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Bath County youth attends nature camp
WARM SPRINGS — Last spring, Warm Springs Valley Garden Club offered a scholarship to a sixth-grader from Bath County. The scholarship was for the full tuition to attend "Nature Camp," a camp begun in 1941 by the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs Inc. in Vesuvius. It was built within a five-acre special use permit area surrounded by the George Washington National Forest between Mine and McClung Mountains. It was not intended (even though the staff makes the camp really fun) as a recreation camp, but has courses ranging from botany to wildlife management. It is designed for the kind of child who is always looking under rocks or rolling away logs to see what's underneath.
The 2008 scholarship winner was Mikayla Miller, daughter of Cary and April Miller of Millboro.
Miller is in the sixth grade at Millboro Elementary School and attended the fourth session of Nature Camp in July/August. She was selected with the help of the science teaching staff at her school because of her interest in science and ecology. She wrote: "At Nature Camp I was in the staff house. We'd get up every morning to revelry (very rude awakening). The bugle would go off about five times a day for different occasions. One of my favorite parts about nature camp was the hikes. The first one I went on was to Table Rock, a giant rock that has formed a natural water slide … so much fun!
The food at Nature Camp was incredible and it was all cooked by the very awesome Lucas and Tucker. I loved their banana pudding because it just tasted so good. For our classes, we took one major class and all the minor classes (you alternate every day). For my major, I took wild art. In this class we drew a lot of cool things, and we had great teachers, Tucker and Clare. Then one of my minors was botany (the study of plants). In this class we learned how to identify plants of all kinds and my teachers for this class were Kim, Jason, and Chuck. With them you have to have fun. My next minor was ecology where you learn about the ecosystem and the organisms within. It was really a lot of fun. Our next class was entomology with it being the study of insects it doesn't sound very interesting but it was way more fun than I thought it would be. Next was geology, the study of the earth. It was a lot of fun learning about all the rocks and how they were formed. I enjoyed being with Maggie and Bob. The next class was herpetology, which was the study of reptiles with teachers Sarah and Oliver. It sounded like the best class to me but then I decided I would just take it as a minor instead. After that we had larvatony, which is a mix between larva and botany so to sum it all up I say caterpillars. Even though it doesn't sound like much fun it was pretty cool, especially having Kate and Beard as my teachers. Next is limnology, which is the study of fresh water ecosystems. In this class you get in the creek and look for little creatures that show if you have good or bad water. Now we have the last but not least ornithology, which is the study of birds. In this class you learn how a bird's bones are put together and what they're made out of. This was a fun class especially with my teachers, John, Tony and Bob. When you're spending time at Nature Camp it's a lot of fun. I went swimming every day at the pool or creek. At the pool you can play water polo and in the creek you rock paint like crazy. Then I played a lot of tether ball. It was pretty good too and only one kid beat me, but then Oliver slaughtered me. Nature Camp ROCKS!"
As Miller has shown, each camper chooses a major course that they concentrate on for the session. They also get to sample the other courses as minor studies. Some of those classes included invertebrate, geology, entomology, forest ecology, herbatology, omniology (stream life), meteorology, minor disturbances, botany, astronomy (study of planets and space), botany, conservation (wise use of natural resources), ecology (study of how organisms interact with their environment), herpetology (study of reptiles and amphibians), mycology (study of fungi and mushrooms), ornithology, wilderness survival and nature in literature (to view what other people think of nature). Each student had assignments that they worked on regarding their chosen interests. They kept their own special notebook for these assignments. There was also time for socializing and exploring the surroundings.
It is hoped that Nature Camp will encourage Bath County youth to explore and continue their love of science and ecology throughout their youth and adulthood. The purpose of this camp is to create a corps of interested and knowledgeable young citizens who will continue the fight to make our world a better place in which to live. The Warm Springs Valley Garden Club appreciates this year's scholarship winner's participation in Nature Camp.
By: Kathie Schwend, Nature Camp coordinator
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