The Kentucky 4-H summer camping program serves as a delivery mode to enhance positive youth development both during and after the camping experience.   One of the primary goals is to enrich the lives for all youth and adult participants while developing strong leadership and life skills that will be taken back to the communities in which they live.

     From 2008 to 2017 Hardin County averaged 59 campers per year with 2010 and 2012 having the highest attendance of 75 and 81 respectfully.  Although we experienced approximately a 20% decrease in camper numbers in 2017, 23% of those attending were returning campers with an average of 3 years previous 4-H summer camp experience.  

     Many of those returning campers have gone on to become teen and adult counselors in addition to being hired as camp staff.   In 2017 three former Hardin County camper/counselors were employed as 4-H summer camp staff with two of them having more than 3 years prior experience.Adult/Teen volunteer retention for summer camp counselors has continued to be a positive experience for Hardin County campers with 2017 teen counselors having 5 years previous camping experience and adults averaging 5 years with two of them having 10+ years.  

     While meeting new friends, doing something for the very first time and desiring to return the following year are among the top ten survey responses, one must realize that due to family situations and time of year that camp is held more often than not dictates the percentage of youth that return to camp on a consecutive basis.  With the statewide charge that 4-H agents have been given to increase camping numbers based on their counties youth population it must also be taken into consideration the increase cost involved in doing so.  More often than not an increase in quantity (numbers) does not positively increase the quality of the camping experience.