Our second session of SAM Camp is in full swing. Please check out pictures from our opening day by clicking on the photo link from our website (https://farmandwilderness.org/saltash-mountain/).
We are off to a great beginning with a very high energy group of campers! Our cabin groups returned from three days the trail just raving about how well their groups communicated and worked together. It’s a great sign of things to come when campers see that a successful community means supporting the entire group. All of the groups experienced a little fun by enduring some lightning and mud. This just added to the great stories when they returned.
SAM Camp enjoyed a couple of administrative victories this week, too, by scoring a rarely given 100 points on our annual inspection by the Vermont Department of Health. The SAM campers’ “Love through Work” was very apparent. We are also celebrating the completion of our accreditation process by the American Camping Association. (These may not be very exciting things for campers, so not too much noise made here. However, both attest to the hard work of staff on the safety and quality of programs/facilities).
On Friday, we sent out service day trips and Wilderness Adventures.One of the service trips consisted of taming the growth on the Tiny Pond Trail. Over the years, this trail was hard to find and difficult to navigate. We were happy to serve all of the future trips by pruning, sawing and blazing a clear path. Each year, at our end of camp event, the F&W Fair, we sell SAM jams and spreads. Since someone has to pick all of those berries, enter the second service trip. This year we were able to support some of our friends down the road, who were heavily affected by Tropical Storm Irene, by picking and purchasing our berries from their farm. Lastly, a third trip of SAM campers helped a local Good Neighbors organization, which runs a local food shelf and thrift store, by cleaning out a building where they will hold educational classes on nutrition and healthy eating. As it turned out, we were hunting for more fabulous clothing for our crafts barn and this was a great place for a little post-work shopping spree!
Today, campers participated in making sandals from tires, crate climbing, outdoor improvisational theater, beading and many more camp activities. We also announced the Long Trip groups today! We have five groups that will be travel for six days each. They will be hiking and climbing in the Adirondacks, backpacking in Vermont and New Hampshire, and canoeing in Maine! Monday is our pack out day and we’ll be outta here on Tuesday!
More when we return!