Roughing it

St. Regis students and parents gathered together on the St. Regis football field Saturday night for an evening of camping and family fun, in spite of rainy skies.

This is the second year for the event and there were 15 children at the event ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years old.

“Hopefully each year it’ll just keep growing, everyone who was here last year just had a ton of fun,” said event organizer Julie Burklund.

The event is part of the St. Regis School’s summer programs, but Burklund said they are also part of a nationwide event called the Great American Backyard Campout.

The Great American Backyard Campout is organized by the National Wildlife Federation and officially takes place on June 28. Burklund said that they could not have the event on that day so they participated a weekend early.

Through a Web site, the Great American Backyard Campout has managed to organize 19,429 campers who are all going to camp out somewhere in America. Their Web site also offers resources for parents who want to get their kids excited about camping.and suggestions for songs, tips, activities and recipes for camping.

There is also a DVD to help parents get younger children involved in camping that has camping advice from cartoon characters.

The event is sponsored by schools and campgrounds across the nation and children that want to participate can log onto the Web site at www.nwf.org/backyardcampout/ and find a campout near them.

“They get to see their school in a different light. They get to come and bring their family and it’s not their school or their playground or their football field anymore. It’s just got a whole different feel to it,” said Burklund.

The campers got to enjoy hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner as well as French toast for breakfast the next morning. They also had s’mores in the evening.

Burklund said that all of the families involved brought their own tents and camping equipment and she merely provided the food and place to go camping.

“I think it’s something that’s great for the kids, when they get to camp out somewhere they’re not used to camping. I mean, they’re used to playing here not camping here,” said parent Tina Hill.

Campers got to play badmitton, flashlight tag and hang out on the school’s playground all afternoon.

Burklund said that they make sure to do a great job cleaning up after themselves so that the campout can happen every year.

”It probably looks better after we left than it did when we got here,” Burklund said.

The school building was unlocked so the campers could use the bathroom and cook breakfast in the school, and Burklund said that had the rain gotten extremely bad they could have retreated to the school gym for the evening.

“We’re not roughing it that bad,” Burklund said.

Hill said that the trip was her family’s first camping trip of the year and the laid back setting was really great for getting her kids comfortable in the outdoors.

While the campers were finishing up their dinner there was a brief thunder storm and they all rushed to get their belongings into tents and cars before the rain got too bad.

“What’s camping without a little rain,” Burklund asked.

The weather held off for the rest of the evening until it was time for bed and Burklund said that while it did rain a little over the evening, the weather was beautiful by the time they woke up.

Burklund said that she thought the event was a huge success and is looking forward to having it next year.

“That’s what I like about the summer programs, you get to see the kids outside of the classroom and you get to see their different personalities and how they can act differently outside of the classroom,” Burklund said.