It's almost time for Summer Camp Zoofari!
It may not be summer yet, but it is definitely on the horizon. And you know what summer means for the Education Department – Summer Camp Zoofari! Registration is open, and preparations are well under way.
For those of you who have read some of my earlier posts, you know two things about me when it comes to camp: I am the camp supplies guru, and I spent some time on grounds last fall thinking about new camp topics. First, to the topics.
We kept some of our topics from last summer – why write new stuff when the existing stuff is still perfectly good? A few of last year’s new camps sold out really fast (Bringing Up Baby, Island Hoppers, and Keeper Camp come to mind) so keeping those for this year means more people can have a chance to experience them!
We have some new, exciting topics debuting this year, too! Toad Trackers, for our 10-12 year old age group, includes real field research on Zoo grounds. 8-9 year olds can take an Asian Expedition with us to visit elephants, red panda, Komodo dragon, and other awesome Asian animals. The 6 and 7 year olds have a chance to explore some of the most remote habitats of the world in Natural Mysteries. And Colossal Creatures for our youngest group should be tons of fun.
Some of the camp supplies that arrived at my desk last year.
Now that we have our topics, the fun part for me begins: supplies! I spent most of my day yesterday “shopping” with school supply catalogs covering my desk and at least 5 browser windows open to craft supply sites. I know a lot of people like bargain hunting, but this is a little different. When is the last time you did price comparisons for owl pellets or rubber fish replicas for fish printing? But I got it done! The list to order is finished, we’ll start placing those orders next week, and then it’ll start to feel like my birthday. Boxes will arrive, I’ll get to open all of them and see what’s inside, and then I’ll have the task of finding someplace to put everything.
Camp Zoofari is 10 weeks long, and it takes a lot of supplies for a camp this big. This year we had requests for more than 6,000 sheets of construction paper (in a variety of colors), nearly 4,000 googly eyes, and 2,000 feet of yarn! And we have to get some odd things, too: pantyhose, plastic insects, golf balls, and a blubber mitt were also on the list, just to name a few. But we find it, we make it, we order it, or we borrow it – there is very little that we end up needing to substitute.
So now that I’ve told you all about my part of camp planning, it’s your turn! What are you looking forward to about Camp Zoofari?
Summer Camp Zoofari is filling fast, so register your kids today!
