Danby summer camps look to make local kids healthier and more ecologically aware

From Broader View Weekly on Thursday, May 26, 2011
By Andrew Casler

With the longstanding trend of Americans spending the majority of their time inside, local summer camps are working to increase connectedness with nature among children.

In Danby, there are two environmental education summer programs for children: Primitive Pursuits and Earth Arts. These programs foster tangible connections with nature by teaching wilderness survival techniques, naturalist skills and imparting ecological knowledge.

Brian Fowler said that outdoor education is a way to keep his kids healthy within a world that offers many unhealthy influences – such as video games and television. His four children have attended Primitive Pursuits, and his 9-year-old son, Avery, will be attending summer camp in Danby.

Fowler said he appreciates having the summer camps offered in Danby, and that nature is an essential part to his children’s development. He also said that environmental education has helped his kids maintain interest in outdoor activities.

“So rather than devolving in front of the television they get outside,” Fowler said. “I like knowing that my kids are making friends with other local Danby kids in an environment that I consider to be healthy and beneficial.”

Indeed, similar sentiments have been expressed by American Medical Association studies. According to a 2005 study titled, "Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children: Looking Beyond Fitness and Fatness to Attention, Affiliation and Affect," outdoor play is beneficial for the physical health of children. Time outside also helps children develop traits ranging from creativity and problem solving skills, to increased self-awareness and stress reduction.

Primitive Pursuits Program Coordinator Heidi Bardy said outdoor time helps kids recognize their own connections to animals and people alike, “Whether they’re being taught a skill outside, or even if they’re just out there playing.”

Bardy sees a sense of empathy develop from outside time. She says this affective knowledge develops from caring for nature, “I think [empathy] is immediately transferable into how they relate to other humans beings, which is a piece that is missing from the indoor environment,” Bardy said.

Outdoor learning seems to be a symbiotic relationship. Children who learn outside tend to gain empathetic attitudes, and in return those kids can develop life-long connections to nature and act as stewards who may protect natural lands.

Danby itself is an ecologically important area. Jennings Pond is the site of a major divergence in water flow; one current can be traced north to Cayuga Lake and then eventually into the North Atlantic, and another can be traced south to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Danby is also a diverse natural area, with wetlands and cattail marshes, mixed forests, resurging unfarmed fields and the home of several sensitive plant species.

According to a 2010 study by The Outdoor Foundation titled, “Outdoor Recreation Participation Report,” outdoor recreation participation among 6 to 12-year olds has slipped since 2006. In 2009 only 62 percent of 6 to 12-year-old children reported participation in outdoor recreation. Conversely, the study found that people who identified as outdoor participants wished to protect undeveloped lands at a greater rate than non-participants.

Earth Arts Lead Mentor Julie Kulik said that connecting kids with nature is an excellent way to get students motivated to protect the environment. She sees her mentees developing into conscientious adults, “We hear through parents that kids will carry these lessons on in their adult lives.” Kulik said, “They carry on that connection to nature and then strive to save it.”

For more information please visit:

Earth Arts

Primitive Pursuits