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Spotlight - Partnerships Encourage Philly Youth To Explore State Parks
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Lelia Favors sat alone on a tree stump, resting, watching, reflecting. A warm smile spread across her face that was wider than the log the young campers before her were attempting to saw with a Colonial-era tool. “You know this is so special,” said the North Philadelphia mother. “These young people will remember every place they’ve visited this week. Every new thing they’ve seen. And some day they’ll return here with their children or their grandchildren and tell them what they did on this day.”
Click Here for more photos from the camp.
On “this day,” Day Three in DCNR’s Youth Adventure Camp for Philadelphia youngsters, Mrs. Favors watched as nine of her young charges from the inner-city took turns reliving farm life 300 years ago on the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation gracing Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County. They cut wood, dipped candles, drew well water.
“And,” said Mrs. Favors, “they loved every minute of it.
“I know because I am with them when they leave for camp at 6:30 a.m. and I’m with them when they’re coming home at day’s end. They can’t wait to sit down and talk with each other about the new friends they made, the new places they visited.”
For the young campers, each day July 25 through the 29th began with an early morning pick-up at Vare Recreation Center at 26th and Morris streets. From there they were bound for Bucks County for some fishing at Tyler State Park. Or rock climbing at Ralph Stover State Park. Or history lessons and some horseback riding at Ridley Creek.
As an employee with the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, Mrs. Favors signed on as the group’s guide, counselor and mentor. Quickly, for four nights, that role was expanded to a house-mother, hosting overnight gatherings of very excited campers.
“It was easier that way,” she said. “They’d stay overnight at my place, have breakfast and then head for the ‘rec center’ and pick-up by the DCNR van.”
Despite the early wake-up, there was no sleeping on those rides, just a lot of excited chatter.
“You have to understand, so many of these kids never have been to a state park before,” said Mrs. Favors. “This is all new to them. When I watch them each day, I don’t see them wondering what neighborhood kids are from, or thinking about color, or race. I just see kids enjoying each other’s company and trying to help each other out. I just see kids enjoying the excitement of the day.”
For campers like Kevin Hutchinson there was a lot of excitement packed into the days. In his 8th and Lindley streets neighborhood, Colonial candle-making is uncommon. Pumpkinseed sunfish and green frogs, unseen.
“It was a great experience. Everyone saw so many new places and got along so well,” said the 15-year-old. “I was exposed to so many new things. I never saw a frog up close before, or a fish out of water.”
And Kevin’s favorite camp activity? “I loved the fishing! I tried it once before but never caught anything. I did this time!”
“The first day, when we did all those teamwork exercises was my favorite,” offered Yvonne Green, Mrs. Favors’ daughter, “but I’m also enjoying what I learning here today at the homestead.”
Would she recommend Adventure Camp to her friends? “Definitely!” said Yvonne, 14. “It’s fun, you see so many new places, and you take home so much from here.”
Kayla Mason, 14, of Northeast Philadelphia agreed wholeheartedly. She and 11 other campers traveled from Gifford Recreation Center in the Northeast to join Kevin and Yvonne’s group each day. Many new friends were made, places visited, she said.
“I loved the trips,” Kayla said. “Every day brought a new experience and new friends. We learned so much about so many different things offered in our parks.”
And that was exactly the intent of the Youth Adventure Camp program when it was formed four years ago, said DCNR’s Deputy Secretary for Administration John Giordano.
“This year, the campers arrived from Philadelphia on a Monday, and for most of them, it was their first time in a state park,” said Giordano, who joined the campers on three of their five daily outings. “By week's end, it was evident these young people had gained an understanding of, and appreciation for, the natural world around them.
“From their first fishing experience; to hiking, horseback riding, and rock climbing; to geocaching, the campers' self confidence grew exponentially, and along with it, so did their appreciation of Pennsylvania's resources. The rural southeastern part of the state was no longer out of reach. It was the campers' playground, their classroom. It was their home, too.”
Philadelphia Park and Recreation’s Jeff George is sold on the program. As facility supervisor at Gifford Recreation Center, he escorted his young charges to a daily diet of outdoors adventure. Seems he’ll be making at least one return trip.
“My group of teens already made plans to go back to Tyler State Park this weekend to fish and play disc gold,” George said in a letter to Giordano. “I want to thank you for your role in helping implement the DCNR Adventure Camp. It is a great idea to expose urban teens to the Pennsylvania State Park system.”
Bureau of State Parks official Rob Neitz agrees. The regional environmental education and information program coordinator has been with the Adventure Campers for three summers now, coaching them, occasionally scolding them, cooking for them, and supplying shuttle service to distant parks from their sometime mean streets of home. It’s all worth it, he says:
"There is nothing like witnessing first hand, the physical and mental change you see in a camper after they conquer their fear and climb a rock wall, or catch their first fish. The pride is unmistakable."
New activities and skills, new destinations, new friends – all that and more was the intent as DCNR broadened its urban recreation initiative to introduce more young people to the adventure, natural beauty and learning opportunities found in their state and city parks. Buoyed by initial success in summer 2007 in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, DCNR expanded its Youth Adventure Camps to six other urban areas.
Team-building. Photography. Fishing and boating. Topic and teachers varied, but the classroom usually is the same -- one of the 117 state parks stretching from Presque Isle in the far northwest to Tyler in the far southeast. For most campers it was their first visit to a state park from their homes in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Williamsport, Erie, Scranton, York and the Allentown area.
Participating students, ranging in age from 12 to 15, are selected through a unique cooperative effort that saw DCNR working with partners that have included:
Harrisburg, Harrisburg Parks and Recreation Department; Williamsport, Big Brothers/BigSisters of Lycoming County; Pittsburgh, City of Pittsburgh Parks and Recreation Department; Philadelphia, City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department; York, City of York Parks and Recreation Department; Erie, Boys and Girls Clubs of Erie; and Scranton, United Neighborhood Centers.
(Reprinted from the August 31 Resource newsletter from DCNR. Go to the bottom of the page to sign up for your own copy of Resource by email.)
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9/5/2011 |
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