Week 3 Overview

Week 3 at Farrington was chock full of adventure. On a hot Monday afternoon, Housing Families in Malden came out for their second visit of the summer. The group visited the pond, finding frogs, a smaller number of tadpoles, and lots and lots of crayfish. They also practiced using binoculars, and it was wonderful to see staff members who had come out two weeks prior get even more into looking for frogs the second time around. Then Cambridge Adventure Day Camp came to visit, one day with the older kids, and the next with the younger campers. They visited the garden, hiked to the pond, played water dodgeball (the perennial favorite), and made bird masks. Check out a picture of one of our long time campers who also comes out during the weeklong nature camp rocking his new bird mask. Word around the camp is that CADC staffers and campers had great things to report when they returned to camp.

Franklin IO came out for their second annual overnight. After spending the day ponding, making art, visiting the garden, meeting our animals, they then spent the afternoon building tree forts and collecting sticks for s’mores and playing games. As we headed out for our evening hike, the group of turkeys that have been frequenting our property graced the group with their presence. This was a good start for a hike that taught the campers about their animal mentors, and even going on a solo walk.

The next day, the BELL camp that was supposed to come out to the property had to cancel their visit because their transportation fell through. Luckily, we were able to visit them at the Jackson-Mann school and bring some of our programming to them. We played nature games in the park behind their school, and used their school garden to bring in some of our own gardening activities. Their lead staff member said, “I’m so glad you could come, because this group doesn’t usually even get recess, so even getting them outside is a great treat.”

All told, nearly 200 youth and teens engaged with nature this week thanks to the efforts of the Farrington Nature Linc staff.