Brent Freeman, Author at Camptown

Getting Out More

May 6, 2021 by Brent Freeman

The National Park Service announced their 2020 park usage numbers in February and reported over 237 million visitors to the National Parks in 2020. While this number represents a 28% decrease from 2019, they attribute the drop due to temporary park closures and restrictions implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic. A total of sixty six of the parks in the National Parks system were entirely closed for two months or more. Smoky Mountain, Rocky Mountain, Zion, Grand Teton, Olympic, and Joshua Tree all reported increases over 2019. Grand Canyon reported the biggest drop moving it from the second most visited park (a spot it has held for 30 years) to sixth place. The parks with the highest visitation tend to be parks located nearest major metropolitan centers and those with the biggest decreases, the ones that take some time to get to. Smoky Mountain National Park held its spot as the most visited National Park, a position it has held for 40 years, and breaking the park record set in 2019. I can personally attest to the crowds in the Smoky Mountains. I spend at least one week a year in the Smokies, either fishing with my friend Tom, visiting with family, or with a Camptown group. This past year my fishing trip was cancelled as we watched news of the crowds heading to the Smokies. I did get to the Smokies last month with a group of High School students from Thrive Christian Church in Westfield. I purposefully chose a less visited area on the North Carolina side of the Smokies to stay and tried to pick day hikes and activities that were not as visited. I did want the students to see some of the must sees like Clingmans Dome (which was on one of the clearest days I have ever seen in the Smokies) and get on the Appliachian Trail, but even the lesser visited areas were crowded. For most trails, we had to park and hike up to a half mile away from the trail head. The trails themselves were also crowded. There was seldom a time when we had a section of trail to ourselves. I have mixed feelings about the growing numbers of visitors to our National Parks, National Forests, State Parks, State Forests, and wilderness lands in general. On the one hand, I know the studies that show the spiritual, emotional, and physical benefits of nature experiences. Outdoor play and nature experiences have been credited with reduction of ADD symptoms, improved self-discipline, improved performance on standardized tests, improved physical health, stress reduction, improved cognitive functioning, and improved emotional well-being at all developmental stages. Camptown is all about promoting getting outside and experiencing God’s gift of his creation. On the other hand, the crowds! Where is the solitude? I am concerned that our kids will not get to experience the peace and flow of nature that we have. There are places you can still find that solitude and felling of getting away, but you have to work at it more. Maybe that is the way it should be. There also needs to be a call for responsible use of our Parks and Wilderness areas. So, are people still able to still get that healing benefit from being in nature? I will let a few of the students on our trip to the Smokies answer that question.

I learned more about God and want to devote more time to him.

I learned to turn to the Bible right away when I struggle with something.

I learned how to sit and listen to God.

It was a good experience I may always remember.

I had a great experience that I think will have a lasting impact.

I really liked how this made me set aside my electronics and focus on the things and people around me more than usual. I also like having the chance to get to know different people.

Read more Camptown Blog Posts

Backcountry Recipe

January 27, 2021 by Brent Freeman

One of our staff favorites. You will find several versions of Goda Goda. It can be made in a pot or skillet, at a front country campsite or even at home. This version is our boil and bag backpacking recipe. A spicy peanut butter sauce makes this a light ramen dish that is excellent either hot or cold.
Enjoy!

Goda Goda
Packet of Ramen noodles
3/4 cups water
1/2 Tbs. dried onion
1 1/2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. garlic
1/8 tsp black pepper (optional)
1 pkt. soy sauce (save your packets from takeout)
1 Tbs. peanut butter powder
Pinch of crushed red pepper 1 Ziploc Freezer Bag 1 padded mailing envelope
At home, add dry ingredients to a Freezer Ziploc bag. In camp, break up Ramen before dumping into the Zip-loc bag with the dry ingredients. Add the soy sauce and shake to mix. Boil water and add to the Ziploc bag. Close bag and put in the small insulated mailing envelope for 10 minutes.

Serving Under Represented Youth

December 2, 2020 by Brent Freeman

Statistics from the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service show that although people of color make up nearly 40 percent of the total U.S. population, they make up less than 30% of the people visiting our national parks and national forests with African Americans the most under represented group. The Sierra Club has reported that less than half of African American adolescents age 13 to 17 will participate in even one outdoor recreation activity in any given year.

Several barriers have been discussed that may contribute to minority under-representation in the outdoors. Some of these Include:

Safety: Media stories of bear attacks, lighting strikes, and falls from cliffs can leave many people unfamiliar with the outdoors fearful for their own safety. This fear is compounded for minorities with incidences of racial violence and the idea of outdoor places being historically violent social spaces. (Racial Complexities of Outdoor Spaces: An Analysis of African American’s Lived Experiences in Outdoor Recreation by Matthew Charles Goodrid, 2018)

Affordability and Access: Visiting national parks can be expensive and distant. The cost of entrance fees, transportation, and equipment can be significant obstacles to lower-income families. Even our closer State Parks have entrance fees that can create a barrier.

Childhood Experiences: Many minority adults did not have the opportunity to attend summer camp or spend time outdoors as children. Several studies have shown that that early childhood experiences of engaging with the natural world can shape a person’s views of self-confidence and appreciation of nature well into adulthood. This becomes a chronic cycle of exclusion.

Feeling Acceptance: Ambreen Tariq started the Instagram account @BrownPeopleCamping to promote diversity in the outdoors. In an REI-Co Op journal she writes, “So, for many of us people of color, venturing into remote wilderness spaces to try something new or challenging, all while hauling the extra weight of being self-conscious or anxious as a minority in the outdoors, can make for a pretty uncomfortable experience. I would but no one out there looks like me.”

I recently read an article featuring a black female climber who speaks out about breaking the color barrier in the sport. How she wants to be a role model for young black girls and blogs and speaks to how people of color are under-represented in climbing. Yes, we need role models and we need to continue to have a conversation about the under representation of minorities in all outdoor spaces, but more importantly we need action. James 15-16 says Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? Of course, this chapter in the bible is talking about faith and deeds, but I think it applies here. What good is all of the talk if we DO nothing?

At Camptown we put our faith into action. For the past almost 30 years, we have been taking under-represented youth into nature. Since we have been keeping statistics in 2005, we have introduced over 21,000 minority youth to adventures like hiking, caving, camping, climbing, fishing, backpacking and canoeing. This represents 55% of our total youth served. I have always felt uncomfortable about keeping statistics on race because it just doesn’t matter if our youth are white, black, Hispanic or other. What matters is that they need to get out into the outdoors and experience God’s creation and know that they are loved and have value. To learn that there are opportunities out there that they have not even considered.

During this time of an ongoing pandemic, as well as growing political and racial divisions, we will continue to reach out to those least likely to get out into nature. Not because of any protest, appeal from a celebrity, or societal pressure, but because it is what we have been doing and it is the right thing to do. We envision a time when all people have equal access to all of what God’s creation has to offer without inhibition.

On Mission

August 21, 2020 by Brent Freeman

As we began returning to work and running programs in June, like everyone, I had to ask, “What does this look like for Camptown?” Many of our program partners had cancelled their summer plans and others had reduced their numbers and implement-ed stay in place policies. In other words, no field trips. We did have a few groups that managed to return to a somewhat normal summer. Safety of our youth participants, adult chaperones, and staff has always been paramount. We rolled out our 4 S’s of Covid prevention (Screening, Small Groups, Social Distancing, and Sanitation). This helped us to communicate not only the precautions we were taking, but also the expectation we had of our program partners. As we began our planning to return to programming, I thought it would be very easy to get off mission just to keep busy. Instead, we have focused on our mission and how can we still deliver impact during these times. We already work outdoors with small groups. During the summer, we do typically have some large group programs, but these we even break into smaller groups. With this eye on mission, we talked with our pro-gram partners to see how we might help. Based upon their feedback we started offering more transportation services, took our programs to them, and focused on our small group programs. This has been challenging at times. Typically, we will run 15 days of our Natural Wonders Day Camps each summer; each day is essentially the same activities and we get pretty good at setting up and tearing down. This year we have held 13 Natural Wonders Day Camps at various community centers and Boys & Girls Clubs around the city. With each having different facility assets, every day was different and required custom programming. We also held four Roving Workshops for families at Ft. Harrison State Park and McCloud Nature Park. These were so popular that we are repeating them this month.

Fall is looking like it is going to be even more challenging. Almost all of our fall and winter programming is done with schools. We have already heard from one district that is moving forward with e-learning the first semester and another that is not allowing any non-essential personnel into the school as well as eliminating field trips. We are still waiting to hear what others are doing with their after-school programs and field trips.

We appreciate your continued support and especially prayers as we all transition through these changing times. Please continue to pray for our staff health and that God will guide and use us to His glory.

Not What You Expected

May 18, 2020 by Brent Freeman

What a difference a month can make. In early March we were working with our program partners on spring and summer programs. We were also short a staff member and wondering how we were going to get everything done. We knew God would provide us a new staff member and are excited to have Wes on our team, but still training someone in one of our busiest times of the year, had us running. Fast forward just a few weeks and all of our programs were cancelled and we were looking for ways to continue to make a difference in our community yet maintain social distancing and keep our staff safe and employed. So what are we doing during these uncertain times?
 We started delivering meals for Meals on Wheels of Central Indiana. Meals on Wheels of Central Indiana delivers approximately 600 medically tailored meals each day to clients who are shut in due to aging or other health related issues. Clients receive a cold lunch and hot dinner each day. In addition, every Meals on Wheels delivery volunteer does a welfare check on clients and reports any abnormalities to Meals on Wheels staff for follow up. Meals on Wheels relies almost exclusively on volunteer drivers for their deliveries. Many of the volunteers are retired and falling into the high risk category for Coronavirus, have suspended driving. At the same time, the Meals on Wheels client list has grown. We are delivering two routes, five days a week for Meals on Wheels. We are happy to be putting the resources God has provided us to the benefit of those in our community.
 Our staff alternate driving routes and working from home. On our route days, we have one staff in the office in the morning and one in the afternoon. This way we only have one person in the office at any given time. While in the office, we are taking care of facility and equipment needs. At home, we are staying in touch with our teachers and program partners to see what we can do to help during these times of uncertainty. We are following up with our summer program partners to help them prepare for summer programming.
 We have been adapting many of our nature education activities and have posted these to our website as Stay-at-Home Activities. These are outdoor activities parents and teachers can use to teach outdoor skills such as map & compass, plant & tree identification, Leave No Trace, Ecosystems, and we are adding more each week. Visit Camptown.org and click

Getting Out More

Backcountry Recipe

Serving Under Represented Youth

On Mission

Not What You Expected

Mission Statement

Connect

Resources

Training