Today’s city folk often lose the vital knowledge of where food comes from, of farming, and the connection to the land.
Next month the White River Valley Museum will reconnect area youngsters to the land with its inaugural summer camp at the restored Mary Olson Farm on Green River Road.
“One reason we’re doing it is because it’s super fun,” said Tara McCauley, WRVM’s curator of education. “I think that the progression from start to finish on a subsistence, home, do-it-yourself farm is pretty much lost in the urban world of today.”
The museum’s summer camp, for kids ages 7-10, runs from 9 a.m. to noon, Aug. 2-6. The cost for the week is $70. Snacks will be supplied.
The inaugural program, “A Living History Summer Camp,” is about life on the farm and the historic nature of farming in the era when brother and sister Alfred and Anna Olson lived and worked at the site.
Each day’s lesson will follow different themes, from farm animals one day to gardening the next, from cooking to household arts such as sewing and weaving. At the end of the week, the kids will break into small groups and stage living history performances about each of the subjects they have studied. Parents may attend and walk through the farm.
“I know that when we do school tours at the farm, there are kids who have never seen vegetables growing out of the ground, the idea that eggs come from chickens, that the chicken they eat is chickens,” McCauley said. “It’s just not something that kids are really exposed to in an urban environment these days.
“… I think it’s a really meaningful thing to get back to the land and get back to simple ways of doing things and sustainable resources and being smart about how we use our resources,” she added.
McCauley, WRVM Education Assistant Erin Hash, and a summer intern from Northwest University will teach the kids.
“The kids will be working, working on the farm, gathering eggs, feeding the animals, working in the garden, turning soil over. We’ll have some planting to do in early August,” McCauley said.
To register, call 253-288-7439 or e-mail tmccauley@auburnwa.gov.
