No Child Left Inside
Many people carry memories of summers past spent at day camps throughout the nation where they played hopscotch and basketball and ate terrible box lunches before nap time. These memories may be held close to some hearts but the future of the average summer day camp is being changed so drastically that our children will not even comprehend how we ever enjoyed a summer without a camp program like Recreation Adventure Development, or R.A.D. Camps. The R.A.D. Camps organization was started by two local snowboard instructors, Eric Jackson and Adam Sather, that felt kids, just plain and simple, need to get outside and enjoy nature.
“R.A.D. Camps feel it is crucial to the wellbeing of adolescents to start learning about and enjoying the wilderness at a young age. This will enable them to grow in that lifestyle and enjoy it throughout their lives,” as said in R.A.D. Camps’ mission statement.
“Basically what we do is lead interpretive guided adventures through Oregon state parks and an occasional coast trip. We teach kids environmental awareness and always leave with more trash then we came with,” says founder Eric
Jackson.
Jackson and Sather run the camp all summer long and are currently looking into continuing R.A.D. camps into the winter so that local kids will have the opportunity to get out and enjoy the natural environment safely and creatively. The two instructors also teach campers plant and wildlife identification as well as environmental awareness.
“We just meet up every weekday at 8 at the Mt. Bachelor parking lot and head off. We head up to wherever we’re going that day, which is never the same place twice, and we just go adventure. It’s what we’re all about!” says Jackson.
Campers ages range from 7-18 and all parents have to do is sign on to www.radcamps.com for all information about getting their children involved in this exciting new way. So although your memories of dingy summer camps many years ago may spark warm nostalgia, Jackson and Sather give the younger generation the opportunity to spend their summer anywhere but on the couch.
“R.A.D. Camps is committed to getting kids outside enjoying the Oregon wilderness,”
says Jackson.
You may contact Zachary Hunt
at [email protected]
