Vail Valley Foundation expands Sowing Seeds summer camps for kids

Summer vacation days are normally filled with discovery, adventure and exploration for kids of all ages.

Now, the fun of those days can also include an educational component for even more children as the Vail Valley Foundation has expanded their Sowing Seeds Summer Camp to include a total of four sessions and two schools between June and August.

Both Edwards Elementary School and Brush Creek Elementary School will host two sessions of the three-day camps, with a maximum of 12 students per session.

The individual sessions, scheduled for June 20-22 (Brush Creek Elementary), June 27-29 (Edwards Elementary), August 8-10 (Brush Creek Elementary) and August 15-17 (Edwards Elementary) will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. The cost for a three-day session is $150 per student and the sessions are geared to children ages 7 to 11.

“The Sowing Seeds Summer Camp is a great way to not only provide some fun activities for our children,” explained Jean McSpadden, Director of Education for the Vail Valley Foundation, “but to also to connect them with their environment. Under the direction of Sandy Story, our Sowing Seeds director, and with the additional sessions, even more children will have the chance to become immersed in the natural world through games, experiments, crafts and gardening.”

Created in conjunction with Chef Kelly Liken of Restaurant Kelly Liken, the Sowing Seeds pilot program involves a greenhouse project at Brush Creek Elementary and a new initiative at Edwards Elementary where students plant and care for their own gardens.

The program not only connects children to their environment, but also fosters an understanding of the origin of food and teaches responsibility through stimulating hands-on activities. The vegetables grown in the Sowing Seeds greenhouse have already been integrated into both schools' cafeterias and students are saving their lunch scraps to add to the composting stations in the greenhouse.

Daily session themes will include “Ready, Set, Garden”, “Mad Garden Science”, “Grow It! Cook it with a Chef”, “Nature Academy” and “Flowers and Herbs”.

To register a child for a Sowing Seeds Summer Day Camp session, contact the Vail Valley Foundation at (970) 777-2015 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (970) 777-2015      end_of_the_skype_highlighting for a registration form. Sessions will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

Sowing Seeds and the Sowing Seeds Summer Camp Days are projects of the Vail Valley Foundation. For additional information on Sowing Seeds or the Foundation, visit www.vvf.org.