Positively Shaping Our Community
By Christine Brousseau
Executive Director
Camp Fire USA, Central Oregon
Bend, OR
Camp Fire USA has been serving the Central Oregon community for over 80 years, by helping to build caring, confident youth and the finest of our future leaders. Many think we are still only serving girls but we have actually been co-ed since 1975. We are all-inclusive and do not discriminate for any reason. Camp Fire provides thousands of dollars in financial scholarships yearly so that no child is ever turned away.
Our programming includes our traditional club program, self-reliance classes, summer camps, service-learning projects and Get Outside programs. Our Get Outside program is the newest to our offerings, focusing on just that- getting children and families outside and enjoying nature. For example, we have family camp fires (with smore’s and songs), family nature hikes, and an outdoor survival skills for youth workshop- focused on safety, survival and stewardship.
Central Oregon is a great place for Get Outside programming; we live in an unbelievable outdoor mecca. Sadly however, children aren’t receiving as much free time outside as they did only a mere generation ago. Our culture no longer places as much value or emphasis on natural outdoor play. Research is beginning to show the ramifications of such a nature deficit. Richard Louv lays it all out for us in his award winning book, Last Child in the Woods (2008). “Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health” (120). Our goal is to encourage our youngsters to observe, question and answer, and we hope to inspire family members to do the same as well.
In addition to all this, we spend many hours out in the community giving back. “Give Service” has been the Camp Fire motto since our inception and we believe that families are as strong as the communities that support them, so we try to give back however and whenever possible. You might find us cleaning up trails and parks, visiting with seniors, collecting pajamas for local foster kids, or making valentines for veterans. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk. We invite you to learn more about Camp Fire and how we are strengthening our community through the good deeds that our youth and families are committing everyday.
