There are so many easy things we can do at camp to practice stewardship!

Greetings from Maine everyone!  I have been counting down the days until summer 2014, ever since Family Camp ended, and it can’t come soon enough. I have some exciting plans for this summer as far as continuing to make FLC an environmentally conscious place.  Stewardship to our earth and stewardship to one another are a priority in my life and being at camp in the summers offer countless opportunities to put it to practice.  I look forward to sharing my ideas and equally hearing from all of you about what FLC can continue to do (and start to do) to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

There are so many easy things we can do at camp to practice stewardship. Shutting off lights when you leave a room is a simple act.  Wouldn’t it be fun to instigate a “No Lights For A Week” at camp or even just for a day?  Start finding those head lamps and charging those batteries!!  Taking shorter showers, recycling cardboard (or reusing for art projects), especially from all the care packages, and reducing our food waste are a few other simple things we can do to be aware of the impact we all have on the environment. Ways we go about doing this and how we make it fun will be my mission for the summer and hopefully yours too!

One of my main projects at camp this summer is going to be our compost system.   One of the best things we can do at camp to reduce our waste output is to compost! We need to continue to compost our food scraps.  If we don’t, we send excess trash to be trucked away (in carbon-releasing garbage trucks), to be incinerated, which emits even more carbon into the atmosphere. We need to do our part to ensure our beautiful Adirondack Mountains stay clean and beautiful. Composting can make a difference.

 At FLC we do our best to make everything as good as possible.  Even with our composting! This summer we are going to break this system down a little differently and I am excited to share this with our campers and staff. I hope to pull together a great team of campers to help design bright and clear signs to make our composting process understood and supported by our entire camp family.

Thankfully we have a strong and committed group of LIT’s who are responsible for emptying the main bin when it gets full. A healthy compost pile has added source of nitrogen and carbon. Sources of nitrogen include: grass clippings, coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, and weeds. Mike, our caretaker, is excited to support us on this end!  Sources of carbon include: fruit waste, leaves, sawdust (thanks to Sam our woodshop guy), and pine needles. 

Together, as a team, we can work collectively to be greater stewards to our environment and one another.  Camp is the best place to do this and I am excited to put our ideas to greater practice this summer, with your help.

Campers Claire and Owen(above) showing their respect for nature in the Redwood Forest in California!  What will you do this summer at camp to care for the earth? 

– Elyse Rubchinuk