All Hands-On Deckers Creek Camp

Submitted by Peg Reese, Earth Team Coordinator

Punishment usually awaits children who spend a day digging in wet dirt and spoiling their dinners with refined sugars. However, the All Hands-On Deckers Creek camp accepts and encourages this rowdy behavior.

The camp is run by Friends of Deckers Creek, in conjunction with other youth groups, and teaches the importance of water quality and other conservation efforts in an entertaining manner. Peg Reese, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Resource Conservationist, and Earth Team volunteer Sherry Finkel attended the camp on June 28th as educators.

As hard rains plagued the beginning of the session, Peg and Sherry reviewed the water cycle with the campers. They participated in a survey to calculate the amount of water their families use during a typical week and learned helpful hints to reduce their water usage.

Skies cleared and the children stepped outside with augers to sample different soils. The nine girls and one boy showed no aversion to sifting through clay, silt, and sandy loams. The campers especially enjoyed building their own miniature soil profiles, despite the mess of glue and dirt.

Peg tied the water and soil lessons together with a runoff demonstration. The campers were surprised to find a difference in water quality between runoff from barren soil and runoff from soil with vegetation. Peg explained to the campers that vegetation helped to prevent severe runoff as well as enhance water quality.

Finally, the children cleaned up to create their pre-dinner snacks, the edible watersheds. The campers topped graham crackers with icing, chocolate chips, and other sweets to model Peg’s real-life description of a watershed.

The NRCS educators left their sugar high campers with bright smiles and a better understanding of their surrounding environment. The All Hands-on Deckers camp will continue to creatively fuse education with youthful outdoor play in exchange for a more energetic, environmentally conscious youth.

	Earth Team Volunteer Sherry Finkel (in pink shirt) reviews water usage with campers.
	A camper shows off the miniature monolith that she made.
	Fun with clay.
	Campers make an edible watershed.

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