This July, for the first time, middle-school-aged students from around the globe can experience Extreme Journey Summer Camp, which combines U.S. history and heritage with adventure and multimedia in the most historic region in the nation – the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area that runs from Gettysburg, PA to Thomas Jefferson’s home, outside Charlottesville, VA © 2011 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
This July, for the first time, middle-school-aged students from around the globe can experience Extreme Journey Summer Camp, which combines U.S. history and heritage with adventure and multimedia in the most historic region in the nation – the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area that runs from Gettysburg, PA to Thomas Jefferson’s home, outside Charlottesville, VA.
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, which overseas the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, will team with Woodberry Forest School, an internationally recognized independent boarding school in Madison County, Virginia, to host a two-week overnight camp that builds on the enormous popularity of the JTHG Partnership’s day camp, Extreme Journey Summer Camp.
“We transform traditional text-book learning into a truly stimulating experience that exists only outside the confines of the classroom,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. “Combining digital media technology, creative on-site visits, and expert accounts with outdoor adventures, Extreme Journey leaves students riveted by the past and ready to discover the future.”
Extreme Journey camps – both the day camp and overnight camp — take 6th through 8th grade boys and girls on historic adventures through Presidential homes, internationally known heritage sites, and through some of our nation’s most significant national parks. From the battlefields in Gettysburg to James Madison’s Montpelier, they hike, bike, canoe and spend time with National Park Service Rangers, expert historians, archaeologists, and educators to unlock stories and lessons of leadership found in the region.
During their adventure, Extreme Journey campers assume the identities of key historical figures and are faced with the virtually the same set of facts and scenarios, enabling campers to “walk in the boots” of the historical men and women and better understand the choices and decisions of those who forged this nation.
Using digital media tools, the campers record their experiences, creating a video documentary or Vodcast, focusing on “what leadership means to me.” Their Vodcasts are shared on the JTHG Partnership website, Facebook, and YouTube, creating a “viral” effect of the campers’ insight into national heritage.
“We are proud to serve as ‘home base’ for this exciting summer program,” said Dennis Campbell, headmaster for Woodberry Forest School. “Woodberry’s superb location and facilities will guarantee an outstanding experience for boys and girls fascinated by American history.”
The two-week overnight camp runs from Sunday, July 10- Friday, July 22, where campers will reside in an air-conditioned dorm at Woodberry Forest School. There, they can also enjoy the school’s outstanding amenities. Founded in 1889 and situated on 1,200 beautiful acres in the Virginia Piedmont, Woodberry Forest is recognized internationally as a leader in the education of boys in grades 9 through 12.
This is the fifth year that the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership has offered Extreme Journey day camp, which is hosted in conjunction with the school districts in Albemarle and Loudoun counties in Virginia and in Adams County, Pennsylvania.
Educating teachers, students, citizens and visitors is one of the primary objectives of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. Since its inception in 2005,this non-profit, four-state, public-private partnership has developed a variety of educational programs, including the award-winning Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student ™ service-learning program, a high-school Summer Enrichment Camp with the University of Virginia, programs for Loudoun County Applied History classes, the semester-long teacher certificate course taught through the Virginia Community College System, teacher workshops, and semester courses for graduate students at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.
With 400 years of European, American and African-American heritage, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a National Heritage Area with a National Scenic Byway running through it. From Gettysburg to Monticello, it’s known as the region Where America Happened. It contains more history than any other region in the nation, including National and World Heritage sites; more than 10,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places; 49 National Heritage districts; nine presidential homes; 13 national park units; hundreds of African American and Native American heritage sites; 30 Historic Main Street communities; sites from the Revolutionary War, French and Indian War, and the War of 1812; and the largest single collection of Civil War sites in the nation.
For more information on the Extreme Journey Summer Camps, including a video overview, go to:
http://www.hallowedground.org/content/view/285/67/
For more information on the Woodberry Forest Overnight Extreme Camp, go to: http://www.woodberry.org/podium/default.aspx?t=124115
The JTHG Partnership is a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of the unparalleled history from Monticello to Gettysburg. It has successfully created the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area and has had the Old Carolina Road (Rt. 15/20/231) from Gettysburg, through Maryland, to Monticello designated a National Scenic Byway. For more information, go to: http://www.HallowedGround.org
For more on the 150th anniveresary of the Civil War see:
Tennessee launches Civil War Heritage Trail in time for Sesquicentennial and slideshow
Chattanooga is key stop on Tennessee’s Civil War Heritage Trail and slideshow
Civil War comes home to Spring Hill on Tennessee’s Heritage Trail and slideshow
Battle of Franklin: Bloodiest 5 Hours of Civil War marks death of the Old South and slideshow
Carnton Plantation and ‘The Widow of the South’ on Tennessee’s Civil War Trail and slideshow
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