Wilmer Park in Chestertown has long been an area for friends and family to gather on the waterfront. This summer it will also be the meeting place for young adventurers who aim to go beyond the shore and explore the Upper Eastern Shore’s waterways by canoe.
Sultana Projects’ Canoe Camp is a four-day long day-camp designed to allow children (ages 8-11) to learn basic canoeing techniques and then put those skills into practice while navigating a variety of protected sites located on the Chester and Sassafras rivers.
Monday-Thursday sessions will begin each day at Wilmer Park where campers will play a few warm-up games and read a map to scout out that day’s paddling site. Participants will then board a 15-passenger van which will tow the mobile canoe rig to its destination. After learning basic paddling and safety skills from Sultana Projects’ three experienced staff, the group will set out to explore local creeks and marshes. Along the way, the canoes will come to shore to allow participants to pull seine nets, fish, swim, or simply take a beach hike.
“While Sultana Projects has been taking children out onto the Chesapeake in canoes for years, this will be our first time offering Canoe Camp to the general public,” said John Mann, Sultana Projects’ Director of Educational Programs, who will be running the camps. “The initial response from the community has been phenomenal. Parents are excited to offer their kids a chance to not only learn how to safely and properly operate a canoe, but also to explore some areas of the Chesapeake most people never see.”
At the conclusion of each day’s paddle, the Canoe Camp van will make a pit stop for popsicles at one of Kent County’s country stores. Mann believes it’s a fitting way to show the campers another aspect of what makes the Eastern Shore unique. “The marshes and the old country stores are vanishing resources – we’re lucky to have access to both. I don’t expect young campers to think about the fragile nature of these places. In fact, I don’t want them to. At this age, I want them to know that they’re very lucky to live in a place that’s filled with an abundance of magic.”
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