Camptown announces it has received a $15,000 grant from the Sprint Foundation in support of its outdoor programming.  “With this grant Sprint will help Camptown bring outdoor education and adventure to over 500 underprivileged youth in central Indiana” says Executive Director Don Schafer.  Through day, overnight and weeklong programs youth will experience for the first time outdoor activities such as canoeing, hiking, backpacking, and camping.

“Sprint is pleased to offer this grant to Camptown, to the Indianapolis community and to the young people whose lives will be touched,” said Ralph Reid, vice president-Sprint Corporate Responsibility. “The Camptown program directly and positively influences three of four focus areas established for the Sprint Foundation: education, youth development and community development. Sprint is proud to be a part of this important, creative program and all the good it makes possible.”

The youth that will benefit from this grant include inner city elementary students, middle school students, and special needs students.  Camptown introduces area youth to the outdoors who might not get the opportunity to connect with nature.  The typical participant is 8-18 years old, lives in a single-parent household, with income below the poverty level.  Programming is paid for through donations such as the Sprint Grant and makes an impact that is felt by the entire community.

Since 1991, Camptown has been leading youth to a better path by providing outdoor adventures and nature programs that challenge, mentor, and teach youth about nature and life.

Camptown partners with other youth organizations in Central Indiana to offer these exciting and unique programs to their students to build life skills, character and confidence.  Camptown is the only organization of its kind in Central Indiana and is well-recognized for its efforts.   Camptown received Best Nature Outdoor Program in 2000 from the National Park and Recreation Association and received the Indiana Achievement Award in 2010 for exemplary non-profit management.

For more information please contact Don Schafer at 317.471.8277 or don.schafer@camptown.net

Nathan is one of those kids that when he sees you coming, visibly his walls go up, too cool for the games, defiant, and actively trying to derail the lesson is the normal actions displayed. But for some reason Nathan always says bye and see you next week. It is now nearing the end of the school year, and cracks are started to form in those walls, that seemed impenetrable. Two weeks ago Nathan shoves a picture at me with the grunt, “see, I told you I was a good artist.” And true to his word the picture was very well done nature theme. It was an awesome drawing. At this point the cracks in his wall were making their way to the surface.  Nathan cares what I think of him, my opinion has value. But it was last week that caught me off guard. Another student was struggling with trying to get a spark with a flint and steel, and Nathan started by telling her to hold her hand different. Then he comes up and positions her hands in a better position while showing her how to strike the flint. The student he was helping is the youngest in the club and was ready to give up, but Nathan convinced her to try again and again until she was able to get the spark. The other club members were even caught off guard with how he was helping. And we all watched as Nathan realized he has more to share of himself than being the trouble maker.

When I was in elementary school I lived a few blocks from the school.  During good weather days I would walk or ride my bike to school every day.  During the summer I would ride my bike to a summer program that was also held at the school.  I was talking with my father who grew up in the 1930′s and in elementary school they did not serve lunch but were expected to walk home for lunch and then return to school.  Fast forward to today where many schools prohibit walkers and bike riders to school.  Even where it is not prohibited it is not common in many communities to see children riding their bikes or walking to school.  Aside from the physical exercise that is missed, there is also the sense of accomplishment, confidence and independence that a child can get by walking or riding their bike to school.  Oh sure, I understand that we live in a different society today, but too often in the name of protecting our children we limit their growth and spirit of adventure.

I don’t often write about gear, but I do have an opinion.  I have always been very particular as to what gear we use on our Camptown programs.  The reason is that we are very hard on gear, so it needs to be durable.  We are also working with first time adventurers who need the gear they use to be easy to understand.  There are certain things I look for in a piece of gear durability, functionality, features, and fit.  I want to mention my all time favorite day back, the Bungalow by LL Bean.  It is now discontinued but it still continues to be a favorite in my household.  I have had my Bungalow now for about 5 years.  Other than a few scrapes from getting drug through a cave, it continues to do the job.  Features include: a roomy main compartment large enough for our group med kit, my extra clothing, and room for my lunch, an easy accessible top pocket, two water bottle holders that you don’t have to wrestle with to retrieve your bottles, built in rain fly that is easy to get to when the time comes, a hip belt with coin pocket, and a whistle built into the sternum strap buckle.  This was a top rated pack for years.  I liked mine so much I bought my wife one.  I wanted to get one for my daughter when I found out it had been discontinued.  Please bring back the Bungalow.

Camptown has been named as one of three Indianapolis Power & Light Company 2012 IPL Golden Eagle Environmental Grant recipients. Proceeds from this grant will bring nature education to urban youth through Camptown’s “How Wild is Your School” program, Eco Day Camps, and Canoe/River Clean-Up programs. These programs will give students the opportunity to see, touch and interact with the natural environment. These hands-on environmental education and nature experiences will help foster positive environmental attitudes while teaching sound environmental stewardship principles.

IPL Golden Eagle Environmental Grants provide funds for projects that will preserve, protect, enhance, or restore environmental and biological resources throughout IPL’s operating territory. Since 1993, IPL has contributed more than $1.2 million through this program.

Camptown has been named as one of three Indianapolis Power & Light Company 2011 IPL Golden Eagle Environmental Grant recipients. Proceeds from this grant will bring nature education to urban youth through Camptown’s “How Wild is Your School” program, Eco Day Camps, and Canoe/River Clean-Up programs. These programs will give students the opportunity to see, touch and interact with the natural environment. These hands-on environmental education and nature experiences will help foster positive environmental attitudes while teaching sound environmental stewardship principles.

IPL Golden Eagle Environmental Grants provide funds for projects that will preserve, protect, enhance, or restore environmental and biological resources throughout IPL’s operating territory. Since 1993, IPL has contributed more than $1.2 million through this program.

Camptown is a finalist for a $10,000 grant through the IPL Golden Eagle Award program. IPL will select the recipient for the award based upon public votes. We need your help!

Please Note: You’ll need to register with WIBC to vote (to keep it fair, WIBC asks for your name and your email address – one vote per registration). Don’t worry, WIBC won’t email you news unless you give them permission. If you’ve never voted in a WIBC contest before, you’ll have confirm your email address in your email inbox, and then click through to the voting page. You can also log in with your Facebook account.

Research links more time in nature with stress reduction

by: Richard Louv | from: AARP Bulletin | July 23, 2012

Marti Erickson always carries two collapsible chairs in her car. When she is having a particularly bad day, she finds a grassy spot, plops down, breathes deeply and soon is soothed by the nature around her.

“The reason I have a couple of those chairs,” says the developmental psychologist, “is that my oldest grandchild likes nature breaks, too, and joins me when we’re out together.”

Based on research and firsthand experience, Erickson says that time spent in nature “may be one of the best and most accessible natural stress-busters any individual or family could find.”

She’s not alone in that belief. In 2005 in my book Last Child in the Woods, I introduced the term “nature-deficit disorder” — not a medical diagnosis, but a way to describe the growing gap between kids and nature, and the consequences. Many adults later spoke with deep emotion about both their children’s deficit and their own. My new book is more about adults. It asks: What would our everyday lives be like if we were as immersed in nature as we are in technology?

A growing body of research links more time in nature — or in home, work or hospital environments enhanced through nature-based design — with reduction of stress and depression, faster healing time and less need for pain medication.

Health care professionals are taking note. In 2010, a pilot program in Portland, Ore., began pairing physicians with park professionals, who helped children and families get their green exercise or, as I call it, their dose of “vitamin N.”

Other benefits of vitamin N include enhanced use of the senses and higher work productivity. In 2008, University of Michigan researchers demonstrated that, after just an hour interacting with nature, memory performance and attention spans improved by 20 percent. In April, researchers at the University of Kansas reported a 50 percent boost in creativity for people who were steeped in nature for a few days.

Plant a garden. Create a backyard wildlife habitat. Replant with native species to encourage butterfly and bird migration routes. Bring the outdoors in by using nature-oriented decoration, perhaps an indoor garden.

Be a nature mentor to your children or grandchildren. Encourage them to dig holes or build forts. (A small pickup load of dirt provides hours of creative play.)

Be a hummingbird — not a helicopter — parent or grandparent. Don’t hover over your children or grandchildren, but watch from a distance as they play in nature.

Create a nature club where multiple families or groups of adults share hikes and other activities. Get to know nature where you live. As writer Wendell Berry put it, “You can’t know who you are until you know where you are.”

A final thought: Boomers could be the last generation to remember a time when it was considered normal and expected for children to play in woods and fields. When we leave this earth, will the memory of such experiences leave with us? Reconnecting the young to the natural world (as we reconnect ourselves) could be our greatest, most redemptive cause.

Richard Louv is the cofounder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and author of The Nature Principle: Reconnecting With Life in a Virtual Age.

Camptown received a $7,500 grant from the PeyBack Foundation to support outdoor summer adventures.  With the support from the PeyBack Foundation, over 700 urban and suburban youth will have experiential opportunities unlike ever before.  Youth will have the opportunity to spend time surrounded by trees or eating lunch by a quiet stream.  They will hike, canoe, camp, backpack, climb, raft, plan games and explore.  Lessons learned during an outdoor experience are transformational.  the intensity of an outdoor experience creates indelible memories that help youth take the lessons learned in the woods and transfer them back to their everyday life.

National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Promise – January 09, 2012
By Max Greenberg

Wilderness Therapy Uses Nature to Help People HealMany of us have stories about taking solace in nature’s simple beauty, but few realize just how crucial a lifeline it can be. Take the story of 24-year-old Gwen Miller of Lombard, IL, who suffered traumatic abuse as a child and has since used nature as a refuge and emotional salve. Her goal is to help other survivors of childhood abuse recover through exposure to the outdoors: Miller’s [introduced people to nature] by leading inner-city kids on hikes and backpacking trips, as well as traveling to Washington, D.C., to lobby for legislation that encourages kids to go outside. Miller’s outdoor …   >>> Read More