(gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music continues) (gentle rhythmic music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North," I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Today, we are joined by experts and volunteers that run summer programs for kids.

We'll meet with Summer and Special Programs Director, Rachel Giemza, from Wolf Ridge; speak with student volunteers, Ranger and Jojo, about the UMD Kids Rock program; and have a conversation with UMD Assistant Basketball Coach, Tyler Peterson, about the summer sports camps available.

All of that is to come tonight on "Almanac North."

But first, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, BWSR, is allocating $2,100,000 in grants to local governments to encourage climate-smart agricultural practices that enhance soil health.

This funding comes from the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture, a USDA-funded national pilot program led by Virginia Tech University.

The program aims to foster the adoption of practices that sequester carbon, improve soil health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and bolster water quality.

In Minnesota, about $13,000,000 will be available by mid-2024 for farmers and ranchers to receive incentives of a $100 per acre or animal unit for adopting these practices.

BWSR Executive Director, John Jaschke, highlighted the program's potential to demonstrate the value of these practices in a low-risk setting, aiming to expand conservation efforts.

The Minnesota Department of Health will hold a public hearing on April 30th at 6:00 PM regarding Mahnomen's Health Center's transition to a rural emergency hospital, which eliminates inpatient and swing bed services.

The center will still offer outpatient and emergency services.

The hearing, hosted by MDH's Health Regulation Division, allows community input on the transition and patient alternatives.

It will be accessible via Microsoft Teams or by phone.

Details in a public comment submission form are available on the MDH website.

Well, now accompanying me at the desk is the Summer Activities and Special Programs Director at Wolf Ridge, Rachel Giemza.

Rachel, thank you so much for joining us!

- Hi!

(laughing) - It's such a pleasure, and fun to talk about summer at Wolf Ridge.

- Oh yeah, totally.

I can talk about this for days.

- (laughing) I love that.

So for those who haven't had the chance to go to Wolf Ridge, maybe we could start with the foundation of what the Learning Center is.

- Sure.

So Wolf Ridge is an environmental learning center.

We've been a learning center, an environmental learning center, for over 50 years now.

So we are located in Finland, Minnesota, just an hour and a half north of Duluth.

And we're a accredited school, actually.

And for most of the year, we run field trips.

We have kids who come up for three to five days during the school year, and it's a part of a field trip where they do all sorts of learning and experiential learning.

And then in the summer, which is my specialty, this is what I do, is running camp.

So we have seven-ish weeks of camp that we run, where we're doing everything from day camp where we have really little kids which are really, really fun, running around, learning, and being outside.

And then most of our bread-and-butter campers are the fourth grade and up, where they're there overnight.

- What makes the programs at Wolf Ridge different than what you see at other summer camps that kids might traditionally attend?

- Yeah.

So that's a great question.

So at Wolf Ridge, we pride ourselves in what we call experiential learning.

What that means is that we are getting the kids outside doing the science, doing the activities.

Instead of like just sitting in a classroom doing lecturing, we're there to have the kids go outside and do the thing, right?

I always like to say we're kinda "tricking" the kids into learning just a little bit because when it comes to summer, especially in our camps, they're not always there to learn like in a classroom setting, they're there to have fun and have a summer camp experience.

And we just happen to be teaching them various environmental concepts or outdoor recreation activities and practices through that time that they're with us.

The whole idea behind Wolf Ridge and our camp program is to create a citizenry of environmental stewardship.

And in order to do that, you have to get them interested, and get them intrigued, and curious, and outside.

- So I know you have day camps for the little ones and then it goes all the way up.

How do you make sure the curriculum fits the age, and what does that curriculum look like going up?

- Great question.

So all of our camps are designed, partially because we are an accredited school, we work a lot with our standards.

So a lot of the activities that the students are doing are classes that we already do for schools during the school year.

When we're paying attention to the different stages of learning that students are at, we really try to strive for student focus.

So if the students, especially in the summer, if they're down at the lake and they're little preschoolers, and you have all the safety things that you have to go through so that way people don't end up like completely soaked.

But if they do, that's totally fine, we're fine with being messy.

If they wanna go and catch frogs for that time instead of taking the pH of the water, that's something we'll do with like the high schoolers but that's not necessarily something you do with kindergartners.

- [Maarja] Mm-hmm.

- So we take that into account and train our naturalists.

All of our naturalists are trained educators.

We go at least two weeks of training for all of our educators to be able to make sure that they are upholding the highest standards of education and teaching that we possibly can give.

- Is it kind of like a scenario where no matter the weather, you're outside?

- Yeah.

(laughing) Nothing much really stops us.

The only thing that really stops us from teaching is lightning or thunder.

It's truly just lightning that stops us, we teach in all kinds of weather.

Like just yesterday, it was like 50-mile an hour winds, and we had people up on our ropes course.

- [Maarja] Oh.

(laughing) - So like, it doesn't really bother us 'cause we have the safety measures in place and everyone knows what all of our equipment and everything can take.

So, it's an experience in and of itself when you get to go out and be in those kinds of conditions because what ends up happening is those become those core memories for people.

And they're like, "Oh yeah, remember when we were out on this trail and it was just pouring rain?"

Like when I was at a similar camp, it was just pouring rain, and that was one of the most memorable moments of that camp.

And instilling those types of memories allows the students to create a positive engagement and positive interaction with nature, and allows them to go forward and be like, "Oh, well I had fun then so I should protect this in the future because I wanna make sure that everyone else can have that experience when they're a kid."

- I love that.

So the summer is not that far away now.

- [Rachel] Nope.

- Can people still register for Wolf Ridge camps?

- Yeah, absolutely.

We have a wide variety of camps that are still available, from our family camp that we run, our grandparents camp where grandparents can take their grandkids.

- [Maarja] OOh, that's fun.

- Very fun.

(Maarja laughing) A wide variety, those are still open, we have a variety of specialty camps that still are open from our day camps that still are taking registration to some of our wilderness trips because that's another thing that we do is our wilderness trips.

- So are those offsite trips, like backpacking?

- Yeah, so some of 'em are.

They spend some time on campus and then they also spend time off campus on a wilderness trip.

So out in the Boundary Waters for example, being able to learn naturalist practices, or hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail, we even have a trip that goes to Isle Royale.

So, we do a wide variety of activities there.

- Well Rachel, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

It sounds like you have a very fun and busy summer ahead.

- Ooh, always.

(Rachel and Maarja laughing) (gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music continues) (gentle rhythmic music continues) - Now joining me in the "Almanac" conversation area are two UMD students, Ranger and Jojo, who are a part of the UMD Kids Rock program.

Jojo, Ranger, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- So maybe we could start with just talking about Kids Rock, the program itself, like what kinda summer camp is it and what does it offer?

- Mm-hmm.

You can go.

- So it's basically just a camp for any Duluth kid, it's a day camp.

Age ranges from like five to 14 at the max.

We have a few different kinds of camps.

We have our classic camp, classic plus, exploration, venture.

Our classic camp is just play games all day.

In the mornings, we'll play games in groups from like eight to 12 kids.

And then we'll come together, we'll eat lunch, we'll go to the pool, and then we'll bring together for a whole camp game at the end of the day.

- The pool at UMD?

- Yeah, the pool at UMD.

- Yes.

Yup, yup, yup.

- Okay.

(laughing) - So we use the RSOP facilities.

So everything RSOP, we kinda have at our disposal.

- [Maarja] Mm-hmm.

- And then our classic plus is just...

So our classic is ages from five to 10, and then classic plus is 11 to 14, so there's usually a little less of them but they do kinda do their own stuff.

We can go off campus with them.

Sometimes we go to Bagley, we go to the beach sometimes.

- We've gone up to Gooseberry with them before too.

- Oh, nice.

- Yeah.

So that one, we have a little bit more leeway with that.

And then we have our exploration and our venture camps.

Our exploration, most of them are with other schools on campus.

So we have a pharmacy camp, where in the morning, they'll do... Like the pharmacy camp is one of our most famous camps and very popular.

So they'll do like pharmacy stuff all day, and it's very fun, and then after lunch, they'll kinda join the rest of camp and go to the pool and everything.

And then we have other camps that we run, like a sport camp where they do sports all day.

And then about half of our exploration camps are run by other schools, the other half that we run.

- Oh, okay.

- And then we have our venture camps, which are probably our most popular, but there's the least amount because we do biking, climbing, and paddling.

And we have samplers, where we do all three in a week.

So a normal week would look like, climbing, they're climbing at the UMD rock wall the first two days, and then we go off campus to like Silver Cliff, or Whoopie Wall- - Or Ely's Peak too.

- Or Ely's Peak.

And it's just a blast.

You kinda make a bond with kids 'cause there's only eight of 'em, and we take our Chevy Diamond up there.

(Jojo and Maarja laughing) So, it's real fun.

And then we got biking, again it's where we bike all over Duluth and it's great.

- Oh fun, so you have really a wide range of different things at camp.

- Yes, yeah.

It's not just like one camp, we have camps within camp and so I feel like that's where a lot of the draw is too.

Like a lot of parents to send their kids there is because it's not just, "Oh, your kid's gonna be coming here and just like playing games all day," there's a lot of opportunity for them to do other things.

Like even with our classic camp, we take them climbing for like one day throughout the week, like Tuesdays for example.

And then Wednesdays, we might spend like a little bit more time outside doing water activities if it's a super nice day out.

And then Thursdays, we kinda do like craft.

And then Fridays we have like a Friday "fun day, and so we do like a big all-camp activity based on our theme for the week.

So our first week is always color week because that's the best week, everybody loves colors.

And so on our Friday fun day, we do a color run and we have like these big bags of chalk that we just like spray around with the kids.

They get to do a bunch of different activities, and it's always a blast on Friday fun days.

- What are some of the other themes?

- Oh, I'm tryna think.

- Sport week, where we have a big Olympics at the end of the week.

- Mm-hmm.

- We have spy week, and spy week's fun 'cause in the past years, our supervisors have been like kidnapped and they have to like play a game of "Clue" and they have to save 'em throughout the whole day.

- Yeah, it's like a real life game of "Clue," it's pretty fun.

- The last week is usually beach week, and we have a big beach party.

In the last few years, we've gotten rained out on both of the last days.

- Yeah.

- Ugh, come on Duluth.

- I know, right?

- We usually try to plan to go to the beach and actually like push all the kids.

I've never done it 'cause of those last few years, but that was the plan.

And we still have fun, we have like dunk tanks and everything.

The kids love to dunk tank me, so.

- Oh, that sounds awesome.

- Yeah, yeah.

(Ranger laughing) - And so you're both UMD students, and you both have experience with the camp, several years.

- Yes.

- Who are the counselors, the teachers?

Are they all UMD students- - [Ranger And Jojo] Mm-hmm.

- Are they looking to become teachers after graduation?

- Yeah, all of our staff are UMD students.

We only have like two professional staff, which is Collin Luke and Tom White.

They're kind of are more like supervisors that we direct report... We direct?

- [Ranger] Directly report to.

(laughing) - (laughing) Directly report to.

But the rest of our counselors and our camp leads, they are the ones that are like students on campus and they're the ones that are always out with the kids and doing different activities with the kids.

- Yeah, and then they're almost all teachers.

It's open to every major, but it's almost all teachers 'cause for the teaching program here, you have to get work with the kids so that's a great way to do that.

You have to get 60 hours I believe, so it's a great way to do that.

Most of them are elementary ed and high school ed pre-service teachers, but we do open to all majors.

- It sounds like a fun way to spend your summer.

(laughing) - Yes- - Very much.

- It's literally the perfect summer.

- I mean, looking back on your time as counselors, like what are some things that have stood out and what have you learned as counselors yourself?

- I think one big experience for me, especially last year coming back as a lead, the kids just like got to know me my first year.

And so walking into work at like 7:30 in the morning and just getting a huge rush of kids running to me, screaming "Jojo," it just like lights up your day.

And you come into work smiling every single day, and you leave with just such a fulfilled, happy heart.

And so, I feel like that's probably the biggest takeaway that I take from camp.

- What about you, Ranger?

- Definitely that as well, like the bond you make with the kids.

But as like a pre-service teacher, just getting ready to like be able to work with kids.

I've known I wanted to work with kids for a while, and this kind of just hammers it in.

My first two years, I've always like been with the older kids, so like the classic plus group.

They're so funny.

I have a middle school mind, so like just being with middle schoolers all day, it sounds terrible, but I actually love it.

- They keep you in check, I feel like, you know?

- Yeah, they definitely do.

And then just having some like tough love with them too.

Learning those skills just for my future career and just being an adult person is a great way to do it.

- So if folks at home wanna learn more about camps, go to your website?

- Yes, yup.

- Mm-hmm.

Unfortunately this year, I think there's two or three spots left in our pharmacy camp, but for the most part they're all sold out.

You can get on a wait list if you look up, "RSOP UMD Kids Rock," or you just give us a call.

I believe the number's 218 726-7128.

I work in the office, so I know.

(everyone laughing) - He'll be the one answerin' the phone.

(laughing) - Yeah.

(laughing) - So you can get on the wait list, but we always open up in about March for our camp.

So, it sells out within minutes.

- It's popular.

- Mm-hmm, yes, yes.

- So if you wanna jump on that, just call us or look up "UMD RSOP."

- Alright.

Well Jojo, Ranger, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

- Yes, thank you.

- Thank you.

(gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music continues) (gentle rhythmic music continues) (gentle rhythmic music continues) - We have another guest at the desk today, UMD Assistant Basketball Coach, Tyler Peterson, is here to speak with us about the UMD summer sports camps and their benefit for kids.

Tyler, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for havin' me.

- So as a basketball coach, you know the basketball camps of course.

- (laughing) Yeah.

- But what are kinda the range of camps that they offer at UMD in the summer?

- Yeah, so in the summer, I would say almost every single one of our athletic programs offers camp programming.

On the court, we have both men's and women's basketball, we have volleyball.

And then on the field, we have football, soccer, baseball, even track and field, and then hockey as well.

So almost every athletic program at UMD offers camps in the summer.

- And then it's the UMD athletes who are a part of the camps?

- Typically, yeah.

As far as men's basketball goes, our players will be on the court, instructing for almost every camp that we run.

- That's a really cool experience for kids interested in basketball.

- Absolutely, yeah.

They're just tryin' to kinda grow the game, and that next generation, they really enjoy it.

- So what's the typical structure of these camps, like what does a day look like?

- Yeah, it kinda depends on what camp it is, you know?

For us, we'll have either half-day camps or full-day camps.

Typically, we'll start sometime around 9:00 and we'll go until about lunch.

And then those full-day camps, we're goin' over, eating in the dining center at UMD, a lot of ice cream is consumed.

(laughing) And then we'll kinda come back and just do different skills and drills throughout the day, play games, you know, even sometimes we'll mix in some type of video where we're talkin' about a certain subject in a day or we're talkin' about different players, so yeah.

- And what's the age range for these camps, like how young do you go and how far up?

- Well, we have elementary age camps, and then we'll do some middle school ones, and even some camps, lower grades, three through 12, and then we'll do just some high school age camps as well.

- So my son will be entering kindergarten this year, and he has a lotta interest in basketball.

What would camp look like for, you know, five year olds?

- Yeah, so typically, our elementary camps will just be kinda those half-day camps, 9:00 through 12:00.

Hard to keep (laughing) them occupied for too much longer than that.

But I think it's just working on the basics, but really just tryin' to foster that enjoyment for the game, pique their interest a little bit.

And it depends on the skill level as well.

So we'll push 'em as far as we can, but also just try to make sure they're enjoying it, havin' fun.

- Yeah, so as someone who helps like administer these camps and run the drills and things, what do those kids come out of the camp with, whether it be athletic ability or confidence?

- Yeah, I think the number one thing anytime you're runnin' a youth camp is that you're really just tryin' to grow the love of the game.

You're tryin' to make sure that every camper is enjoying their experience.

And so we're tryin' to build them up as players, but oftentimes these camps are only two days, three days, or four days at the max.

So I think you're tryin' to give them something and maybe give them a couple things they can improve on in that short time span, but also send 'em home with stuff that they can work on.

And really, I think it's more so piquing their interest so that they want to keep doing those things at home when they're not in that camp setting.

- Mm-hmm.

And are you integrating, you know, values that they will grow up in with sports, like sportsmanship and being a good team member and things like that?

- Yeah, I think, you know, anytime you're runnin' a youth camp, that stuff is at the forefront.

But with these big groups, you know, we were talking sometimes we have 80 to 100 kids in the gym, and a lotta kids haven't been in that type of setting before.

And I think our players do a great job of showcasing teamwork, positive energy, leadership, and I think they're great role models.

And I think sometimes, we get 'em in these small group settings where each coach will have about eight to 10 kids, and they can talk about different subjects like that and I think they can really learn from that.

- What do your athletes think about the camps?

- (laughing) They love 'em, you know, they love workin' with young kids.

I'll be honest, I would say we have a handful that are really, really good with the young kids, (laughing) some guys struggle a little bit.

But overall, they're great.

And it's really rewarding, especially when we're playing in the winter and you're seeing these families and these kids come to our games and hang around, and even asking for autographs and stuff like that.

So I think they really love it, and they take a lotta pride in havin' that UMD on their jersey, and they know what it means to kinda give back to the community and I think this is a big way that they do that.

- What's some of the feedback you've had in past years from whether it's kids or their parents?

- Yeah, so I think it's been resoundingly positive, (clearing throat) excuse me, since I've been here.

You know, like I said, we see a lot of 'em coming to our games, and our numbers have been growing.

I mean, like I said, we've had 100 kids in a camp, and I think our numbers are even gonna grow this year.

So I think it's been resoundingly positive.

- Looking to the future, are there any plans to expand or modify your camps?

- Yeah, that's a good question.

I think every year, kind of at the end when you're wrapping up, you kinda look at what you can do better.

You know, I think we have a really good kind of base right now.

We run about 20 days of camp in the summer, and you're working on kind of sharing the facility (laughing) with these other programs.

So we might be maxed out a little bit, but we're always lookin' to add or maybe change some things where it could be better, yeah.

- So can folks still sign up for summer camps?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

Every sport I believe you can find.

(laughing) You might have to fact check me, but I believe it's bulldogsportscamps.com.

- Okay.

- I believe, so.

- And you have, you know, all of those athletic programs that you can go see at UMD, your kids can sign up for, so.

- Absolutely.

- Well Tyler, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

- Thank you for havin' me- - [Tyler And Maarja] Appreciate it.

- Well, before we go, here's a look at what you might be up to this weekend.

Saturday, April 20th, from 9:00 AM to noon, join Duluth parks and recreation staff and the Lake Superior Rose Society for the Annual Raising of the Roses at the Rose Garden.

All ages welcome and no experience necessary.

Expert rose raisers will be on hand to teach volunteers about the Minnesota tip method, a process that protects tender roses from harsh winter conditions.

Groups, families and individuals are invited to participate.

All tools and supplies will be provided, including work gloves.

Also, Saturday from noon to 5:00 PM is the Spring Maker's Market, at Castle Danger Brewery in Two Harbors.

Explore up the shore and see the work of the six local vendors being featured.

Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM, UWS Theater presents "Ride the Cyclone," an uptempo, offbeat, contemporary rock pop musical that provides a moving look at what makes a life well lived.

Tickets are available online by phone or at the box office in the Holden Fine and Applied Arts Center.

Well, make sure you get out and enjoy your weekend.

I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Thank you for joining us on "Almanac North," I'll see you all next time.

Good night.

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