4-H Camp is one of the greatest outreaches and teachingmethods 4-H and extension offers its participants.  With opportunities for skills mastery,mentorship and relationship building, independence, self-direction, socialinclusion, and so much more – there are no other programs built into 4-H thatcan offer as much positive youth development in so many layers for 5consecutive days and for such a large group. Camp is for the campers; however, the leadership and skills learned andexercised by the counselors (JCITs, JCs, and ACs) are more than noteworthy inthe personal development journey that camp provides.  

Joining the recruiting efforts for camp in March of 2017,Clark County took its largest delegation to camp ever at 240 beds filled.  With the retirement of the 4-H extensionagent in one of the counties that Clark traditionally camped with; came theopportunity to realign the camping group. Going into the 2018 program year, Clark County would only be campingwith one other county instead of two, therefore opening more bed spaces tofill.  To increase marketing efforts;agent Shannon Farrell created an 11 minute promotional video that was used inall 3^rd and 4^th grade class rooms and shared on the ClarkCounty Facebook page.  The video waschocked full of footage taken at the 2017 camp with the office go pro.  The video walked through what a week of camplooked like from Monday to Friday, from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM and was extremelyrelevant with the faces of those who had attended in 2017.  Clark County totaled 285 beds filled for the2018 camping week!

For Counselor recruitment and management; Shannon workedwith the Family Resource Coordinator to secure a conference room at thecounty’s high school and conduct interviews. 40 Clark high school students interviewed for counselor positions inthis manner.  An additional 20 interviewswere conducted at the Extension Office for applying middle school students,home school students, and new adult counselors. After selection, coordinating efforts were had with North Central 4-HCamp manager to facilitate a 6 hour training for Clark’s near 60 attendingcounselors and 20 Montgomery County counselors. An alternative training was held for the handful of counselors from Clarkwho were unable to attend the camp training. In addition to the hands on training provided to all counselors; everyClark leader also completed numerous camp certified quizzes and attended thecamper orientation where they fulfilled their required 24 credit hours oftraining prior to camp.  The counselorteam showed amazing leadership all week! Also, for the first time, Clark County developed a new position of “CampMom” who helped handle sensitive issues and work through the problem solvingsteps that inevitably arise during the week. This addition, while only needed a minimal amount of times; was awonderful attribute to assisting in the smooth run of camp.