Outdoor camp growing to reach more kids

Ask most of the children who attend the Kid vs. Wild camp run by Rome Floyd County Parks and Recreation, and they’ll tell you almost to a person that they love being outside.

Monday, 28 youngsters started their week at the Floyd County Wildlife Association with a lesson in protecting the great outdoors. The kids learned how to build terrariums with assistance from Mary Hardin Thornton and Berry Bonner Scholar Jake Hager with Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful.

“They are microcosms of the many different ecosystems around the world,” Thornton said.

The camp has become so popular in its eighth year that Camp Director Tammy Bryant increased the number of youngsters in each of the two sessions to 28 to be able to accommodate more kids. The camp this week and the second session in July are sellouts and nearly half of the youngsters who are participating this week have attended Kid vs. Wild in the past.

Jackson Taylor, 12, who attends Model Middle School, said this week marked his fourth time at the camp.

Milly Potts, 8, from Model Elementary School, is back for the second time.

“I like to be outside and I like to fish,” Potts said. Her brother, Benton Potts, is also attending the camp this week.

The youngsters are exposed to a broad range of outdoor activities during the week. Personnel from the Rome-Floyd County Fire Department talk about camp fire and outdoor fire safety in general, while Department of Natural Resources personnel come out one day to help the kids with archery and BB gun shooting and wildlife.

Georgia Forestry Commission personnel came out to teach children about trees and how to identify the different species that are so abundant in the woods across Northwest Georgia.

Bryant said electronic gadgets such as phones or tablet devices are prohibited at the camp.

Each afternoon the children are carried to the Northside Swim Center to cool off at the end of the day. The camp will wind up Friday afternoon with a field trip to the Runnin’ Wild Farm off Old Rockmart Road, where kids will see zebras, camels, alpacas, longhorn cattle and other exotic critters

A second session of the camp in July is also already full.

ABOVE: Benton Potts (left), 8, and Collin Watson, 8, work on terrariums that are representative of tiny ecosystems at the Kid vs. Wild camp held by Rome-Floyd Parks and Recreation on Monday at the Floyd County Wildlife Association facility.

Photos by Doug Walker, Rome News-Tribune LEFT: Mary Hardin Thornton shows Sam Tucker, 11, a tiny plastic animal that he can put into his terrarium.

Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune Milly Potts (left), 8, and Ayden Maddox, 8, dip charcoal from buckets into glass jar terrariums during a worksop on ecosystems during the first day of the Kid vs. Wild camp Monday. The camp is for youngsters from 8-12 and has 23 boys and five girls...