Summer Camps!
Now in our 5th year, the SHLT summer camp program is back! Join us in 2025 with 3 week-long camps for grades 1-8. Based at Folsom School and the South Hero Recreation Park, we will also explore nearby parks, farms, and trails. Camps are geared towards cultivating children’s’ connection with the land, celebrating the beauty of nature, appreciating local food and farms, and building lifelong skills. Our camps are led by our experienced team of SHLT staff, plus our summer interns via the UVM Rubenstein School Perennial Internship Program.
Quick Review:
Bike Adventure Camp. Rising 6th - 8th graders. June 23 - 27.
Nature Skills Camp. Rising 3rd - 5th graders. July 21 - 25.
Food, Farms, and Fun Camp. Rising 1st - 3rd graders. August 11 - 15.
More information about each camp, the registration process, and payments and financial support below.
Registration:
Registration will be based on a lottery-system, with preference given to Grand Isle County families. Families may enter the lottery beginning on April 15th. The form will remain open until April 30th, and we will inform families of whether their child is registered in the camp or on the waitlist by May 5th.
After you’ve been notified, families will have 1 week to confirm their child's registration (May 12th). If we have not heard from you within that week, we will release your child's spot to the next child on the waitlist.
Payment and Scholarships:
Due to the end of the ARPA-funded GISU camp program, we are no longer able to offer camps free of charge. However, SHLT is committed to offering high-quality summer programs that are open to anyone, regardless of a family’s income or finances. Starting this summer, we are offering a tiered system of payment. Families may choose the payment that feels best for them. No matter which payment you choose, it will not impact the experience of your child, nor your chances of getting into the camp.
Full-Price: $375 This is the average per-child full cost of running a camp, including materials, snacks, and time for SHLT staff and trained interns.
Outdoor Education Champion: $500 This additional support will go towards camp scholarships, making our camp programs sustainable and equitable.
Scholarship: $185 50% discount. We will consider greater support requests on a case-by-case basis. If you would like some financial support to send your child to camp, please email Jenna at jenna@shlt.org
You may enter the camp lottery before a financial support package has been arranged. After signing up for the lottery, please contact us so we can discuss financial support options and provide you with an appropriate discount code to use if you win the lottery.
Deposits, Cancellations and Refunds:
Every year, children are turned away from our camps due to lack of space. The more notice we have of cancellation, the better our ability to offer that space to another interested family.
When you are notified your child has been offered a space in camp, you have 1 week to confirm their enrollment. At that point, families will put down a $50 deposit.
If your family is receiving financial support, Jenna will work with you on a deposit arrangement.
Cancellations requested by May 31st (Bike Adventure Camp) or by June 30th (Nature Skills Camp and Food, Farms, and Fun Camp) will be refunded minus a $15 processing fee.
Cancellations requested on or after June 1 (for the Bike Adventure Camp) or July 1 (for the Nature Skills Camp and the Food, Farms, and Fun Camp) are non-refundable. Exceptions may be granted in cases of emergency.
If your child misses one or more days of camp, for any reason, we cannot provide partial refunds.
In the event that SHLT needs to cancel a camp as a result of unforeseen circumstances, a full refund will be issued.
Bike Adventure Camp
June 23-27. Rising 6th - 8th graders. 14 children
Click here to enter your child(ren) into the Bike Adventure Camp lottery.
Let’s explore South Hero and the surrounding area by bicycle! As a group we will bike to apple orchards, vegetable farms, local businesses, natural areas, beaches, and museums, some of which will include meetings and tours with local community members. For our two “big days” we will bike and ferry to Burlington and to Plattsburgh. We may also engage in a volunteer service project related to food security.
We’ll also do bicycle-themed games, including relay races, obstacle courses, and more. Sprinkled throughout will be mini-lessons on bike safety, rules of the road, signaling, bike mechanics, repair, adjustments, and tune-ups, helping students enjoy the lifelong freedom that bicycling provides. We will have extra bikes and helmets available to borrow for anyone who needs one.
Nature Skills Camp
July 21-25. Rising 3rd - 5th graders. 14 children.
Click here to enter your child(ren) into the Nature Skills Camp lottery.
Through hands-on activities and a spirit of curiosity and exploration, this camp will be all about developing nature-based skills! Expect to cultivate your inner artist as we carve wooden tools, make and use nature-based dyes, create ephemeral art pieces, and more. We’ll forge deep connections with the land practicing survival skills such as fire-making, wilderness cooking, and sustainable foraging. Nature-themed games will keep things fun and active. We will also learn how to be good stewards of the land through cultivating native plants and vegetables in our garden. As this camp takes place within Ndakina, the unceded and traditional homelands of the Abenaki people, we will also learn about and appreciate Abenaki culture through various hands-on activities developed in collaboration with the Abenaki Nations of Odanak & W8linak.
Food, Farms, and Fun Camp
August 11-15. Rising 1st - 3rd graders. 14 children.
Click here to enter your child(ren) into the Food, Farms, and Fun Camp lottery.
Gathering and brewing sumac tea, making fresh butter, playing garden and nature games, cooking delicious meals from garden-harvested ingredients, combining wild herbs to make salves for insect bites or bruises, cooking in our “mud kitchen” - these are just some of the activities we’ll do during this week of living off the land. With a focus on sustainable and ethical harvesting and farming/gardening, we will engage in hands-on learning using a variety of methods to provide our own food and medicine. Plus, this camp will be a celebration of the bounty that nature provides us, so we will be sharing our harvests with the community via the Food For Thought summer meal program.
