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FACILITIES
Nature
Camp occupies about six acres leased from the U.S. Forest Service.
Boys and girls reside in separate, rustic bunkhouses equipped
with metal bunk beds and screened windows. Each bunkhouse is
divided into two wings: Shenandoah and Southwest in the Girls'
Bunkhouse and Tidewater and Piedmont in the Boys' Bunkhouse.
Counselors live in the bunkhouses with the campers. Although
space is limited, each camper has a cubbyhole with drawers for
storing and hanging clothes and other personal items. Separate
bathhouses, or "T-houses," for boys and girls are
furnished with hot showers. Each bunkhouse can accommodate about
40 campers. Additional space is available for girls in one wing
of the Staff House, or office. Total capacity is around 90 campers
per session.
A
stand-alone infirmary building is conveniently located between
the Girls' and Boys' Bunkhouses. The staff always includes
a qualified emergency medical technician or nurse, who administers
first aid and dispenses medication. The infirmary contains
a separate room, adjacent to the private quarters for the
EMT/nurse, in which sick campers may be quarantined and monitored.
Should the need arise for more serious medical care, Nature
Camp is only 25 minutes from both a physician in Augusta County
and hospital in Lexington.
The
Lillian Schilling Building (or L.S.), named for the founder
of Nature Camp, serves as a central meeting place and dining
hall. Classes depart from the L.S., and the entire camp assembles
there every night for an evening program. In the rear of this
building is a modern and fully equipped kitchen, where the
cooks prepare three balanced meals a day. Since 1978 the cooks
have been members of the regular counselor staff, and a number
of traditional meals have been handed down from one generation
of cooks to another ever since. Meals are served family-style.
Campers sit at randomly assigned tables with counselors and
are expected to help with getting the food and cleaning up
after the meals. Table assignments are changed three times
during each session to allow different groups of campers to
meet and get to know one another.
Nature
Camp is fortunate to have a well equipped educational building,
with a library, which contains over 1500 books, field guides,
magazines and other periodicals, many of which have been donated
to Nature Camp over the years; a museum, which houses collections
of insects, rocks and minerals, bird eggs, and preserved animals;
and a laboratory, which provides such equipment as microscopes
and typically serves as a temporary home to snakes and other
reptiles and amphibians during the summer. The educational
building is open to campers, under counselor supervision,
during free periods in the morning, afternoon, and evening,
and provides an excellent resource for preparing class reports.
Classes are also held in the educational building, particularly
on rainy days.
Also
on the premises is a canteen, or camp store, which is open
three times a day and offers for sale notebooks, paper, pens
and pencils, stationery, toiletry items, Nature Camp memorabilia
such as T-shirts, and candy, ice cream and soft drinks. At
the beginning of the session, campers deposit money with the
canteen operator, who manages their accounts.
A
simple yet elegant stone chapel is nestled amid trees near
Big Mary's Creek, which runs along the northern boundary of
Nature Camp. The chapel and most of the other buildings at
Camp were built in the 1950's and early 1960's by Ollie Groah,
a resident of nearby Raphine. The chapel was renamed and rededicated
in 1997 as the Reeves Memorial Chapel, in honor and memory
of Col. John H. Reeves Jr. and Trudy Reeves. Col. Reeves was
director of Nature Camp from 1972 through 1996. Non-sectarian
services, which reinforce the spiritual values that Nature
Camp seeks to instill, are held in the chapel on Sundays and
are led by the counselors. The final event of each session
is a brief chapel service on Saturday morning.
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