do it because we truly think it will help our kids be successful in life. With under-employment and a stagnating labor market looming in their future, an all-around, sleep-away summer camp is one of the best competitive advantages we can give our children.

Huh?

Surely, college admissions officers aren’t going to be impressed with killer friendship bracelets or knowing all the words to the never-ending camp song “Charlie on the M.T.A.” Who cares if they can pitch a tent or build a fire?

Indeed, every summer my kids “miss out” on the specialized, résumé-building summers that their peers have. Their friends go to one-sport summer camps and take summer school to skip ahead in math. Older peers go to SAT/ACT prep classes. One kid worked in his dad’s business as an intern, while another enrolled in a summer program that helped him write all his college essays.

Many (this woman included) would say that I’m doing my children a serious disservice by choosing a quaint and out-of-date ideal instead. There are online Ivy League Coaches” that might say we are making a terrible mistake.

We don’t think this is a mistake at all. It might not be something to put on the college application (unless my child eventually becomes a counselor), but that isn’t the goal for us.

Our goal is bigger.

We are consciously opting out of the things-to-put-on-the-college-application arms race, and instead betting on three huge benefits of summer camp, which we believe will give them a true competitive advantage — in life:

1. Building creativity.

2. Developing broadly as a human being.

3. Not-living-in-my-basement-as-an-adult independence.

MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson says, in his book “The Second Machine Age,” that we have reached a pivotal moment where technology is replacing skills and people at an accelerated pace. He argues that creativity and innovation are becoming competitive advantages in the race against artificial intelligence, because creativity is something a machine has a hard time replicating.

The problem is that creativity seems so intangible.

Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” He believed that people invent when they connect the dots between the experiences they’ve had. To do this, he argued that we need to have more experiences and spend more time thinking about those experiences.

Indeed. According to Adam Grant’s book “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World,” researchers at Michigan State University found that to receive the Nobel Prize, you need deep study in your field and those broad experiences Jobs was talking about. They studied the winning scientists from 1901 through 2005 and compared them with typical scientists living at the same time. Grant writes that the Nobel Prize winners were:

* Two times more likely to  play an instrument, compose or conduct.

* Seven times more likely to draw, paint or sculpt.

* Seven-and-a-half times more likely to do woodwork or be a mechanic, electrician or glassblower.

* Twelve times more likely to write poetry, plays, novels or short stories.

* And 22 times more likely to be an amateur actor, dancer or magician.

You read that right. Magician.

It’s not just that this kind of original thinker actively seeks out creative pursuits. These original experiences provide a new way of looking at the world, which helped the prize-winners think differently in their day jobs.

The beauty of summer camp is that not only do kids get to do all sorts of crazy new things, they also get to do it in nature, which lends its own creative boost.

Most importantly, my kids have such intensely packed schedules full of sports, music, art classes, community service and technological stimulation throughout the school year that it makes finding these all-important quiet mental spaces more difficult.

Summers provide a much-needed opportunity for my children to unplug, achieve focus and develop those creative thought processes and connections.

Okay, okay. Creativity might be a compelling tool to beat out that neighbor girl applying to the same college, but what about this “developing broadly as a human being” stuff?

I didn’t come up with that phrase. Harvard did.

William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard, has penned a compelling letter to parents. It practically begs and pleads with them to reevaluate the summer extracurriculars race and to “bring summer back,” with an “old-fashioned summer job” perhaps, or simply time to “gather strength for the school year ahead.”

Fitzsimmons writes, “What can be negative is when people lose sight of the fact that it’s important to develop broadly as a human being, as opposed to being an achievement machine. In the end, people will do much better reflecting, perhaps through some down time, in the summer.”

In terms of “developing broadly as a human being,” summer camp can provide an impressive list of life skills.

Studies over the past decade have shown outdoor programs stimulate the development of interpersonal competencies, enhance leadership skills and have positive effects on adolescents’ sense of empowerment, self-control, independence, self-understanding, assertiveness, decision-making skills, self-esteem, leadership, academics, personality and interpersonal relations.

Now for the cherry on top: Independence.

Michael Thompson, the author of “Homesick and Happy,” has written, “… there are things that, as a parent, you cannot do for your children, as much as you might wish to. You cannot make them happy (if you try too hard they become whiners); you cannot give them self-esteem and confidence (those come from their own accomplishments); you cannot pick friends for them and micro-manage their social lives, and finally you cannot give them independence. The only way children can grow into independence is to have their parents open the door and let them walk out. That’s what makes camp such a life-changing experience for children.”

So, yes, Ms. Tiger Mom, I am letting my children walk out the door and make useless lanyards for two months.

They might not have anything “constructive” to place on their college application, but they will reflect, unwind, think and laugh. They will explore, perform skits they wrote themselves and make those endless friendship bracelets to tie onto the wrists of lifelong friends.

The result will be that when they come back through our door, we’re pretty sure that, in addition to having gobs of creativity and independence, they’ll be more comfortable with who they are as people.

And just maybe they’ll even bring back a few magic tricks.

 

Laura Clydesdale lives in Berkeley, Calif., with her husband and children.

Come to the Swift Nature Camp Open House in Chicagoland May 30h.   

Our Open House is a wonderful time to learn more about camp by meeting the Directors (Lonnie & Jeff) and Staff. If you are already enrolled this is a time to meet new friends and play games with the other campers and counsleors. You can even bring a freind. We promise to bring some fun criiters from our Nature Center for you to meet. We hope you can make it to this fun program. Please dress for the weather. If you have any questions call us at 630-654-8036.

 

 

 

 

OPEN HOUSE AT THE WILLOWBROOK WILDLIFE CENTER

TIME: 2pm-4pm

WHERE: Willowbrook Wildlife Center ( across from the College of Dupage)

 

 


Wishing you all the best, See yiu soon.

 

 

Happy Trails

Lonnie & Jeff

 

DIRECTIONS to Willowbrook Wildlife center

WILLOWBROOK WILDLIFE CENTER IS LOCATED on the east side of Park Boulevard across from College of DuPage, one mile south of Roosevelt (Rt. 38) and one mile north of Butterfield Road (Rt. 56).

(630) 942-6200

A few years ago I was at a conference for summer camp professionals and we had a guest speaker, a 15 year old boy. He loved his camp experiences and had hoped to return the up coming summer to become a counselor in training where he would assist in the supervision of the younger children. However, a few weeks earlier he had been told by his High School Guidance Counselor that he was now of the age that he needed to begin thinking about resume building and Summer Camp clearly was not on the list. The boy and his family were devastated but decided to make plans to follow the given advice. I had only wish that I  had the below CNBC Article for the family. All guidance counselors need to read the below article and encourage children to keep learning at summer camp

Summer camp may improve college admissions odds

CNBC logo.svg | CNBC -Sunday, 27 Apr 2014 | 10:00 AM 

 
 

How you spend your summer vacation isn't just fodder for first-day-back-in-school essays. It could provide a boost on college or job applications—especially if you went to camp.

Colleges have been getting more selective in recent years. In 2012, the average four-year college accepted 63.9 percent of applicants, down from 69.6 percent in 2003, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Many are even more selective. This year, Yale University accepted just 6.26 percent of applicants, down from 6.27 percent a year ago and 11 percent in 2005, according to educational consulting company IvyWise. Cornell University accepted 14 percent, versus 31 percent in 2005.

Grades and standardized test scores are still the top factor for admission, but educational counselors say colleges are starting to take a harder look at extracurricular activities, particularly those over summer vacation. "Parents assume their kids need to be even more competitive on grades," said Eric Greenberg, founder and director of education consulting firm Greenberg Educational Group. "What has happened, ironically, is the opposite."

To colleges, summertime is like the hiatus between jobs a prospective employer would ask about, said Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher at Edvisors Network. "Colleges want to understand, what have you been doing with yourself?" he said. "What happened during that gap?" The answer can be telling of what a student will do on campus.

Campers: Sylv, Hannah and Talia.
Source: Talia Rodwin,
Campers: Sylv, Hannah and Talia.

Parents shouldn't immediately race for the nearest camp sign-up sheet. While there are surely college admissions officers with fond memories of lake swims and archery, the camp experience that is more likely to stand out is a specialized one that speaks to a student's interests, experts say. Summers at soccer camp can help show a would-be college athlete's dedication, for example, while theater camp can be an edge for someone applying to the acting program—especially if the high school's drama program is so-so (or nonexistent). 

Focused camps aren't that difficult to find. Half of day camps have some kind of academic activities or areas of study, and one-third offer a STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering or math) program, according to the American Camp Association. 

"By being stronger on the extracurricular activities, you can actually make up somewhat for weaknesses academically," Kantrowitz said. It's no slam dunk, though. "Not everyone is going to yield a benefit, but it's something that distinguishes you," he said. (Considering, however, that some camps can cost upwards of $1,000 per week, it's worth pointing out that extra experience in a student's areas of interest could just as easily come from a summer course at a local college, volunteer experiences or work, he said.) 

Steven Infanti, associate vice president for admissions at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, said a STEM camp experience is something that makes him take a closer look at a student's application. "When I look at an applicant who has a 2.5 [GPA], which would be kind of a borderline admit for us, but I see on his application, I participate in this camp…that shows a lot of initiative and someone who has a passion," he said. 

For higher-achievers, relevant camp experience may put them in the running for the university's fellowship program, which pairs 15 incoming freshmen with faculty for research projects, among other advantages. 

Colleges may also find longer camp relationships interesting, even if the camp isn't academically focused. "The regular camper who becomes a counselor is a good type of continuity," Greenberg said. That kind of camp experience can indicate positive qualities such as leadership, resilience and good social skills, he said. 

That's the kind of story Oberlin College freshman Talia Rodwin expressed in her application essay. Rodwin, 19, has been attending Habon Dror Camp Moshava in Silver Spring, Md., since 2006 and plans to return this summer for her second year as a counselor. (The youth movement camp emphasizes sharing, leadership and communal responsibility.) "I wrote about my camp experiences and community," she said. "I explained how I think of myself as a community builder…and I think that had an impact." 

Simon Solis-Cohen (R), whose camp experience led him to become a chef.
Source: Simon Solis-Cohen
Simon Solis-Cohen (R), whose camp experience led him to become a chef.

While camp as an application booster isn't a guarantee, it could have other benefits for a college-bound student. Overnight camps can offer a taste of independent living (or at least, living away from mom and dad). The right camp could even help solidify a career path, reducing the chance of a five- or six-year stint at a four-year college while an undeclared student explores options. 

"If you go to summer camp and you decide because of the camp that this is what you want to be, you're going to be much more focused as a student," Kantrowitz said. 

When he was in middle school, Simon Solis-Cohen, now 23, signed up for a magic camp through Julian Krinsky Camps & Programs in Pennsylvania. He liked it so much that the next year, he tried one of the group's business camps. Then, in the summer leading up to his freshman year of high school, he discovered cooking camp. "It really opened my eyes," Solis-Cohen said. 

He was so enamored with cooking that he started working weekends during the school year at the camp chef-instructor's restaurant, then attended college at the Culinary Institute of the America. "I ended up using this as my launching pad," said Solis-Cohen, who is currently with Grgich Hills Estate in Rutherford, Calif., after a stint at renowned Napa Valley restaurant The French Laundry. 

As Solis-Cohen discovered, camp can even be a kick-starter for jobs down the line—provided the experience backs up other bona-fides. "Camp is about the social experience of working with other young people in a group setting that's outside your comfort zone," said Chad Oakley, president and chief operating officer of executive search firm Charles Aris, Inc. "That in itself is 50 percent of success in a business environment." 

But it's no job shoe-in. "You might get the interview because you went to math camp, but you'd actually get the job because of your ability to interface with people during the interview," said Oakley. 

Showcasing a camp experience during the college admissions process can be done in a handful of ways. It might be listed as extra-curricular activities on the college application, or a particularly meaningful experiences worked into the essay portion. 

"If you had a transformative experience at the summer camp or a big impact on others, that tells them more about who you are as an individual, especially if you can write about how it set you in a particular direction," Kantrowitz said. "If something is of interest to you, you're more likely to write a passionate essay." 

Favorite counselors or camp directors should also be considered for letters of recommendation. "Relatively few students submit letters from outside [school] or that are job-related," said Greenberg. "That can be enormously valuable." 

team9

WITHOUT THE COMFORTS

BY BEVERLY PLUMMER
Reprinted from the 1965 Chicago Tribune, Camp Minocqua  for Boys is featured in the article and is the summer camp that Jeff Lorenz  is an alumni of  from 1966-1972. He went on to found Swift Nature Camp in 1997.

Television, telephones, and mother-love are all great things. In the winter, of course, but next summer, more than 4 million school age youngsters will trade them for tents, rain, poison Ivy and unforgettable times,

IT GETS COLDER and colder. The rain comes down like the sky is broken. The tent leaks all night and breakfast is bread and rain water eaten under the picnic table.

Is this "Ah, Wilderness!" or "Aaarg, Wilderness!"? Only the boy or girl scrunched damply under the table can tell you. But chances are [even tho it had to be said thru chat- tering teeth] he d say it was GREAT! For this wet, cold, shivering youngster is one of 4 million school-age American children who look forward ea- to camp every summer. Why should a child be so anx- ious to go to camp that he s willing to go without six months' allowance to help foot the bill? Or get up at a snowy 5:30 a. m. to deliver the morn- ing papers so he can buy a new snorkel for camp?

It's not the creature comforts he s seeking-that s for sure. For comforts such as television, telephones, and five-course dinners are better provided at home than on a 100-acre tract of trees and bushes.

Actually what this child is seeking, even if he s not con- aware of it, is a sense of adventure. A chance to be a conqueror rather than a spectator. An opportunity to create

his own security in a strange atmosphere. And where, in to- day s chrome-plated world, can a child find such an opportunity except in the wilderness?

As an American, he still has something of the early pioneer in his bones-the pioneer who slew his own dinner, stitched up his britches, and then fought off the enemy before he went to bed.

A note from a city-bred 14- year-old to his parents last year states proudly, "Besides clearing three campsites out of the bush, setting up a compass course, and assisting the surveyor map the boundary lines of camp, we got to help skin a 125-pound bear and cut logs for a new kitchen floor." This glowing letter was written by a lad who lived 10 stories up in a plush apartment where a maid laid out his clothing every morning!

There have been camps of one kind or another almost from the beginning of America -even the first settlers were campers of a sort The first organized camps began to appear on the east coast as early as the 1860s, but it wasn't until the very late iBO0s that camping grabbed a really firm foothold for itself. It was evidently firm enough, for today there are more than 13,500 organized camps scattered thruout the United States.

The first organized camp in the midwest was started by a young doctor. [just graduated from Northwestern university medical school] following the worst typhoid fever epidemic Chicago has ever known. Dr. John Perley Sprague had been raised in the lumbering country of Maine and had never quite got used to the ways of the city. It bothered him that so many children were growing up with no intimate knowledge of nature, so in April, 1903, he set out for upper Wisconsin be- fore the ice was even out of the rivers and lakes to find a spot to set up a camp.

What he finally settled on was a point on Lake Toma- hawk near Minocqua, which still stands today and is still in operation under the direction of his daughter, Helen, and son-in-law, Jack Broomell. Boys who go to Camp Minocqua today board the train at Chicago s North Western station

and arrive at camp about eight. hours later.

The 15 campers who went north with Doctor Sprague in 1903 were not so fortunate; but when this story is told, many a boy declares he'd give his right arm to have been in that first group.

"We took a train from Chicago," Doctor Sprague wrote CAMP For City-Dwellers: A Place in the Open In camp craft classes such as bowl-making, boys can create with their own hands.

in his notes, "and when we woke up in the morning, we had only gone about 200 miles be- cause a bridge had washed out. It seems there was a lot of flooding that year. There was no diner on the train and they took the sleeper off, too. During the afternoon they fixed up the bridge and we went on, only to be stopped again when the tracks disappeared under water at the Wisconsin river. But they decided to try it and we got across and kept right on going to Mosinee, where the tracks were under water again. And we had to stop once more."

At 4 the next morning, Doc- tor Sprague got everybody off the train and they got up a game of baseball in the grass beside the tracks. Hungry to the desperation point, they finally found a boarding house cook who fixed breakfast for them for a hatful of coins that had been collected. The rest of the trip was made partly by box car and partly by hand-car.

"Finally," Doctor Sprague said, "an engine came down from the north and picked us up and on the third day we finally got there."

Camp Minocqua is much the same today in spirit as it was 60 years ago; the ultimate aim of its directors always has been to provide the child with a natural atmosphere in which he can grow in all directions. This is the aim of all good camps today.

"There was no 'baby-sitting' in those days," Helen Broomell says. "It was primarily an opportunity for boys to spend the summer out-of-doors . . . it wasn't even supposed to be a 'character-building' experience except as the good influence of the men rubbed off on. the boys."

Camp Minocquafor Boys would be classified today as an "all-around" camp with a good solid emphasis on individual growth, altho the program includes a liberal choice of everything you might consider important to camping: riding, sailing, crafts, archery, etc.

There are so many camps today which, altho they maintain social orientation as the ultimate goal, are highly specialized . A few examples: folk- singing camps, language-of- your-choice camps, all-sports camps where a child chooses one major and one minor sport and works on proficiency in these areas all summer long. There are pioneer camps, camps for the psychologically disturbed, riding camps, and tours-of-Israel camps.

The rivalry between different types of camps is much like the rivalry between competing high schools. One group of boys came back from a visit to a neighboring camp with these words of disgust: "It's a chicken camp. Everybody wore identical T-shirts, and there were these 'Gung ho' loud speakers that blasted out instructions all day long - just like in the movies. All the one had to do was sit on their duffs while 'big brother' told them what to do over the loud speaker."

 

CAMP-The Counselor Must Love Children. Nature was like downtown New York. Everything was paved! You couldn't get dirty if you want- ed to."

For some children, being able to get good and dirty with a bunch of other guys is reason enough to go to camp. They come from big cities where they have no close companions, even in their own family group; often they don't even sit down to dinner with their parents, but eat in the kitchen with the maid.

This was a real revelation to one of the foreign-exchange counselors who came to this country thru the efforts of the Committee for Friendly Relations Among Foreign Students. He was surprised at the bad table manners of some of the boys from wealthy families. He referred to the children in his cabin as "small gangsters," but this was a term of real affection for he was completely charmed by their warmth and maturity.

"An American camper is not as well disciplined as the Swedes," the counselor later observed. "He is less bashful and somewhat more matured than his Swedish mate. But you very soon get acquainted with him and after two hours he declares he likes or hates you more than anybody in the world."

He was judging only boys from a small segment of American life, however, because unless a child has a wealthy uncle or well-to-do parents, he can't afford a summer at

a private camp. Rates begin at about $575 and go on up.

Private camps are only a small part of the organized camp picture, tho. Only 3,000 of the nation s 13,500 organized camps are privately owned and run. Most of the rest are agency and day camps. A "season" is more flexible at these camps, running from one day to several weeks and costing as little as $15 per week.

Many find it hard to understand why anyone would choose to work at a summer camp, but the conclusion can only be heartening to any parent considering sending his child.

Because the pay is poor, the hours are bad, and working conditions sometimes unfavorable [such as an "overnight" in a leaky tent], it can only be assumed that counselors take these jobs out of a love for children and nature.

One of the toughest jobs a director has is selecting good counselors. At one time these young people were chosen because they possessed some special skill, but today directors seek well-rounded, emotionally mature persons. In addition to counselors, the director hires cooks, kitchen boys, stable boys, a camp-mother, a doctor and/ or a nurse. Each staff member is selected with infinite care, because it takes a special kind of person to be able to live so intimately with so many children or young adults for such a length of time.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A CAMP

A PARENT interested in finding the best camp for his child should consider the following points:

1. A good ratio is one counselor for every eight campers; an ideal ratio is one to four.

2. A good director will ask for a personal history of your child. Not so he doesn't, forget her, because if he doesn't feel he needs to know such things as the fact that Sally still wets her bed or is afraid of the dark, he isn't very interested in her.

3. A good camp has a rigid code of safety and health, but a flexible and adaptable daily program of recreation.

4. Fees alone do not make a camp bad or good, and in no way indicate what a camp is really like.

End of article

Today, Swift Nature Camp has progressed with the times enhancing a child's personal growth while at camp,   Camp Minocqua is still in the heart of Director Jeff Lorenz and often is being recreated at camp in the camp for the 21st century.

The Wisconsin Environmental Education Board (WEEB) has enthusiastically adopted and 
supports the implementation of Wisconsin’s Plan for Environmental Literacy and Sustainable 
Communities . This plan is the latest in a long line of environmental education initiatives in the 
state . Beginning with the Conservation Movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s through 
the Environmental Movement in the 1960s and 70s and on to today, residents of Wisconsin 
have played a key role in shaping the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of individuals, groups, 
and organizations with respect to environmental issues at the national, regional, and local 
levels . As a new century has just begun, this plan provides a pathway for all of us to build 
upon this prior work and move forward in developing an environmentally literate society 
comprised of sustainable communities . 
Wisconsin’s Plan for Environmentally Literate and 
Sustainable Communities (referred to in this document 
as the “Plan”) serves as a strategic plan for achieving 
the vision of environmentally literate and sustainable 
communities across Wisconsin . The Plan is meant to 
build capacity, awareness, and support for environmental 
literacy and sustainability at home, work, school, and 
play . It encourages funding, research, and education for 
environmental literacy and sustainability and it supports 
Wisconsin’s Plan to Advance Education for Environmental 
Literacy and Sustainability in PK-12 Schools. 
This Plan was developed through input from diverse 
representatives from around the state, all of whom— 
like many before them—are attentive to the health and 
well-being of Wisconsin’s people, the stewardship of our 
natural resources, the sustainability of our communities, 
and to leaving a positive legacy for the future . Wisconsin 
people value the state’s natural resources and the functions 
these resources serve at home, work, school, and play . 
This commitment to protecting and conserving valued 
resources can and does lead to sustainable communities 
that enjoy a healthy environment, a prosperous economy, 
and a vibrant civic life . The purpose of this Plan, therefore, 
is to provide a roadmap, a course of action, individuals, 
organizations, businesses and governments must 
take to attain environmental literacy and sustainable 
communities . By providing a shared vision, mission, 
and goals, encouraging the use of common language, 
and promoting collaborative efforts, the Plan offers the 
opportunity for extraordinary impact and change . 
The Wisconsin Environmental Education Board (WEEB) is charged with 
leadership for environmental education for all people in the state and is required 
to develop a strategic plan every ten years . This Plan was born from that 
demand . WEEB’s previous strategic plan, A Plan for Advancing Environmental 
Education in Wisconsin: EE2010, had seven goals that were based on the central 
purposes of providing positive leadership; developing local leaders; developing 
and implementing curricula; and furthering professional development . 
An assessment provided insight into this plan’s successes and what remains to be 

done . Major successes include: 
The creation of a website, EEinWisconsin .org, which acts as a tool for 
statewide communication and a clearinghouse for both formal and non- 
formal environmental education in Wisconsin . 
The WEEB’s use of the goals in its grants program . 
The initiation of research in environmental literacy and sustainability . 
The establishment of Wisconsin Environmental Education Foundation, 
which is leading the way toward more sustainable funding for 
environmental education . 
The assessment found more work needs to be done to support and enhance 
non-formal and non-traditional environmental education . The Plan addresses 
this need and sets new goals . 


Collaboration with Other Efforts 


Wisconsin’s Plan for Environmentally Literate and Sustainable Communities 
considers educational needs and responses for the whole community and 
supports sustainable practices at home, work, school, and play . The Plan is 
coordinated with and supported by two additional statewide efforts to advance 
the implementation of the Plan’s goals and the integration of sustainability . They 
are: 
Wisconsin’s Plan to Advance Education for Environmental Literacy and 
Sustainability in PK-12 Schools addresses multiple aspects related directly 
to pre-kindergarten through high school student learning to ensure every 
student graduates environmentally literate . (NCLIwisconsin .org) 
Cultivating Education for Sustainability in Wisconsin builds capacity 
and support for schools and communities to focus student learning on 
sustainability . It provides recommendations for resources and services to 
implement education for sustainability in schools . (www .uwsp .edu/wcee/efs) 
2 Wisconsin’s Plan for Environmentally Literate and Sustainable Communities 

Benefits of a State Plan 


Provide a common vision and set of goals for people in Wisconsin to work 
toward . 
Guide decision-making, policy making and priority setting . 
Serve as justification for and purpose behind creating or continuing 
programs, tools and resources . 
Set priorities for development and delivery of educational programs, 
business plans, and community efforts . 
Rationale and guidance for funding and research efforts . 


How to Use the Plan 


Wisconsin’s Plan for Environmentally Literate and Sustainable Communities is 
not an organization, but rather a document that serves as the state strategic plan 
requiring partnerships and collaboration . It is designed to serve as reference 
material for individuals, businesses, and communities . Those who influence 
environmental literacy and sustainability in Wisconsin such as community 
leaders, traditional and non-formal educators and administrators, resources 
developers and providers, policy makers, funders and researchers will find the 
Plan useful as a guide in setting priorities and making decisions . Over the course 
of the next decade, the Plan’s desired outcomes will be central to environmental 
literacy and sustainability efforts across the state . As Wisconsin people work 
toward achieving the four main outcomes of the Plan, this document can help 
guide attitudes, planning, actions, and endeavors . 
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