May 20th - Open House for 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens!

We're excited to offer a sneak peak at our brand-new 4-H Camp program May 20th, with our 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens Open House!

Swing on by on Rutgers Gardens on Saturday, May 20th between 10am-2pm to:

- Tour beautiful Rutgers Gardens and see the site of our new program!

- Meet some of the 4-H Camp at Rutgers Garden Summer Staff!

- Play some sample games and activities that will be featured in our new Day Camp program!

- Visit with our Info Table on our classic overnight 4-H Camp in Stokes Forest!

- Help us SPRING into summer by bringing a donation for our 4-H Camp at Rutgers Garden program with our STUFF THE SHED Fundraiser!

- RSVP to let us know you'll be stopping by!

 

At
112 Log Cabin Road
North Brunswick, NJ 08902

Save the date, and we'll hope you plan to spend some time with us at Rutgers Gardens in the merry month of May!

4-H Camp is Filling Up! (For Summer '23.)

 

Yes, it may be March and there's some chilly winds blowing through 4-H Camp, but summer is ON THE BREEZE cause we've got our first all-the-way SOLD OUT CAMP SESSIONS.

Yup, we've got full rosters for:

Session #2...

AND...

Session #4!

And that's not all! Male bunks are filled up for:

Session #3!

So, if you're counting, if you're still thinking of attending, if planning on joining our Lantern Family by referring a friend, we're down to...

Some open females bunks for:

Session #3!

And full availability for:

Our Summer Kick-off 4th of July Session...

AND...

Our BIG 18 Day Session in August!
(Though, with a smaller capacity, it's filling up too!)

And of course, we also have the Brand-New, First-Time-Ever, Grand Opening Season of our Day Camp in New Brunswick, 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens!

So. Uh. Long story short: 

JOIN THE FUN 

and 

Sign-up for Summer '23!

Finally, A Snow Day

Well,

 

It took until...

The very last day...

of February...

But there's enough snow...

In Stokes State Forest...

To warrant...

Sharing...

Some pretty pictures.

Gardens Camp Registration NOW OPEN!

 

Yes, we are pleased to announce that you can now SIGN-UP to join the very first, very inaugural, very never-been-done-before summer season of 4-H CAMP AT RUTGERS GARDENS.

All the program details are available on our website - including a deep dive in our 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens Camper Guide.

We are very excited about this expansion of the 4-H Camp summer program - so please spread the word to any one who might be interested in the New Brunswick area. We believe spending a week with us at the Gardens will be a great introduction to everything we do here at the New Jersey 4-H Camp! 

Gardens Day Camp Registration Opens NEXT WEEK!

 

We've been having a lot of fun building our brand-new day camp program, 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens - and it's already time to sign up!

Registration will open next Wednesday - so if you or any one you know in the New Brunswick/Rutgers Main Campus area are looking to join year #1 of our new program, we encourage you to sign up then!

All the details are available on our website - including a deep dive in our 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens Camper Guide.

Thanks for helping spread the word about New Jersey 4-H Camp's expansion - we can't wait to provide a great new summer experience to a new audience in a new way at Rutgers Gardens.

(Staff applications will be available SOON if you'd like to join the fun.)

500 Campers!

 Happy Groundhog Day!

Well, I don't know how accurate it is that we've got six more weeks of winter, but I know for sure we've got 21 WEEKS UNTIL SUMMER CAMP, and we've already got 500 campers all set, signed up, and ready to go. 

(Join them here if you haven't got your bunk yet!)

Skee-Ball Accomplished!

 

You did it, 4-H Camp!!!

It was only yesterday morning we first floated the idea that "hey, would it be cool if 4-H Camp had a Skee-Ball machine?" - and just 30 HOURS and 26 DONORS later we raised the funds needed to get it!

Thank you SO MUCH to our 26 donors - it was a lot of fun to see how fast this moved, but not nearly as much fun as having a SKEE-BALL MACHINE will be.

Now we just have to, you know: 

- go get it,

- discover how to put it in the Camp truck,

- figure out exactly where it's going to live, 

- thoroughly squirrel-proof it,  

- plug it in, 

...and then it's nothing but Skee-Ball bliss. (Don't worry. I'm sure we'll have plenty of updates to share on every one of those steps.)

Raising money for an impromptu Skee-Ball machine is about all the amusement you can dream of on a random Tuesday/Wednesday in January at a Summer Camp Office, so we appreciate you all being a part of it.

THANKS AGAIN to all who donated, and YOU'RE WELCOME to all the campers who will get a little bit of Skee-Ball in their Camp lives this summer!

EMERGENCY SKEE-BALL FUNDRAISER

 

The Campfire Council’s

Emergency SKEE-BALL MACHINE Fundraiser

(What’s an “emergency skee-ball machine?” When we decide 4-H Camp needs a skee-ball machine so bad it feels like an emergency.)

 

------>   DONATE NOW   <------

 

New Jersey 4-H Camp has an opportunity to achieve its long-held dream of having a skee-ball machine in the Rec Hall – but we need YOUR help to make this dream a reality. 

So, as soon as this chance arose, our CAMPFIRE COUNCIL (an intrepid group of Staff Alumni) banded together to create a lighting fast fundraiser to make it happen.

 

These funds will not only cover the opportunity to procure the 4-H Camp a skee-ball machine, but also the materials needed for Joe to design and create a protective cover for the skee-ball machine so it doesn’t become 4-H Camp’s Skee-ball Machine And Squirrel Nest.

 

Why A Skee-ball Machine?

 

•       Campers can use it to play skee-ball. That’s really the main one. 
•     It’s a taste of the Jersey Shore up here in the forest.  
•     It can be used to help decide tough decisions (that involve numerical intervals of 10 up to 50. And maybe 100. But probably very rarely 100).
•       We won’t have to play our skee-ball with pine cones and old buckets.
•       Actually, we currently play our skee-ball with golfballs, an old ladder, an older slide and call it Slideball. And we’ll still do that. We’ll just also have a skee-ball machine.
•       Because a claw machine in the Rec Hall would be ridiculous. 
•       “Wanna play skee-ball?” can finally be an acceptable phrase to be said at random during a summer camp day.
•       Campers can use it to play skee – oh, sorry. Used that one already. 







SO! Anything you're able to give to help bring a little more old school fun and game goofiness to our Rec Hall would be greatly appreciated. After all, like the old expression goes: 

"It takes a village to raise a Skee-Ball machine."

 

You've heard that one before, right?

 

 

------>   DONATE NOW   <------

4-H Camp. A Tech Free Experience. (Except for the decades old tech involved in our skee-ball machine.)

Session #2 - SOLD OUT FOR BOYS!

 

We've got our first sold-out section for Summer '23 - bunks in our males cabins are entirely filled up for Session #2, July 10th-15th.

If you were hoping for one of those bunks, join our wait list by registering on our portal. There's always a good possibility one might open up before summer.

If you were not hoping for one of THOSE bunks, but are still planning on joining us for Summer '23 and haven't signed up yet, we recommend you register soon! More sold-out sections will surely be on their way. 

Oh, and also, it's snowing in the woods.

Happy January 23rd!

Exciting New New Year News!

 

Yes, we are so EXCITED to announce...

4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens

Embrace nature, create community, learn from experts, make new friends, and play outside at the Gardens Camp.

New Jersey’s 70-year-old 4-H Camp program is joining with Rutgers Gardens to offer an exciting new Day Camp experience for Summer 2023. The program will combine the social/emotional learning of 4-H Camp’s friendly, communal, tech-free experience with the beautiful environment and educational opportunities of Rutgers Gardens.



Campers will bond with their “cabins” throughout the week, as they enjoy a unique mixture of hands-on outdoor education and carefree games played outside.



Days will be spent:

• Learning in the garden
• Hiking Heylar Woods
• Getting creative in the Bamboo Forest
• Studying butterflies, birds, bats, and bees
• Team building in morning and afternoon All-Camp communal meetings
• Engaging in camper-initiated activities during free time
• Building a community based on mutual respect, curiosity, kindness, and treating each other well.
• Enjoying tech-free, outdoor summer experiences with new friends.

(Remember we said Shanna was heading up a special project? This is it!)

4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens is offering four sessions throughout the month of July for children ages 6 to 12.

“Inaugural Mini-Session!” Session One: July 5th - July 7th

Session Two: July 10th - July 14th

Session Three: July 17th - July 21st

Session Four: July 24th - July 28th

9am-4pm.

Session One runs Wednesday-Friday.

Sessions Two, Three, and Four run Monday-Friday.

Standard Session: $400 ($375 with RU/4-H discount. $350 for Rutgers Gardens Members.)

Mini Session: $225 ($200 with RU/4-H Discount)

Open to all youth, Ages 6-12.



4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens registration will open on 2.15.23. Limited spaces available.



We believe every child should have the chance to go to summer camp. If a scholarship would make 4-H Camp at Rutgers Gardens more feasible for your family, please contact the Camp Office for our Campership application.



—--

Drop-off windows will run between 9:00-9:30, and Pick-up between 3:30-4pm.



We ask that campers provide their own lunch each day. Snacks will be provided. On Friday, campers will also receive a voucher to pick out a healthy snack from the Cook Farmer’s Market located on-site at Rutgers Gardens.



The program offerings (classes, activities, etc) in the 4-H Camp at Rutgers Garden will be the same each session. The program is designed for campers to enroll in a single session of camp. However, for 2023, campers can enroll in the Inaugural Mini-Session and a full session as well.

We can't wait to take some of our community-creating, confidence-building, independence-instilling, new-friend-making, imagination-fueling, Summer Camp MAGIC and use it to build a brand-new experience with our friends at Rutgers Gardens. 

We hope you'll join us for the fun!