New Canaan Nature Center Expands Summer Camp Programs

New Canaan Nature Center recently expanded its summer camp programs to include more outdoor recreation and education. The nature and adventure summer camps in Fairfield County offer three levels based on age.

A Journeyman Adventure camper explores Saugatuck Falls in Redding.

New Canaan Nature Center Summer Camps has expanded its programs for 2014, taking each program to new levels of outdoor recreation and education. The nature center offers three tiers of outdoor camps, including Apprentice Adventurer day camp for ages 8-10, Journeyman Adventurers for ages 10-12, and a five-day expedition for Master Adventurers for ages 11-14. Registration is now open.

New Canaan’s Master Adventurer program allows campers to “take the next step towards back-country camping,” camp director Geoff McCann says. This summer’s excursion is the lower part of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, where campers will have to load up their gear and paddle in to their campsite. Campers will learn wilderness survival skills, including setting up a base camp and camp kitchen, paddling, and navigating. Being removed from modern convenience helps facilitate a greater connection with nature and requires campers to rely on each other.

“These skills help build character, develop leadership, and build confidence,” McCann says. “Creativity and imagination are allowed to run wild, so kids can get back to being kids.”

In Journeyman Adventurers, campers will spend time building wilderness skills through day trips to sites within a 50-mile radius of the New Canaan nature center and Thursday night overnights. Even in the Apprentice Adventurer day program the camp is committed to spending at least 80 percent of the time outside to help kids to connect with nature. The flexible camp schedule is balanced by the experienced and responsible staff—all staff members are pursuing careers in the area of outdoor education.