Youth nature camp program continues growth

Now in its third year, the Coastal Connection Camps program offers educational summer activities for middle school youth in Valdez and Seward, while training teachers and leaders to conduct these and future camps. The program includes exploring the coastal environment, hands-on science, art, team building, and developing personal resilience.

“Parents in both communities have been thrilled that there is something productive and supervised for their kids to participate in over the summer,” said Leigh Lubin, education specialist for Alaska Sea Grant and the camp’s architect.

The Coastal Connection Camp is designed to be a “camp-in-a-box” that trains leaders and provides the supplies needed to offer camps in remote locations or smaller communities that may not have the organization or infrastructure to develop and host camps. For the children, it can be the first step towards stewardship and STEAM learning (science, technology, engineering, art and math) by giving them a positive and memorable experience in their coastal environments and with science.

This year, Lubin and Sarah Schuh of the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area collaborated to train 10 educators and Coastal Connection Camp leaders at a four-day training in Seward, Alaska. These included educators for the Prince William Sound Science Center, Alaska Sealife Center, and National Park Service. The Prince William Sound Science Center, for one, is planning to incorporate aspects of Coastal Connection Camps into their summer camp program.

The training, with participation from the Chugach Regional Resources Commission and the Seward Prevention Coalition, included facilitation, personal resilience and teambuilding skills, and cultural knowledge and sensitivity. Many of the camp leaders trained are public school teachers who take the curriculum and the concepts back to their classrooms.

The Coastal Connection Camps have grown more than seven-fold, from serving seven children in Valdez in 2022, to 23 in Seward last year, to 50 kids this summer across both communities.

Alaska Sea Grant partnered with the City of Valdez to offer two camps, which were filled with waitlists. The Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area offered four camps in Seward, with support from Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center and other grant funds from various sources. One of the camps was a “Reconnection Camp” with kids that participated in a previous year, and included an overnight kayak camping trip.

The success of the training program is encouraging for future development. Lubin hopes to expand the reach of the program to additional communities, and to offer the training program to teachers for continuing education credit. In Valdez, there are hopes of building a program that includes more Reconnection Camps with camping and counselor-in-training programs for high school youth.

This program is a CORaL Network community outreach activity funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

As part of the camp, parents receive the resource Staying Connected with opportunities for their child to continue to participate in STEAM, culture, and outdoor adventures opportunities.