While kids may celebrate the end of the school year and envision lazy summer days, one summer camp—now in its 90th year—keeps kids active and engaged.
Kids learned leadership and team building skills as part of the South Dakota Farmer’s Union Camp at the Storm Mountain Retreat Center in the Black Hills. Around 40 kids came from all over the state to spend nearly a week at the camp.
Samantha Olson is an Education Specialist with the Farmer’s Union Camp.
“We teach young individuals 13 to 18 about leadership skills, cooperatives. We teach them how to form a co-op, how to run a co-op, how to write checkbooks, how to balance their money," said Olson. "And then we also just teach them about agriculture, so this year, the topic was careers within agriculture, so we’ve listened to an ag communications specialist, we’ve listened to an agronomist, a food scientist, just to kind of see the different careers you can have within the industry.”
But it's not all work and no play.
Fourteen-year-old Ethan Mutter from Sturgis has come with his brother for two years in a row. He said without this camp, he’d be hanging out at home or working for other people. His favorite part -- the other campers.
“Meeting the new people and just like what’s going on around," said Mutter. "Because we do a lot of activities and it’s all enjoyable.”
The social aspect is important to many of the campers.
Lizzy Schoenfelder, a 15-year-old sophomore from Parkston, said it’s an opportunity to be yourself and form friendships.
“You make so many unbelievable friends. So, some of these kids don’t open up in their school environments and it’s so nice for everyone to come here without judgment, without all of the drama, without the bullying and all that and just have a safe space to hang out and have fun," said Shoenfelder. " Ninety percent of this camp is doing activities like this out on the lawn and it’s so fun, it’s so inclusive and I love it.”
The South Dakota Farmer’s Union runs camps across the state for kids of all ages. The next one—for kids ages nine to 12—is in July at Lake Byron in Huron.