Environmental Education programs bring school children to camp to learn about the natural world out in nature. This past year Casey County held its first Overnight 4-H Environmental Education (EE) Camp at the Lake Cumberland 4-H Camp; the first ever in the camp’s history.  

With the success of last year’s EE Camp, Walnut Hill Elementary (WHE) was excited to jump on the chance to provide this opportunity for their students again. The teaching staff at WHE worked diligently in arranging adult chaperones for each of the three cabins and recruiting 4^th graders to attend. Through extra efforts from the teachers and students, WHE was able to raise over $1000 to off-set the costs of camp for those who were unable to pay the registration.

For the first year, Liberty Elementary School (LES) 4^th grade provided this Overnight 4-H EE Camp for their students. The agent met with the students and teachers multiple times to provide information about the program and answer any questions they had. The teachers worked with the students to receive the necessary paperwork and help recruit adult chaperones for the program.

The agent arranged teens to assist with the cabins and classes as the adult chaperones and campers had never attended 4-H Camp. The 4-H Camp director and agent worked together to create a schedule and arrange the instructors for the lessons including bird adaptations, rock identification, mammals, stream study, and rock wall and zip line. The Liberty Wildlife Refuge was booked for a presentation on a variety of birds.

Due to COVID-19 and wanting to ensure the safety of our youth, volunteers, and staff, the Overnight Environmental Education Camps were canceled. Wanting to still provide the 4^th grade students with an EE experience, kits were assembled and distributed to all WHE and LES 4^th grade students (a total of 125 students). Kits included items already ordered for the program: drawstring bag, water bottle, sunscreen, lip balm, and hand sanitizer along with educational activities. Activities included an owl pellet with dissection instructions and diagram, night hike with a lifesaver candy, entomology photograph contest, scat and tracks identification sheet, and how to make a homemade bird feeder. Several parents posted pictures (on social media) of their kids using the kit sharing what they learned and how much they enjoyed the activities.

With continued interest of the teachers and students, Casey County hopes to provide the EE Camp to both 4^th and 5^th grade next spring.