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We currently operate Summer Camp Monday through Friday from June 10th to July 26th. During the week of July 4th, we run a partial program Monday to Wednesday.
Drop-off each day is between 8:45 am-9:00 am. Pick-up is from 4:00 pm-4:15 pm. We keep a tight drop-off and pickup window to minimize the time that students are sitting in the camp van waiting for other campers to arrive.
We serve two different age groups. We have four sessions for 6-8 year olds. And we have three sessions devoted to the 9-11 age range.
Students must turn 6 before they start the program.
Students may attend until their 12th birthday.
No, lunch is not provided. Children should bring their lunches as well as an AM snack and a PM snack. Lunches must be packed in a lunch box with the student's name visible from the outside. We encourage families to pack lunches that travel well, as student will carry lunches in their backpacks.
We travel to the public lands around Harrisonburg that make living in the Shenandoah Valley so special. We operate on National Forest Land, Shenandoah National Park Land, Nearby State Parks, Harrisonburg and Bridgewater City Parks, and the JMU Arboretum. Additionally, we may also visit the private property of friends of Riprap.
We travel in our giant white Ford 350XLT camp van "Moby" from drop off to our activity sites and back. Each student has an assigned seat they will be given at the beginning of camp that they will stick with throughout the week. For our 6 and 7-year-old students, their seats will be outfitted with a "Costco Rise Backless Booster Car Seat".
Each day campers take part in a planned Outdoor Adventure activity that has been paired with complementary Environmental Education topics. Here are a few examples:
Our 6-8-year-old students may go hiking along a local stream and spend time identifying aquatic plants and insects.
Our 9-11-year-old students may go on a guided beginner caving experience while learning about limestone geology.
Our goal is true experiential education where students are fully immersed in the activity and the learning. Our instructors teach from thoughtfully constructed lesson plans with supporting materials like ID guides and other visuals.
We design our days so that each afternoon during the warmest parts of the day we can get some quality "H2O time" in. Most days this will involve "creeking." This is where students are splashing and wading in the shallower portions of our local streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds.
However, there will be a few times when campers have the option to go swimming. Swimming days are more common with our 9-11-year-old campers, though the 6-8-year-olds may have the opportunity.
In any case, whenever campers will be in water over their knees, we require a Coast Guard-approved PFD to be worn. To ensure the best fit we ask that you send one with your child as part of their packing list.
We operate each day with two staff and 10 students maximum. This is a more prudent ratio than is required by the state or even by the American Camp Association. We feel this ratio enables our instructors to teach more effectively, connect with each student, and most importantly, remain attentive and watchful in the outdoor environment where we operate.
On select days an additional staff will be sent out to help with our more intensive activities with our 9-11 year olds including rock climbing and river tubing. This brings our ratio closer to 1 staff for every 3.33 kids (if you want to get specific).
We believe that the awesome places we visit need to be paired with high-quality, experience instructors. We set high standards for applicants, offer a competitive pay rate, and require previous experience with youth to ensure that we have the best instructors possible for the program.
Riprap Instructors are:
Riprap instructors are trained on:
All instructors are required to have a minimum of 1st Aid/CPR with at least one instructor present possessing a Wilderness First Aid or Wilderness First Responder certification. All staff undergo a Virginia Department of Education-approved background check before working with students, as well as a driving record check. All instructors complete a 32-hour in-house training on youth programming standards and Riprap-specific policies and procedures. Additionally, our instructors come to us with previous experience and training in Early Childhood Education and/or Outdoor Recreation Programming.
We do not require our staff to be lifeguard certified considering we do require all students to wear Coast Guard-approved PFDs if they enter water over their knees (regardless of swimming ability). We do require that our instructors can swim and remain in the water with the students for the duration of the water activity.
Your child's physical and emotional safety is our main focus. Risk and uncertainty are also inherent in outdoor recreation. Our outdoor classrooms have slippery surfaces, uneven terrain, and no handrails. The activities we engage in are often new to students and involve a learning curve. And no matter how many policies and procedures an organization lays out, and no matter how strictly they are followed, incidents will still happen. We expect to see bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Embracing these realities, Riprap is committed to systematically identifying, assessing, and mitigating hazards.
To do so we:
We also recognize risk as a valuable teaching tool. While we never seek out risk for the sake of risk alone, the assessment of and thoughtful interaction with risk is a skill we teach alongside every other part of our curriculum. With caring and knowledgeable instructors to guide them, students are taught to practice critical thinking, reflection on experiences, and resiliency in the face of failure. In this way, students are empowered to identify appropriate and inappropriate risks for themselves and act accordingly.
We run programming rain or shine! All staff are trained to do what is reasonable and prudent based on our policies, procedures, and what they are observing in the field. This includes specific conditions such as heavy rain, lightning, and high winds. Many of the locations we visit have covered pavilions and buildings that are accessible to us. We also have the Riprap van to fall back on. In all circumstances, our instructors will guide the group to the best cover available. If Rockingham County Public Schools are closed due to inclement weather, Riprap will be closed as well.
We will send a formal packing list as part of your "Riprap Parent/Caregiver Handbook" no later than two weeks before your child's start date. In general, students will need the following:
Many of these items can be purchased from Walkabout Outfitters in downtown Harrisonburg, which is our preferred vendor. If you are committed to buying these items pre-owned, you can also find many of them at Once Upon A Child or Gift and Thrift.
We value simplicity and believe in unplugging and minimizing what separates us from one another and the natural world. Therefore we ask that students not bring any electronic devices (cell phones, ipads, watches, cameras). If they are brought to camp they will be left in the van during the program day. Riprap will not be held responsible for any lost, stolen or damaged items. Instructors will have personal cellphones on them for navigation, communication with the director, and the use of a few flora/fauna identification apps.
Communication with students during the day is not practical. Students are not allowed to bring phones and will be engaged with activities and other campers. If you have an emergency in which you need to get in touch with your student we ask that you call or text the camp line and allow the camp director to talk through the situation with you first.
Not necessarily. However, most activity days include hiking with some uphill portions in warm weather. Students in the 9-11 age bracket may find it easier (and ultimately more enjoyable) during activities like climbing and caving.
All cancelation request must be made no later than 5pm on May 17th and will result in a $50 administrative processing fee. Any requests for cancelation made after May 17th will not receive any refund due to money already being committed to staff training and preparations for the summer.
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