Since the beginning of Camp Roger’s outdoor education program in 2000, the number of school groups and students attending has progressively increased. This October, the camp reached its 2,000th event and had the 75,000th student come through the discovery nature center.
So far this school year, 88 events have been held at Camp Roger’s Rockford facility. There have been over 3,800 school-age students coming to the discovery nature center to learn about animals, earth-keeping, survival and wetlands. Many of those events were also part of the adventure course on camp’s property. Groups can choose from a zip-line, high ropes course, and a climbing wall.
Camp Roger is most commonly known as a summer residential camp in June, July and August. However, on average, 10,000 children attend the camp the other nine months of the year. This is enough people to fill the VanAndel Arena. While scheduling difficulties, bussing issues, and economic hardships have caused some schools not to reschedule trips to camp, many are seeing the value of outdoor education and are finding ways to fund the beneficial outings.
For more information about Camp Roger, visit their website at www.camproger.org.
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