This year’s Brookfield Middle School sixth-graders will spend three days and two nights at Camp Fitch YMCA, which is on Lake Erie in North Springfield. Pa., provided fundraisers and parent contributions can cover the cost.
Brookfield Middle School Assistant Principal Stephanie Oyster asked to send the students to Camp Fitch.
“I’m always thinking of ways of putting Brookfield schools on the map, so to speak, give them opportunities,” she said. “I’m always looking and trying to think of ways that we can give kids opportunities to do things that they would not normally be able to do. Camp Fitch is one thing I want to get kids doing.”
Camp Fitch offers activities such as rock climbing, horse riding, fishing, boating, archery, craft making and scavenger hunts. On its website, Camp Fitch describes its school program as “providing experiential learning in a nature-based environment supporting emotional, behavioral and intellectual development.”
“They keep them busy from morning to night,” Oyster said. “A lot of things on here are activities that our kids probably don’t get a chance to experience.”
The school has booked the dates Oct. 28-30. Families will be responsible for the $150-per-student fee, but the school will hold fundraisers to try to lower the cost, and offer payment plans so families can pay over time, Oyster said.
Teachers, preferably from the sixth grade, and high school students, preferably from National Honor Society, will chaperone the students, with one chaperone staying in a sleeping cabin with up to seven students, Oyster said.
“I think that will create a really nice connection between high school and middle school that I think sometimes is missing,” Oyster said of having high school chaperones along.
School board member Sarah Kurpe, who said she went on a similar field trip as a student in California and later became a camp counselor, agreed with Oyster.
“I think that’s great,” she said. “As a parent, I’d like to support this. I would hate for anybody to feel left out from a financial standpoint, and/or sleeping bags or anything else that’s needed, so that would be my first concern.”
She said she supports having payment plans to lessen the burden on families.
Supt. Toby Gibson said he went to Washington when he was a student at Brookfield schools, and would like to bring back those types of trips.
“Part of our conversation was starting to provide those kind of milestone years, sixth grade to go to Camp Fitch, eighth grade, maybe, D.C.,” he said.
“Washington D.C. is definitely on my radar,” Oyster said. “I’ve already started talking to people about that. I think kids should have these opportunities.”
Officials said there probably will be skeptical parents, particularly the first year, and the school would have to come up with a plan for students who do not go to Camp Fitch.
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