Food, Friends and Fun

Thanks to fantastic support from the Dally and Walters Family we are very happy to see the new Dally Family Dining Hall and Walters Family Amphitheater completed. With indoor seating for more than 300 and amphitheater seating for over 250 Camp Seymour is poised and ready to serve the next generation of campers, families and guests.

If you are interested in seeing the new facility please join us for a Seymour Sunday on May 5 or June 9. Call Heidi in the office to RSVP 253-884-3392.

Dally Family Dining Hall 4.20.2013

Walters Family Amphitheater 4.20.2013

 

 

Orginal Camp Seymour Dining Hall built in 1920

 

 

 









 

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

The average student throws away 67 pounds of lunch waste per school year! That adds up to a whopping 18,000+ pounds of waste produced by an average-sized elementary school in one year.

When schools come to Camp Seymour they usually bring their first meal as a sack lunch. At the end of this meal we send cabin groups to the Recycling Center where the Naturalists help them compost, recycle, and lastly throw away any item of their lunch that cannot be recycled or reused.

This fall the Outdoor and Environmental Education team at Camp Seymour enrolled in a non-traditional recycling program called Terracycle. The Terracycle program upcycles and recycles traditionally non-recyclable waste into a variety products. Now when participants go to recycle their sack lunches the Naturalists gather Lunchable trays and Capri Sun drink pouches. After a few months of collecting these items we sent our first shipment which prevented 89 lunch kits and 394 drink pouches from ending up in a landfill. According to the Terracycle website, they have kept over two billion waste units from going to a landfill in the U.S. alone!

For us at camp, this is one simple way to help reduce our impact on the environment. We challenge you to find ways you reduce waste at home and at school.

Organize a waste-free lunch day at your school. http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/pdfs/lunch.pdf

Pack a zero-waste lunch with these tips:

• Avoid disposable lunch bags. 
• Use lunch boxes or fabric bags for lunch. 
• Avoid prepackaged single-serving containers. 
• Buy your favorite treats, such as chips, applesauce, or yogurt, in large packages/containers or in bulk rather than single serving packaging. 
• Repackage snacks in reusable containers such as margarine tubs to avoid using single-serving packaging (e.g., plastic bags).  
• Use reusable containers or Thermoses for drinks and soups.
• Pack a cloth napkin and reusable utensils.
• Bring fresh fruit since it doesn't require any additional packaging.

New Dining Hall and Amphitheater

We've begun work on the new dining hall and covered amphitheater at Camp. Scheduled to open in May of 2013, the new complex will provide ample space for 350 campers to join together for food and fellowship, rain or shine.

 

 

 

OUR NEW DINING CENTER COMPLEX WILL OFFER

• Seating capacity for 350 campers and guests
• Separate dining spaces to accommodate multiple groups
• State-of-the-art food preparation and storage areas
• Outdoor dining porch for spring, summer, and fall
• Covered campfire and activity area for all-weather programs
• Views of the waterfront and beautiful Glen Cove
• Opportunities to renovate the current dining hall into indoor program space

 

The new dining hall will embrace our rich tradition and meet the current and futures needs of campers. There are still opportunities to contribute to the project. If you are interested, please contact Liz Ortenburger at 253-884-3392 or visit our online giving page.

 

Dining Hall Sponsorship Opportunities
$250 Small Brick
$500 Medium Brick
$1,000 Large Brick
$2,500 Amphitheater Bench
$5,000 Picnic Tables

         

Visit campseymour.org/construction-updates to view construction updates.

Camp Seymour Environmental Education Team Visits Minter Creek Hatchery

This Novemeber the Camp Seymour naturalists, along with our outdoor enviornmental education  co-directors, Becca and Scott Gjertson, visited Minter Creek Hatchery to learn more about the salmon spawning process.

During their visit they were able to see how the salmon are guided into the spawning tanks. The salmon are channeled from the stream towards a holding tank after pushing their way up stream. Then they are sent down this distribution pipe to the spawning tank.



 

Here are Becca and David catching the Coho Salmon inside the spawning tank and passing them off to us to do the dirty work. They had to make sure the salmon were ready to spawn by feeling their stomachs where the eggs are stored.

 



Then we had the opportunity to physically spawn the salmon. Dylan is cutting open a Salmon to spill the eggs into the buckets for fertilization.

 

 

Now you can see Amelia is taking the sperm from a male salmon, a Buck, and adding it to the eggs Dylan harvested.

Once the fish were processed, we checked to see if they were fish the hatchery was tracking since birth or a wild fish then the bodies were sent to a food bank to make food for other animals to eat.

It was a great time and we learned a lot about salmon hatcheries and how much better they are for the environment than farming fish. Although it is definitely a dirty job spawning fish we had a great time doing it.

Camp Seymour Launches Project Giving Tree

In Pierce and Kitsap Counties, there are a number of families struggling to make ends meet. Bills, mortgages, inconsistent employment and uncertainty overshadow the thoughts of making summer camp possible for their children. Camp Seymour recognizes that these kids need camp, as much or more than anyone. Camp helps them find a place the belong, disconnect form technology and problems in the outside world and helps them develop character and self-esteem essential for them to move ahead in life.

To bring this vision to fruition, Project Giving Tree was created. It's an opportunity for the community, many of whom camp has played a significant role in their lives, to make the dreams of these kids a reality. During the summer, kiosks will be available at check-in and checkout for families to help support the cause. The summer staff have each created their own "my story" page to share the stories of kids that they have seen, whose lives have been impacted by their experience at camp. Parents that would like to donate to the project, in the name of their child's cabin leader, can follow the links through the camp website to each leader's page and donate there.

We kicked off project giving tree with the staff making their pledge to the campaign, raising a total of $2,900! That represents full scholarships for nearly 5 kids to come to have a potentially, lifechanging experience at summer camp.

Thank you Camp Seymour summer staff!

To learn more about how you can support Project Giving Tree visit http://www.campseymour.org/project-giving-tree

If there is a child you believe would benefit from an experience at YMCA Camp Seymour, contact the camp at 253-884-3392, and we'll do our best to make it happen.