2018 was the year that…….
* New hand lenses, purchased with a grant from NCF, received extensive use in botany, nature journaling, and other classes.
* No fewer than seven campers attended First Session having just graduated from High School.
* The Turk’s Cap Lily, monitored and protected from the ravenous appetite of deer for about a decade, finally bloomed near Buttermilk Springs.
* A Sunday hike serendipitously encountered a Whippoorwill’s nest on December Ridge.
* We introduced a new course in environmental history which explored such topics as environmental racism, the impact of the canteen, and the conceptual construct of “wild”.
* A warp in the space-time continuum resulted in Sunday hikes on Saturday, and the once-in-a-blue-moon celebration of Blorpus during Third Session.
* The Torry Ridge hike wound up on the Bald Mountain Overlook Trail instead, but had a good time nevertheless.
* Entomology classes took field trips to visit hives of a local beekeeper.
* The male staff revived the old tradition of singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” during the counselor talent show.
* The artificial Ficus tree, which Ventry and Sheryl Smith disposed of last fall, managed (like a certain feline oft remembered in song) to make its way BACK to Nature Camp via a trash hike on the 4th of July.
* Cooks Danny Sternfeld and Dustin Roberts started dragging the custom made charcoal grill onto the playfield for end-of-session picnics.
* The Limnology Class Nature Camp Vesuvius Claire Mills Memorial Celebrity Giardia Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure was held.
Although attendance was down slightly from the previous summer, enrollment for girls in all four sessions, and boys in Second and Third, was at or near capacity. A number of vacancies remained for boys in Fourth Session, so if you know a 5th or 6th grade lad who might be interested in, and benefit from, the Nature Camp Experience, please point him our way! Registration for next year’s sessions will begin on January 28th.