The Salamander Adventure Camp took place from Monday, June 28, 2021 to Friday, July 2, 2021. The purpose of the Salamander Adventure Camp is to expose underserved fourth grade students in our local community to different experiences in the outdoors. The Salamander Adventure Camp provides structure, fun, and adventure to the lives of children. This year, the Salamander Adventure Camp was able to serve six students for one week. While this number is lower than what we anticipated, we believe that we positively impacted the lives of the students who were able to attend. The two lead counselors were FBRA staff members David Byers and Liddell Shannon. In addition, 2021 Salamander Adventure Camp had two FBRA alumni, Scarlet Dewey and Will Yurko, serve as interns.
The program began each day of the week with the Camp Counselors picking up campers at their homes in a FBRA school van. Students were transported to the FBRA Campus where they ate breakfast and packed a sack lunch for the day. During the week, campers and counselors went on creek exploration walks to Cove Creek, the Davidson River, and the East Fork of the Pigeon River. Campers played in the creeks, which included searching for salamanders and gaining some knowledge about stream ecology. The campers also hiked around Mount Mitchell State Park and Rocky Ford State Park. The final day was spent enjoying the lakefront at Fontana Lake.
While at all of the locations, students were asked to notice their surroundings and how they might have been different or similar to other places that they visited. The excellent camper to counselor ratio ensured that each camper was given a great deal of attention throughout the day.
