Getting the Next Generation Into Nature

Rochester Magazine - March 2008 Issue
by Nancy O'Donnell

For 95 years, Camp Pathfinder has promoted a simple principle: connect children with nature and environmental stewardship will follow.

Mike Sladden of Brighton discovered the 17-acre island camp, located three hours north of Toronto, as a boy at his father's side - just as his father had come to the camp with his father. In 1999, Sladden bought it with another former camper, Glenn Arthurs, "to keep the tradition going."

Each summer, Sladden, his wife Leslie, and two sons visit the camp in Algonquin Provincial Park. Hundreds of kids join them, including 7th graders from Allendale-Columbia School, where Sladden went to school. The school's donors established an endowment so students can go indefinitely, Sladden said. They conduct field studies in water clarity, learn about acid rain and explore human history in the region.

"No gameboys. No iPods. No cell phones," Sladden said. Instead, the campers learn how to survive on the wilderness island where wolves howl on the mainland and the occasional moose swims by. They sleep on wooden platforms under tarp roofs, traverse the island with map and compass, cook on open fires, and, most importantly, learn how to conserve and save and compost.

"We use a lot less fuel and resources," Sladden said. "They learn how to live more simply. They learn how to get away from technology and discover living without a huge carbon footprint."

Sladden has found that the experience continues long after the camp fires are doused. Former campers have chosen careers in environmental education, forestry and public policy.

"I get calls from parents who say things like, 'My son won't let us throw things in the trash,'" Sladden said, laughing.

To learn more, visit www.camppathfinder.com