Pioneer Camps at Wildlife Action continue to teach children about conservation

By MATT MCCOLL
Correspondent
Published: July 3, 2008

For the past 30 years, the Wildlife Action chapter in Mullins has been teaching its members the true meaning of independence and self-reliance. While it provides a wide range of camps, for ages 6-14, some are designed to personify the definition of the outdoors. “We try to get them outdoors and put a pole in their hands,” Senior Vice President of Education Frank Oliver said. “A lot of times, kids won’t be interested at all in the outdoors until they actually experience the outdoors.”

Two such camps look to fulfill many people’s “call of the wild.” The first of these camps is the Outdoor Heritage Camp, which aims to teach youngsters the finer points of hunting, fishing, trapping, canoeing and other outdoor activities. The second camp, Outdoor Survival Camp, is offered as a means to help one thrive in the outdoors.
Wildlife Action’s bi-monthly magazine “Wildlife Pride” describes the camp as a way of getting back in touch with our past. “The hypnotic flames of a campfire, the call of a wild goose, the bite of an icy wind — these are all pathways to our past,” it said. “We seek them as self-renewal.”

The Outdoor Heritage Camp seeks to be a means of reconnecting with the qualities that ensured the survival of our ancestors and the same qualities that we admire them for. “With this camp, we are looking to reconnect kids with their outdoor heritage,” Oliver said. “It’s all about hunting, fishing, trapping, and other outdoor skills.”

This particular camp aims to help the attendees to be ready to receive their hunter’s license when they reach the age of 16. “We want to show them how important our hunting heritage has been to us throughout our past,” he said.

According to WildlifeAction.com, the five basic points of law that a camper should live by are featured in the camp. Through the Outdoor Heritage Camp, Wildlife Action hopes to encourage preservation, conservation, education, sportsmanship, and fellowship to all who attend.

Outdoor Survival Camp pits the individual against nature. “With outdoor survival camp, we will put our boats in around Fork Retch and from their, we will go down into Horry County,” Oliver said. “The whole trip ends up being about 40 miles over the two nights and three days.”

This camp provides the experience of canoeing on the Little Pee Dee River for two consecutive days of exploration and site seeing along the scenic black water river.The Outdoor Survival Camp is described in “Wildlife Pride” as having goals such as helping the campers learn survival skills and outdoor knowledge through the two-day adventure.

“As far as a response to the camps goes, we have had about a 75 percent return rate on our Outdoor Heritage Camp,” he said. “That means that about everybody that didn’t go above the age limit from the camp before, returned for the next camp.”

Oliver said that there is still room in the Outdoor Heritage Camp and Outdoor Survival Camp, but generally these camps fill up quick.
Visit Wildlife Action online at http://www.wildlifeaction.com.

Next session of action camps begin this week

Wildlife Action has already conducted its first round of summer programs the following are upcoming camps

Overnight Adventure Camp, $300, Sunday - Friday Co-Ed Ages 9 - 14, July 6-11 (Limit 50 Campers)

Trailblazer Overnight Camp, $300, Sunday - Friday Co-Ed Ages 12 -14, July 20-25 (Limit 50 Campers); Deadline for application 7-14-08

Pathfinder Overnight Camp, $300, Sunday - Friday Co-Ed 9 -11, Aug. 3-8 (Limit 50 Campers); Deadline for application 7-28-08

Outdoor Survival Camp, $60, Saturday - Sunday Boys Only, Ages 9 -14, Sept. 27-28 (Limit 20 Campers), Deadline for application Sept. 16.