Nearly 1,000 youth from across the area participated in at least one of 27 4-H day camps in the summer of 2022, learning new skills and meeting new friends.
For the 56th year, the Hansen Foundation supported the day camp project through grant funds. Camps were offered in 18 of the 26 counties the foundation serves. The 974 youth participating represented a nearly 33 percent increase in number of campers from the previous year. More than 40 percent were not enrolled in 4-H.
Volunteers, including 56 teens and 164 adults, donated 1,191 hours to lead the camps. The camps encouraged creativity and allowed kids to have fun, active experiences. Campers faced challenges, solved problems, made decisions and worked as a team.
Camps provided a range of learning opportunities from food science to an insect’s life cycle to space exploration. Pioneer and outdoor skills, farm-to-table topics and tractor safety were also offered.
The camps offered children new experiences. As one youth participant summed it up: “I can’t wait to tell my parents that I learned how to make butter and I felt a fox fur.”