Summer camp offers new educational opportunities and activities to explore Chenango County

SHERBURNE, NY (WBNG) -- With summer camp season starting soon, the Rogers Environmental Education Center is one of the local camps that gives children and adults a chance to explore and learn about nature.

According to David Carson, the executive director at the camp, the center is the oldest education center in New York State and creates a unique opportunity for young people to have an adventure and gain knowledge about the environment.

The center has been around since 1909 when it was the state’s first game farm. Where they used to raise mostly pheasant, geese and duck to release into the wild for hunting. In the early 1960s, New York State phased out the game farm and the Rogers Center became the state’s first environmental education center. It teaches everything from environmental science to primitive skills for making fire, building shelter, and navigating with a compass.

“We’ll focus this year, principally on imagination and adventure,” said Carson. “Moving beyond the individual skill sets. Particularly for the age groups three to eleven. It’s critical that we first inspire a sense of play outdoors. That you can spend time in a sense of joy and a sense of wonder.”

Half a mile up a service road through the farming landscape is a path where they take kids up the farming trail and congregate for activities and get a great view of Chenango County, where they also work with three farming communities.

What a lot of people might not know is that the Rogers Center has 150 acres of working farmland. Making it a nature sanctuary or an opportunity for education and public programming for lifelong learners or children to attend summer camp. A place where they can enjoy the great outdoors and have a peaceful bonding with nature.

If you’re interested in registering your child for the camp this summer, click here.