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News from Nature Camps

"It's about a sense of wonder!"

October 2010

 
 

 

 

 
flowers tree sunflower



 


don webb

 

Director's Message

This autumn found me teaching teachers from Greenmount School best ways to use the Lower and Upper Ropes Courses. The following week I spent a day co-facilitating thirty of their Middle School students, staff, and parents. I was touched by their enthusiasm, joy, and thoughtful, shared reflections as we did various elements and initiatives down in the colorful woods.

What also came forth was the gradual building of respect, trust, team building, increased communication skills, conflict resolution, enhancement of self-esteem, and empathy in learning solution focused techniques -- all in the Challenge By Choice philosophy.

Students found themselves making meaning, through insights expressed verbally, nonverbally, and unconsciously, leading them to behavioral change. They used reflection of activities to discuss the close connections between their adventure experience and their everyday lives.

Such adventure education is transforming -- changing perceptions, heightening awareness, appreciating one another, valuing what was personally accomplished, changing lives.

Autumn in the Woods

Attention! Nature Camps Families, Counselors, and Friends!

Please join us on Sunday, October 17, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. for a beautiful fall day, filled with Gardening, Picnic, and Ropes Course Activities.

Come celebrate the colorful fall weather at camp!
We will spend the morning delightfully weeding and gardening all around. We will plant winter pansies at the hand pump; clear off the Teen Adventure rock wall alongside the pool; plant on the hillside under the new beautiful signs at the main entrance; place wood chips under the nine porch swings, and at the Lower Ropes Course.

In the afternoon, all will join in Upper and Lower Ropes Course activities, hiking to the Gunpowder, and making individual journal paintings to take home -- using autumn's many paint brushes.

Note, this is a family-centered day. Please do not drop off unsupervised children.

Andrew
Andrew

Ben
Ben

Greg
"Gerg"

Kat
Kat

Kim
Kim

Where in the World are NC Counselors?

During the summer camp season, NC counselors come from all over to provide your child with the unique and high quality experience you've come to expect.

This fall we thought it would be fun to see where NC counselors (past and present) are hanging their hats during the rest of the year.

Don Webb - Studying for Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Licensing Examination; planning to work as a family clinician this fall, winter and spring; heading up to Rochester, NY to visit with my Aunt who is 92 (and three cousins who haven't seen one another in fifty five years!)

Lily Kotansky - In her Sophomore year of college: volunteering and observing at a Quaker elementary school, starting storytelling program at the local public library, teacher aiding at a charter school with Afrocentric philosophy, and doing aftercare at the YMCA.

Heidi Silberg - Rappelled a 23 story building 2 weeks ago, to raise money for a women's shelter, and am headed to London for a week on Sunday to buy estate jewelry for an auction company. Busy with chemistry and biology as well:) Headed to Morocco in January.

Molly Mistr - Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina.

Kim Schubert - I'm writing papers, planning a camping trip in October, and playing clarinet with the University of Maryland marching band. The University of Maryland's Marching Band took the top prize of $25,000 in CBS Television Network's "Marching Band Mania" More than 40 college bands participated in the competition, which required bands to upload a video of their performance of the iconic Hawaii Five-0 theme song to a CBS Web site.

Bryan Mull - University of Baltimore School of Law.

Andrew Rainey - I´m currently enrolled in the University of Salamanca in Spain for the semester. On weekends and breaks, I have been and hope to continue WWOOFing on organic farms around the region. I´m also playing a little Bossa Nova with a Hungarian I met.\

Sammy Atkinson - I'm in the Architecture Studio Sequence at the University of Maryland.

Austin Redwood has been missing from the present for 4 months. He was last seen wearing 19th century peasant garb, babbling on about how he lost a shoe in the time machine, and that he must have misplaced it in the sabot factory. If you have any leads or information, please contact Austin's parents.

Eliza Oldach - Chapel Hill High School (senior year!!), North Carolina.

Cecilia Galarraga is in Brooklyn, New York, working for an afterschool program called Citizen Schools. Ms. G is responsible for leading 17 6th graders in projects such as energy efficiency, choral singing, and mental math!

Megan Weissner - Finishing up senior year at Fordham University in the Bronx.

Catie Davis is at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD.

Greg "Gerg" Schaefer: In Baltimore, MD running camera and audio for FOX45 Morning News.

Esmail Hamidi: I'm a county ranked clarinetist and looking forward to visiting South America in December.

Ben Currotto: I spent part of the summer working on a farm in northern Spain. I'm at Skidmore College in upstate New York, working on my Senior capstone in literature and playing lots of music.

Andrew McGowan: Andrew is spending the fall semester at The Mountain School in rural Vermont, with 44 other high school juniors. He's working on an organic farm while taking a full load of classes and having the time of his life!

Patrick McQuestion is currently in his senior year at Reed College in Oregon. He is studying Edgar Allan Poe for his thesis, looking closely at what he calls "expression of obscurity," and particularly his descriptions of the mysterious sensations one gets when traveling to unfamiliar places in nature!

Grace Wiessner: Studying at Warren Wilson College for my sophomore year, enjoying the mountains and city of Asheville in North Carolina.

Kat McLaughlin: I traveled cross country, camping through the Great Smokey mountains, Arkansas, camping on the rim of the Grand Canyon and camping in the redwoods of California. I am now living in Portland, OR and studying Conflict Resolution at Portland State University.

Anna Taylor: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana (Where most of my time so far this semester has been spent in the weaving studio!).

Brooke Pearson is living in Frederick, MD and sharing the a love of bugs with four-year-olds at an arts based school located on an historic 17 acre farm.

Allie Semenza: I'm in New York, NY at New York University. Spending lots of time in the recording studio at school and working with the record label Underwater Peoples. Loving it, but missing the woods!

For more words from our counselors, see http://www.naturecamps.com/senseWonder/reflections.html and http://www.naturecamps.com/senseWonder/counselor.html

swings

Open House Dates

We have added an extra Open House so more families will be able to visit all aspects of Nature Camps. Open Houses will be on May 8 AND May 22!

Spread the word!

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2011 Calendar

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