Celebrating the 20 Year Anniversary of KIDS for the BAY Summer Camp

We are thrilled that our KIDS for the BAY Summer Camp filled up so quickly this year, within a few days of opening registration in March 2021! This is a testament to the resilience of our families during the pandemic, the hard work and creativity of our staff, and our dedication to continuing to offer a fun, engaging learning experience for our children outside in nature! The pandemic has been challenging for all of us in so many ways, yet the KIDS for the BAY Summer Camp is back in-person this summer 2021, and we are so excited to welcome our campers and families to our beautiful locations in Tilden and Cesar Chavez Parks, and to celebrate the 20 Year Anniversary of KIDS for the BAY Summer Camp this year!

In Tilden we will explore Wildcat Creek, Jewel Lake, Lake Anza, grassy meadows, oak woodlands and redwood tree groves. At Cesar Chavez we will explore the San Francisco Bay shoreline. We look forward to environmental science experiments and investigations, meeting special plants and animals, bird watching, flying kites, a visit from Lick Your Eyeballs Vivarium, creative nature art and many fun games. We look forward to building special communities of friends, scientists and environmentalists, and to being excellent environmental stewards. We are excited to be joined by some wonderful youth leaders including our middle school Camp Rangers and our high school Leaders in Training.

Reflecting back on the past nineteen years of KIDS for the BAY Summer Camp, we first started out with just two weeks of camp for 16 campers each week. Our early locations were also in Tilden Park and by the bay at Berkeley Marina. Over the years we grew to offer eight weeks of camp for 44 campers each session, visiting many different nature locations, and taking bus and BART field trips to ocean beaches and bay aquariums. We have always kept our focus on a smaller-sized camp with a low camper-staff ratio, on building community, and on taking good care of the special natural habitats that we visit. Environmental stewardship and leave no trace ethics are two of our most important values.

At KIDS for the BAY we believe that Everyone Is an Environmentalist! During the school year we provide environmental education programs for under-resourced schools in low income communities. Our Summer Camps, which are fee-based, help to partially fund our school-based programs. We also provide some scholarship spaces for campers as part of our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

This summer, in 2021, we are celebrating the 20 Year Anniversary of our very special, nature-based, environmental education KIDS for the BAY Summer Camp! Thank you so much to all our young environmentalists who have joined us over the years, and to those who will join us for summer 2021, and for many future summers to come. We can’t wait to be outside in nature, have fun, learn and celebrate with you!