CampFire Samish 2025

At our March 24, 2025 Rotary Meeting, President Audrey Gravley, led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and the 4-Way test.

Our guests for the evening:    Mel Damski from La Conner Community News with a couple extra copies of the inaugural issue, and our program guest speaker for this evening Marcus Roskamp from Camp Fire Samish.  

 

Danielle Mullen shared the inspiration for the evening.  Danielle shared that she does not recall if Jonas Salk was a Rotarian or not, but if he wasn’t he should be.  Salk refused to patent the polio vaccine in 1995 so that the medication would be available to children all round the world, thus losing 7 billion dollars.   Due to his actions and development, the incidence of disease decreased by 96%.  I felt this was an appropriate inspiration since that is still our primary goal to eradicate polio.

 

Marcus Roskamp is the Executive Director of Camp Fire Samish, which includes Camp Kirby.  He has been in this role for almost two years.  Prior, Marcus was the lead pastor in the Reformed Church in America for over 13 years.  Marcus is passionate about youth development and in providing young people with positive childhood experiences.  He lives in Lynden with his wife Amy and their three children who are 14, 9 and 8.  

Thank you for having me and if I look familiar to you, I was here a couple months ago, receiving a generous donation from La Conner Rotary which we appreciate so much! 

 

Camp Kirby is entering it’s 100^th year which is something we are very proud of.  We are an affiliate of Camp Fire, a national organization.   You might have heard of Camp Fire girls back in the day which was quite large.  Camp Fire Samish is much smaller, even though we are still a part of the national organization.  We operate with eight that comprise a year round staff and our office is based out of Bellingham.  Not much has changed at Camp Kirby, even if you have not been there for years.  It is still a beautiful spot with 47 acres of forested land, a mile and a half of shoreline along Padilla Bay.  Our activities include a 40 foot climbing wall, archery, waterfront activities, and miles of hiking trails.  We are very proud to say that Camp Kirby is technology free, meaning that no phones, smart watches or tablets are allowed.  We want the young adults to experience the program, nature, and building relationships connecting with each other. 

 

Our main programs are overnight camp and day camp.  There are seven weeks during the summer, for grades two through twelve (2-12).  We have the second graders around the camp some weeks, and all the way up through seniors in high school.  They receive a very traditional camp experience, whether it is day or overnight camp.  They do arts and crafts, archery, climbing wall, waterfront activities (kayaking and swimming) and all things you associate with summer camp.  In 2024 our overnight camp hosted 696 campers, where we host 100 campers per week.  That is full capacity with cabins and beds and campers come from across Northwest Washington mainly Skagit, Whatcom, and Island county.  Day camp runs along side overnight camp in the same weeks.  We hosted 156 campers which again is full capacity, 30-40 campers per week. 

 

For summer camp 2025, we are already over 95% capacity with registered campers and have waiting lists with over 100 campers waiting.  Some parents are uncomfortable with technology free, since many parents are helicoptering wth their children to stay in touch.  Most get used to the program after talking with the staff on how important it is to allow the campers to focus on relationships.  We spend a lot of time talking with parents to they understand the rules and importance of the campers experience.  Marcus explained that he too has trouble at time not being able to contact his children, but the benefit far outweighs what the parent needs.

 

Most parents find out about the camp through word of mouth, where campers can start in 2nd grade and continue through their Senior year of High School.  For the younger campers, we do have an overnight camp in the middle of summer that is four days instead of the normal six.  

 

Another program out at Camp Kirby is the Outdoor School program.  It takes place in the spring and fall and typically is fifth grade students from local elementary schools.  It is a three day, two night experience where we provide education, teaching outdoor education and provide all food.  We work with the schools to develop the curriculum catalog and hire seasonal staff who are experts in outdoor areas.  We focus on tide pool exploration, forest ecosystems, beach ecosystems, bird identification, and traditional camp activities.  

 

This is a chance for student who might not be able to afford summer camp or who might however have the opportunity to come to summer camp and have a camp experience.  It has really opened up a lot of doors for us to get children out to Camp Kirby.  It is our fastest growing program, which started in 2023 so two years now. We have three school groups with just under 200 students.  In 2024 the program grew to 20 school groups with over 1500 students.  The growth was mainly due to a bill that was passed in Washington “The Outdoor School” Housebill 2078.  We are waiting with baited breath for the legislative budget to see if our Outdoor School will still be included.  It falls under the Office of the Superintendent and appears the funding is pretty safe, but we really don’t know. 

 

Spring is the busiest time for our Outdoor School, where we had our outdoor staff arrive this week, going through their training.  The first class starts next Monday, March 31^st.  Most schools do a combination of staff, teachers and parents as chaperones, because part of the program is that schools do need to provide chaperones, especially in the cabins overnights and it really just depends on the school. 

 

I would also like to share why I believe our programs are so important.  These Programs are something that young people don’t get a lot of access to, since they are hard to find.  Programs that are technology free, that are getting kids outside, teaching the about different environmental issues, introducing them to trees and birds and tide pools and all this amazing stuff we have here.  There’s a lot of research done around youth development over the years, and reflected in a book named the anxious generation where the author talks about what is going on with youth and trends.  Depression in teens has increased 150% since 2010, and although some blame COVID, others also blame technology and social media.  Outdoor programs offer an antidote to some of this which is a multi layered problem.  One recommendation is to give parents solutions such as overnight camps with no devices, playing outside, exploring and developing relationships with other kids.  Another good book is “Last Child In The Woods” written in 2007.  We want to create a positive childhood experience because we believe it can have a lifelong impact, especially a greater sense of self-worth.

 

We are always looking at ways to fund improvements to the buildings and programs and can use your help.  You have already done so much.   Other ways to serve is to join the Board of Directors, work parties, volunteering with the program and our annual auction April 19 of this year.  Thank you Marcus for the excellent program!