Heart BEAT

Camp Wooten Creates Environmental Stewards

Local School Districts, Parent Volunteers, Provide Outdoor Education, One-Of- A-Kind Experiences For Our Kids

WAITSBURG - From this editor's perspective students learning about nature and how to pro- tect it for generations to come is a true need.

And our local schools are wonderful enough to provide that kind of outdoor education to our students by sending the sixth graders to Camp Wooten each school year.

Camp Wooten is a state park and an environmental learning center. It is located 30 miles southeast of Dayton nestled in the Blue Mountains.

Lori Bartlow, the mid- dle school administrative assistant and athletic director for the Waits- burg School District, said Waitsburg has been send- ing its sixth graders to Camp Wooten for years. Students from Dayton and Prescott get to attend camp as well.

The sixth graders attend Camp Wooten for three days, sleeping in cabins and enjoying meals at the mess hall.

Russ Knopp, who retired from the Waitsburg School District last July, went to Camp Wooten for about 12 years with the students when he taught sixth grade. He said there are many ben- efits to the kind of edu- cation and experiences provided for students at Camp Wooten.

" They learn things they probably wouldn't learn in the regular class- room," he said.

Waitsburg heads to camp via school buses Sept. 25-28 with Pomeroy, Prescott and Ritz- ville students, Bartlow said. Dayton goes to camp in the springtime.

The students sleep in cabins, 10 kids in each, and they mix up the cab- ins with students from each school.

"That's so they get to know other people in the region," she said.

The students spend their days at camp fish- ing, canoeing, learn- ing archery, cooking, painting, learning about forestry, naviga- tion, orienteering and how to take care of the environment.

There is a heated, indoor swimming pool an interpretive display of wild animals, and several nature trails, according to Camp Wooten's web- site. At nighttime the students enjoy campfires and sing-a-longs.

" Those are good things," Knopp said. "But the part the kids really like is meeting the kids from other schools. In certain cases, they become lifelong friends."

Parents are asked to volunteer and act as cab- in supervisors to keep the sixth graders in line and following the rules.

There is one parent per 10 students and often the parents who go have students at camp.

"Some parents really want to go," Bartlow said.

And Waitsburg resi- dent Herb Bessey has volunteered many times to teach archery, Bartlow said.

The Waitsburg School District covers the entire cost for the sixth graders to attend camp. Knopp said the cost per student is small.

"This is a good thing to keep doing," Knopp said. "You do it for the kids."