Stream Team Camps ready for kids

RUTH LONGORIA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published May 24

OLYMPIA -- Sign-ups for the annual Stream Team Camps at Priest Point Park are running behind schedule, but organizers hope that will change now that warmer weather has arrived.

Stream Team Camps allow children ages 8 through 10 to learn about water, wildlife and habitat through games, hikes and scientific exploration. The camps' weekly sessions begin July 10 and run through Aug 2.

Ilona Root of Tumwater, who moved back to South Sound two years ago after a 25-year absence, has fond memories of the time she spent as a child at Priest Point Park.

The park was as beautiful then as it is now, she said.

Root learned of the camps two years ago after she began looking for an interesting and educational summer activity for her daughter, Lara, now 10.

"Lara has always been a little scientist," Root said. "This will be her third year at Stream Team Camp, and she just loves it."

The camps offer young people intense learning and a chance to meet interesting people, she said.

"The kids don't just hang out at camp. They work on the trails and have intensive study of streams and plants," Root said.

"The thing I really like is the quality instructors. They don't impose how the kids should think; they let them explore."

Cedar Bouta, senior program specialist with the city of Olympia's Water Resources Program, said the camps have a ratio of about one adult per five children.

Cost for the three-day camps is $75, which includes a Stream Team T-shirt. Some scholarships are available.

Many of the staff are volunteers who have been involved in other Stream Team or environmental programs or were campers in previous years. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old.

Lara, a student at Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School, said she hopes to become a Stream Team Camp volunteer some day.

"I have to wait a few years for that, but till then, I'll just keep learning more," Lara said.

Stream Team Camp has taught her many things about streams, animals, and the food chain, which will help her when she grows up and becomes a scientist or zoologist, she said.

Visiting streams in and near the park was a fun part of camp, Lara said.

"We learned to test water to see if it's clean. If it's not clean we should get professionals to help. And, we learned that some people put things like Popsicle sticks down storm drains," she said.

"We shouldn't do that because if the garbage goes out to the ocean and animals eat it, they could die," she said.

Lara's 8-year-old sister, Anna, is looking forward to attending camp this summer with her.

"Anna has gone to two of the parent-sibling days at the end of camp and she enjoyed those," Root said.

"Anna's not as much into science as Lara, but I know she'll have a lot of fun."

Ruth Longoria writes for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5435.

On the Web

Thurston County: Stream Team Program (www.co.thurston.wa.us/wwm/divisions/stream_team.htm)

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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