Connect a child to Nature through a Week of Camp!

Guilds allow counselors to teach and share their skills with campers. After lunch, we begin with a story, and then campers break into groups based on their interests. Our counselors offer a variety of skills, including whittling, cordage (rope-making), archery, mushroom foraging, and dip netting for macroinvertebrates.

Each location has a unique topography that allows us to tailor the guilds to available resources. In Wake County, which has many creeks, campers often build rafts, go fishing (primarily catching and releasing crayfish), and practice dip netting. In Durham, we focus more on bushcraft skills like fire-making, whittling, and basket-making. Orange County offers a blend of the activities of the other two locations.

Last week at camp, we based our guilds on the group's interests. Several campers expressed a desire to build a shelter, while others were more interested in exploration or crafts. We settled on three guilds: shelter building, log rolling, and cordage. The shelter guild stacked logs against a fallen tree and covered the logs with pine needles to fill in the gaps. The log rolling guild explored the forest and asked many questions about the beetles, worms, and snails they found. One of our Counselors in Training (CITs) led the cordage guild. She learned cordage as a camper, and it was inspiring to see her enthusiasm while sharing her skills with the next generation. 

During the summer in Orange County, we transformed the guild of archery into a week-long camp. We taught teenagers how to harvest young hickory saplings while following the "rule of 10," which states that for every sapling taken, there should be at least ten others left standing. Throughout the week, we shaved down the saplings and gradually bent them to create bows. We then used leftover bark shavings to make cordage for stringing the bows. Finally, we found young bamboo to craft into arrows.

During the debrief at the end of the day, many campers said that the guild activities were their favorite part of their experience. Guilds play an important role in allowing counselors to pass on their knowledge and skills to campers, fostering a sense of community and connection with nature.

We hope to expand our selection of guilds by bringing in specialists in ornithology, geology, and ophiology for our future camps. Thanks to your donations, we can provide the materials needed to create these guilds. 

Links:

• Orginization's Website