GREENFIELD — Under the picnic shelter, kids drew pictures on lined-up Popsicle sticks that they could later shuffle up and reassemble as handmade puzzles.
The sun shone down on the vast field beyond, where a group of their peers ran and laughed as they played games.
Over in the woods, another group gathered around their counselors to learn about the outdoors.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryPlug Into Nature is back for its ninth summer at Nameless Creek Youth Camp a few miles southeast of Greenfield. The week-long day camp is offering a variety of activities to nearly 50 rising third- through fifth-graders that celebrate creativity, the outdoors and friendship.
Camp director Martha Haynes and co-director Barb Kauchak, both retired teachers, oversaw the fun on Monday and will continue to do so throughout the week. Haynes said Plug Into Nature lets campers unplug from the electronics that saturate their lives.
“With all the technology that we see in our world, we just wanted to have a break from it,” she said.
Hayden Tomey, 10, agreed. He’s enjoying his third summer at Plug Into Nature. Being outside, playing games and hiking are his favorite parts of camp.
“It brings kids outside so they don’t just sit in their rooms playing video games,” he said.
The week will be filled with art and craft projects like tie-dyed shirts and birdhouses. Campers will learn basic culinary skills. They’ll hike the campgrounds’ trails and explore its creek. Experts will visit to share their knowledge in the fields of art, fire safety, natural resources, law enforcement and birding.
Weather permitting, the experience will culminate on Friday with water games.
Haynes and Kauchak said the camp wouldn’t be possible without local companies offering their sponsorship and volunteers putting in their time and efforts, like the members of New Palestine United Methodist Church, who on Monday were busy preparing lunch for the kids in the campground kitchen.
High school and college students serve as counselors for the camp. Grace Charpentier, 18, is back for her third year and anticipates returning in summers to come throughout college.
She first visited Nameless Creek Youth Camp as a Girl Scout years ago and said it connected her with new friends and nature.
“I definitely loved going to camp as a kid,” she said.
The experience helped nurture her love of hiking, an activity she enjoys to this day. While she’s one of the counselors heading up arts and crafts this summer, she’s led nature activities at the camp in the past and has seen how they help kids become more comfortable in outdoor settings, just as they did for her when she was their age.
“It shows them it’s not something to be frightened of,” she said.
Larissa Arnott, 11, has been coming to Plug Into Nature for several years.
“I get to see people that I know and then I get to meet new people,” she said as her fellow campers played four square under the picnic shelter.
Then she looked out past the ball-bouncers and toward the sun-drenched trees and lawn before voicing a thought her counselor likely had at Nameless Creek Youth Camp when she was around her age.
“Nature is just so nice and peaceful,” Larissa said.
