'Leave No Child Inside' gives city kids chance to embrace the outdoors

As a bluegill nibbles on the corn 12-year-old Tammy Stelnicki uses as bait, the youngster yanks too quickly with her rod and loses the fish.

It would have been her third catch of the day, and she seems somewhat disappointed by the missed opportunity. But since the native of Chicago's South Side is releasing the bounty she catches anyway, isn't she glad she doesn't have to grapple with the slippery, squirming fish?

"Nah, that's the cool part," she said.

Tammy hurriedly applies another corn kernel to the tiny hook and casts the lure into the lake hoping for another chance at No. 3 before she and her fellow campers go canoeing in a DuPage County Forest Preserve lake.

Forget about a fish that got away, though. The young girl's entire camping experience almost didn't happen this year. The Chicago Park District's "Under Illinois Skies" program that allows more than 100 area children to experience camping was in jeopardy when state natural resources officials backed out because of funding and staffing shortages after nearly a decade of support. For many of the young participants - most who hail from the inner city - the program is their first opportunity to camp.

"The DuPage forest preserves had everything we needed, and they were able to help when we needed it," said Peggy Stewart, manager of outdoor and environmental education for the Chicago Park District. "The facilities in DuPage are just beautiful."

Natural relationship

The placid lake provides a far different setting than 13-year-old Gabriel Villarreal's South Side Chicago neighborhood. He buckles his life vest and waits for camp counselors to haul the canoe from the boathouse to the lake.

"I really wanted to do this again as soon as it was over last year," he said. "I've gone canoeing before, so I feel pretty comfortable going again."

Such return customers as Gabriel are exactly what Dave Guritz, forest preserve director of education, hopes the program yields. More than 1,000 youngsters will camp in DuPage forest preserves this summer as part of such organized outings as, "Under Illinois Skies."

Guritz said he offered Stewart's group a hand because it fits the goal of the national outdoor recreation campaign called "Leave No Child Inside."

The purpose of that program is to provide children with a connection to nature that doesn't exist as it once did.

"I don't really see this as too big a burden for the district to take on," Guritz said. "This is a partnership that might lead to future funding opportunities, and we can use to help secure grant funds."

The success of this Chicago Park District partnership may spawn similar programs with youngsters from this county who may not have ample opportunities to interact with nature. There are plenty of children locally with no conduit to nature despite the proximity of forest preserves to most homes in DuPage, forest preserve officials said. Guritz said his office would begin looking into starting similar partnerships with local municipal park districts.

"We have pockets of disadvantaged people in DuPage County and I think we should be reaching out to them," said forest preserve Commissioner Roger Kotecki.

Stewart said the Chicago program is free and available on a first-come-first-served basis.

"Kids just need loose parts like dirt and water and rocks," she said. "It's not like we need a lot of equipment for this."

Guritz said the partnership is a perfect fit for the forest preserve's emphasis on providing youngsters with "unstructured" play time outdoors. That simply means letting children outdoors to explore.

"Kids will get into those areas of nature, but they need to be told it's OK to go in and have those experiences and see what's under that rock or what's at the bottom of a stream," he said. "It's important for the parents to know where the kids are and to set boundaries and limits, but they also have to engage the children in nature."

World of wonder

Counselors say they can see the change immediately in the youngsters when they step off the bus and onto the campgrounds.

"They get really obsessed about what we're going to be doing next," said first-year counselor Carrie Costanzo. "I think they're worried we're going to run out of time."

The three days and two nights in the forest preserve often prove to be quite enough for the campers, who range in age from 10 to 13.

"They're all sleeping on the way home," Costanzo said. "This wears them out."

Forest preserve officials requested that the location of the camp not be identified as a safety precaution. But the campers sleep under the stars near a lake and spend their waking hours participating in activities including fishing, boating, archery, crafting and hiking. The forest preserve also provides naturalists who swing by the campgrounds to teach the campers about a specific nature topic. Every group receives a different lesson.

"See, that's a really nice touch," said 8-year counselor Gabriella Rudek. "That way we get something different, too."

The atmosphere is pretty laid back at camp. There's a schedule, but it's kept pretty loose. If the group wants to keep fishing a while longer, then they stay put instead of going to archery at a certain time.

"The food here is way better than last year, too," Villarreal said. "We made pizzas in the campfire last night. We just put them on tinfoil and cooked it up. It was so good."

The counselors said they are often amazed by how well the campers acclimate to the new surroundings.

"I had one mom warn me that her daughter gets really homesick and might want to call," Rudek said. "Once she got to the camp, she was doing everything she could and she didn't ask for her mom once. She totally forgot she even had a home."