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| Spring Discovery - Elem only |
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April 7-11 |
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Catch the summer camp fever early this year! Spend your school break at Elachee having fun, meeting new friends and discovering spring in the Chicopee Woods. Children in grades K-5 explore the spring woods, tour our museum exhibitions, visit StarLab planetarium, participate in educational programs, games, crafts, and more! Each day campers explore a different topic through investigation, instruction, and hands-on experiences. Make exciting wildlife and plant discoveries as the forest awakens and the wildflowers bloom! A great solution for those parents who have to work while the kids are out of school! |
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Watch Me Grow - Elem and
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May 27 –30 (4
day Pro-rated) |
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Enjoy the special late spring beauty of the Chicopee Woods as we kick off another great summer at Camp Elachee. Walk the forest trails in search of nesting birds, newborn mammals, and growing wildflowers and ferns. Wade in Walnut Creek to search for insect and amphibian nymphs. Create your own caterpillar and study the miracle of insect metamorphosis with butterfly expert Becky Jones. Elachee’s Animal Curator Toni Hurst will introduce you to Gopher Boy, Coach, Red, and other unique animals and describe their life cycles, food - catching adaptations, and other interesting facts. What better way to grow into the summer than this great week at Elachee! |
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| Elachee Trailblazers - Elem only |
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June 2 - 6 |
Natural landmarks, compasses, maps, and historic sites will be the focus of this week of navigation at Camp Elachee. Learn map and orienteering skills from an Elachee naturalist. Create your own series of maps in order to keep record of the animals and plants you see and the memorable natural and historic sites you visit. Enjoy a unique and challenging scavenger hunt in the Chicopee Woods and hike to our new suspension bridge to get a tree-top view of Walnut Creek. Search for animal signs with your friends and learn tracking skills. Keep a journal in order to record each unique memory you create during this week in the Chicopee Woods. |
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| Animals, Animals - Elem and |
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June 9-13 |
| Join us for this celebration of animal life as we party down with some of Elachee’s unique critter collection and some exciting guests. . Raptor experts from S.O.A.R, (Save our American Raptors) will display and fly some of their beautiful birds of prey. Search for songbirds like the Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush and Pileated Woodpecker and don’t forget to keep an eye out for deer, beaver, and other mammals of the Chicopee Woods. Create a “Track Trap” to identify some of our 4-legged nocturnal visitors and compare skulls from Elachee’s collection to learn about the eating habits of carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Wade the streams in search of aquatic life of all kinds and turn over a few logs along the trails to spy on some terrestrial counterparts. You'd better be prepared to “Preserve” some great memories in the Chicopee Woods. |
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| Slimy, Scaly, Sticky Critters - Elem and |
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June 16 - 20 |
Reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates of all kinds will be the focus of this Camp Elachee week. Walk the trails and wade the steams in search of lizards and salamanders. Turn over rocks and logs to discover the wonderfully diverse animal world that exists underneath. Elachee friend Johnny Hester will return again with Georgia’s best collection of native venomous snakes. Toni Hurst, Elachee’s animal curator, will take you on a grand tour of our tree frog, snake, and other animal room exhibits. Watch how they move, climb, and catch their prey and gain some real insight on how they live their lives. Every day is animal day at Camp Elachee!
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| Catch Some Rays - Elem only |
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June 23-27 |
| The Sun will be the star of a week of astronomically energetic activities at Camp Elachee. Visit our portable planetarium Starlab to study stars, constellations, planets and moons. Safely search for sunspots and other solar activity with the help of a solar telescope, “sun spotters” and the Elachee staff. Create your own scale model solar system and bake up a camp snack in a solar oven. Explore the different forms of energy by enjoying some demonstrations and activities with an Elachee naturalist. See how plants collect the sun’s energy for themselves and then share the food they make with appreciative animals. |
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| Inspired By Nature - Elem and |
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June 30 - July 3 (4
day Pro-rated) |
| The Chicopee Woods has been a source of fun and inspiration to generations of residents and Elachee campers alike. Join us for this 4-day holiday week and experience some of the wonder for yourself. Examine some Native American pottery found in our forest and then work with artist Pat Mears to create and decorate your own work of art. Visit secluded creek banks or towering trees to draw or compose. . Enjoy the reptiles, snakes, birds, mammals and other remarkably camouflaged animals of Elachee friends and guest presenters, “Exotic Paradise”. Create some beautiful art and memories that will last a lifetime during this week at Camp Elachee. |
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| Music In The Woods - Elem only |
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July 7 – 11 |
“The Chicopee Woods are alive with the sound of music”! Join us at Elachee as we focus on the beautiful sounds of the forest. Learn to identify at least 10 birds by their distinctive and beautiful songs. A late summer thunderstorm’s winds make uniquely different sounds flowing through the leaves of our native trees. Identify 10 species of trees using a dichotomous tree key. Sit on the banks of one of the Preserve’s creeks and let the wonderful sound of moving water inspire you to write, draw, or compose. Construct simple musical instruments under the direction of Elachee friend Doc Johnson and then we will all join in for the end of the week performance. |
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| Water Wise - Elem and |
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July 14 –18 |
| The warm days of July are perfect for some serious creek time so join us for a week of aquatic fun and learning. Conduct simple experiments that will illustrate some of water’s most amazing properties. Use a net. test tube and the help of an Elachee naturalist to determine the water quality in Walnut Creek. Hike to Chicopee Lake and discover unique wading birds, basking turtles, and swimming mammals. Construct your own miniature raft and race it in the 3rd annual Camp Elachee Regatta and spend some quality time cooling off in Walnut Creek. Learn more about Lake Lanier and water conservation from guest expert, Nick Evans. There will be “water, water, everywhere” during this popular week at Camp Elachee. |
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| Thinking Green - Elem only |
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July 21 - 25 |
| What better time or a better place to learn about the simple, fun, yet important things we can do to help conserve our earth’s natural resources than this week at Camp Elachee. Discover how the natural systems of the Chicopee Woods can teach us valuable lessons that will help us conserve at home. Meet the decomposers of the forest: lichen and fungi; and see how they convert leaves, sticks and fallen trees into an invaluable resource. Visit our Composting Site to learn how to turn your leaves, grass clippings, and kitchen leftovers into rich and valuable soil. Explore the Walnut Creek Restoration Site to learn how “rebuilding” a creek can improve water quality and then develop a list of water conservation techniques you can use at home. Hike to see a beaver dam, search for snails and millipedes, and look for squirrels’ nests in order to see nature’s recyclers at work. Then enjoy a visit from Rick Foote, Hall County’s Recycling Director as he teaches us to make recycled paper and shows a number of interesting ways to recycle at home. Don’t miss this fun and important week at Camp Elachee. |
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| The Earth Rocks On! - Elem and |
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July 28 – August 1 |
| Fossils, rocks, minerals, and soils are the focus of this popular Camp Elachee week. Examine Elachee’s extensive fossil and prehistoric artifact collection before creating your own versions. Test rocks and minerals for hardness and other qualities and then pan for precious minerals under the expert eye of Taylor Cantrell of the Northeast Georgia Gem and Mineral Society. Hike to some remote areas of the Chicopee Woods to see how geology affects the animals and plants that live there. Visit our Astronomy Hall to see a remarkable 100-lb meteorite that is older than the earth itself and learn more about them from meteorite expert, Dave Gheesling. Send the summer off with a big bang of excavation and discovery at Camp Elachee. |
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| Middle
School Camps |
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Chicopee Woods Explorers |
Experts in the Field
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Elachee/SORBA Mountain
Bike Camp |
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| Chicopee Woods Explorers |
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June 2 - 6 |
| Navigation, GPS use, map reading and adventure are at the heart of this school camp week. Hone your GPS skills under the direction of Erik Van Dyke of the Georgia Geocachers Association and then follow a challenging geocaching course in the Chicopee Woods. Work with an Elachee Naturalist and a GPS unit to record important data from the Preserve and then transfer it to a computer. .Learn compass and orienteering skills and then test them out on one of our challenging cross-country courses. Join Conservation Coordinator Judith Cocus on an across-preserve hike to explore the Walnut Creek watershed, identify invasive plants, and visit several stream restoration sites. Learn to identify some of our nesting bird species with Education Director Peter Gordon and hike to bird-rich parts of the Preserve to record nesting data.
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| Experts in the Field |
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June 9 – 13 |
| Join us on this field study focused-week at Camp Elachee where experts in the fields of Forestry, Biology, Ichthyology, Herpetology and other disciplines take you on unforgettable exploration of the Chicopee Woods. Use nets and other devices to locate and capture insects, mollusks, and amphibians from streams and then search for a variety of reptiles along the banks Chicopee Lake and the trails of the Preserve. Hike to the deepest parts of the Chicopee Woods to locate and identify the some of our most spectacular trees. See the effects that exotic and invasive plants can have on plants and animals alike. Have some serious fun in the Chicopee Woods while learning what field research is all about.
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| Elachee/SORBA Mountain Bike Camp |
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June 23-27 (beginning bikers),
July 7-11, July 21-25 |
| Elachee and the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA) are excited to sponsor three weeks of two-wheeled adventure again this summer. Join us for the exercise and exhilaration of riding on some North Georgia’s best mountain bike trails. Camp Elachee staff and expert instructors from SORBA will guide you through a week of fun and excitement. Learn easy yet essential bike maintenance, successful riding techniques, and other safety skills. Make sure that you and your mountain bike are tuned up and ready to go because there will be bumps, jumps and twisting trails ahead. Campers provide their own bikes and helmets are required. Please note that the June 23-27 week will focus on beginning or occasional riders.
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| CIT
Opportunities For High School Students |
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| Youth entering grades 9-12 can apply for Counselor-in-Training
(CIT) positions and assist counselors for a minimum of two weeks
of camp (only one of which can be mountain bike camp). Learn more
about the natural world, help teach children and develop interpersonal
and leadership skills. A nominal fee of $60 covers training and
supervision. Call for
an application.
Scholarships - Thanks to the generosity of many individuals and the Frank P. and
Martha Hatcher Memorial Camp Scholarship Fund, needs-based scholarships
are available. Scholarships are awarded for one week of camp per
child. Deadline for applications is May 1st. The financial aid committee
reviews each application and makes decisions by mid-May. Late applications
may be considered on a case-by-case basis, as funding allows. Please
call us for a copy of our guidelines and an application. |
...Click here to return to Elachee's Summer
Camp home page or here to Register for camps
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