On the last night of camp in July, the campers hiked out to an overlook above the Klamath Basin and watched the light go off the valley. Several of them were carrying obsidian arrowheads they had knapped themselves that week, chipping at the stone with a copper rod until it came to a point. That was the close of the first-ever Survival Skills Camp at Klamath Outdoor Science School, and it is a fair picture of the summer KOSS just had.
The new camp was built for older kids. Campers learned to make fire, build a shelter, use a compass, twist cordage out of stinging nettle, and knap an arrowhead out of obsidian. Perry Chocktoot, an elder of the Klamath Tribes, taught the flintknapping himself, hands-on, and campers took their obsidian creations home. On the last day both teams ran a survival scavenger hunt that walked them back through every skill of the week, though the real test, as KOSS tells it, was whether they could work together long enough to finish it. Director Kevin Wietlisbach credits Headwaters Outdoor School, which has been teaching primitive skills for decades, with making the pilot work.
"It was great to pilot this camp because we really saw a need in the community for older kids to be hands-on and have opportunities to grow their confidence," says Mikaela Evans-Lea, education manager at KOSS.
"It was really neat to see kids light up when they learned something new and feel empowered. I am so happy everything came together and went better than we imagined."
Three other camps ran alongside it. Intro to Camp gave kids ages seven to nine two nights away from home, many of them for the first time; there were no tearful midnight phone calls and not one request to go home. Artists & Scientists Camp was the busiest it has ever been, with more than half the campers returning from last year, which is the number the staff watch most closely. Wetland Wonders ran a second year at the Tulelake Wildlife Refuge with archery, caving at Lava Beds and bird watching, and because it is a day camp with free transportation from Klamath Falls, kids who are not ready for a night away can still come.
None of it was gated on a family's ability to pay. Funding from the Assistance League of Klamath Basin and the Klamath County Cultural Coalition covered scholarships for dozens of campers, and no one was turned away over cost.
Camp is only half of a KOSS summer. For the third year running, the school partnered with the Klamath County School District to take summer-school students on four-day field trip series to Moore Park, Spence Mountain, the Link River Trail and the Favell Museum, and Badger Run Rehabilitation Center to see animals on the mend. Oregon's summer learning grants prioritize literacy, so KOSS built reading into the trail: nature journaling in the shade, identification guidebooks, and sorting fact from opinion in news stories about the places the students were standing in.
Klamath Outdoor Science School is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to inspire a deep appreciation for natural resources, community, and the arts through hands-on outdoor education. Rising costs and limited grant funding make the scholarships, the field trips and the facility work harder every year. Contributions can be made at klamathoutdoorschool.org or mailed to P.O. Box 721, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, and if you would rather give a Saturday than a check, KOSS is looking for volunteers for everything from creating defensible space to cooking meals during programs.
