What new adventures will my child experience at Freedom Center Summer Camp?

Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center offers exciting off-site summer camps for children of all ages.

Just a few of the options available for older children are rock climbing, kayak fishing, mountain biking and natural adventures camps.

On the first day of rock climbing camp, campers spend their time on The Edge, a team development course, that teaches them how to get comfortable with wearing a harness, belaying, and acting together as one unit.

Once activities begin, some campers may be hiking while another group is climbing. This strategy keeps the children moving and prevents idleness and boredom throughout the day.

On the rare rainy or hot days that prevents climbing outside, Freedom Center takes children to Vertical Rock, where children can climb.

In the kayak fishing camp, campers travel all around the area to kayak fish at Bull Run, Fountainhead, and the Shenandoah, Rappahannock, and Rapidan rivers. Freedom Center works with the Virginia Outside and Fishing Company to lead the ship and teach the children valuable fishing skills.

Camp counselors will still accompany campers to these locations. Many campers come with no previous fishing experience and develop an excitement and a passion for being outdoors and learning how to fish. Plus, they can learn how to safely kayak.

Rock climbing and paintball are the most popular outdoor camps that the Freedom Center offers. This year, Freedom added a camp for their younger “peewee paintballers.”

Different material is used to prevent injury and the painful sting normally common with paintballing. It’s an excellent program to get children familiar with paintball and to get them excited. Even if a camper only does it once a year with his or her family, Freedom’s paintball camp is a great starter.

As with on-site camps, Freedom Center employs the best-certified instructors off-site. When participating in these camps, children can be in environments they wouldn’t normally have access to on a regular basis. The campers are normally outside all day and during their first week, those five days of adventure are spent learning skills that they would otherwise gain once they were older.

Also, campers are in smaller groups of between 12-15 children quickly form close and valuable relationships with each other. They practice leadership skills and working in a team while camp counselors make sure they act and bond as one unit successfully.

Early on at the beginning of the camp, counselors ensure that older children are learning how to trust and respect one another. Developing these skills is especially important for rock climbing.