Helping kids go green
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“Our focus is moving towards being green and teaching kids about the environment,” said Bob Reid, executive director of Camp Fire USA’s Iowa Council.
Reid, who became the director in October 2005, follows the example of his predecessor, Suz Welch, Camp Fire’s director for 30 years. Welch designed programs around Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.”
“Forty years ago in Iowa, kids could look out at the sky and tell the weather,” Reid said. “Iowa was agriculture and we were all outside. Somewhere along the way we stopped doing that.”
Everyday activities are used to teach and increase awareness. For example, Iowa council staff members made competitions between lunch tables to help motivate kids to avoid wasting food. All leftovers are used as compost in a community garden, where Reid says they hope to grow their own food for camp next summer.
“As just a typical day care you miss opportunities,” Reid said. “We want to be a destination, (not just) a day care.”
With obesity as a rising problem and an increasing number of kids who are not in touch with the environment, Reid said, Camp Fire teaches them to get outside and be active.
“We teach outdoor education and find every way possible to get kids connected to nature,” Reid said.
Camp Fire USA’s Iowa Council has a variety of established programs, including before- and after-school care, school-day-off programs, summer resident and day camps and adaptable club programs.
When a need arises, Camp Fire works with other organizations and develops programs to help, Reid said.
Long-term goals for the Iowa council include revitalizing its property and programs at Camp Hantesa in Boone, and increasing the number of staff with background and education fo-cused on outdoor education and biology.
With 12 full-time, year-round staff members, part-time staff, 140 summer staff and an annual budget of $1.4 million, Camp Fire serves 12,000 people each year. Fund-raisers, including candy sales and the Fun Run, contribute to the budget.
The Iowa council began in 1915, after Luther and Charlotte Gulick founded the original organization for girls in 1910. Camp Fire membership expanded to include boys in 1975.
The founders sought to equip girls with skills and self-reliance though outdoor programs; Reid described the program as “almost the girl version of Boy Scouts.”