Agency Details:

CAMP! provides a one week residential summer camp for rural Vermont children with limited opportunities due to rural isolation, a lack of financial resources and disruption of life and education due to frequent moves. Families pay only a $25 registration fee.

Description:
We provide a traditional residential camp program with a broad range of choices.
The campers live and work together in three different families: their tenting or “Pod” family
(a group of 15-18 campers of the same age and gender with 5-6 counselors), their dining room family (a group of 6 campers - mixed by age and gender - with 3 staff) and their “Awesome” family
(a group of 6 to 12 campers and 2 to 5 staff who share a common interest).

The Awesome Program offers a range of activities from old favorites like Tennis, Bread Making, Bottle Rockets, Pirates, Archery and Canoeing to new options like Survival Skills, Writing Music, Building Rustic Furniture, “Sports Madness” and Spanish. Campers also choose nine different “Choice” Activities throughout the week. There is a lot of activity at the Arts and Crafts Building including charcoal drawing, watercolor painting, jewelry making, origami, mobiles and tin can lanterns. Plus, you will see campers snorkeling, learning to use chop sticks and testing their engineering skills at the egg protector competition.
Campers are exposed to the natural world through programming at the Nature Building, where there are always interesting “critters” to look at. They also have a daily swim lesson and an introductory canoe lesson. Many of these campers did not know how to swim when they first came to camp, but by the end of the week each year a small group swims across the lake and back. In addition, campers can pursue an interest during free time, and take part in evening campfires, the dining room team challenge and the on-going game of Four Square.
Our final night together was the annual Carnival, a hand-made country fair inspired and created by the campers and staff. This year the theme was Outer Space with booths for The Comet Catch, Soak the Alien and Planetary Plinko.

The Children’s Literacy Foundation partnered with us for the third time. CliF created a lending library of more than 75 beautiful books for use during the week and gave each camper two books of their choice – one at the beginning of the week and one at the end of the week - to take home. CliF also brought storytellers for an evening campfire program and helped us bring reading and books to life.

The Aloha Partnership Program sponsored one of our campers who attended the seven week session at Aloha Camp on full scholarship. We provided support for the camper and her family, and paid the registration fee.

Contact person: Wendy Shea, Program Director, (802) 899-4456, (email)

Address:

P.O. Box 91 Richmond, VT 05477

Web Site: http://campexclamationpoint.org

Miscellaneous Information

1. What target populations does your agency serve?
	Children from families with limited opportunities due to rural isolation, a lack of financial resources and disruption of life and education due to frequent moves.
3. How many paid staff (FTE) do you have?
	0
4. Please indicate your organization type:
	Independent 501 (c)3
How many clients do you serve annually?
	100-110 children yearly
Volunteers for this agency can serve in these county(s):
	Another Vermont county

Last updated on November 9, 2009