May 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 17

Zombie Survival Camp participants put their new orienteering skills into practice.

shelter or drawing a tactical map of
the battlefield.
Courage is another valuable life
skill many Zombie Survival Camp
participants learn. At the end of a
week of camp, one boy was talking
with his father and Cejka. " I was
afraid the whole time. Am I a coward? " he asked. " No, that's what
bravery is, " Cejka responded. " To go
out and do what you have to do even
though you are scared. "
One of the keys to Cejka's success is the fact that she truly engages campers not only in their learning
and development, but also in the design of their own camp experiences.
Camp participants have a say in the
daily activities, including, of course,
the creation of a drill cadence as they
march into the wilderness: " Zombies
are the living dead, Zombies ate my
cousin Fred! "
The idea for a Zombie Survival
Camp originated from a conversation Cejka had with a participant in
another day camp several years ago,
who commented that his favorite
part of camp was exploring in the
woods. The kids that day had been
pretending to be zombies, and Cejka was inspired. Later she Googled
" zombie camp " and was amazed
at all of the resources already out

there, mostly focusing on wilderness
survival skills. So Cejka began advocating for a Zombie Survival Camp
at Ushers Ferry as an opportunity
to engage kids with nature. Eventually there was an opening for a new
camp, and the first session of Zombie Survival Camp was scheduled
for summer 2010.
While Cejka and her small staff
design and run all of the camps at
Ushers Ferry in-house, she credits a
few critical local partners who help
to make Zombie Survival Camp
a success. Volunteers from Green
Iowa AmeriCorps played a role in
the initial design of the program's
curriculum, and each year, representatives of the Cedar Rapids Police
and Fire Departments lead sessions
with campers on first aid and disaster preparedness. Cejka hopes to develop more community partnerships
down the road.
The truest testament to the program's success: Many kids return to
Zombie Survival Camp year after
year. So what happens when kids age
out of Zombie Survival Camp at 13?
They come back to camp anyway. As
the living dead.
Jessica Culverhouse is NRPA's Senior
Manager of Fundraising (jculverhouse@nrpa.
org).

W W W. N R PA . O R G | M AY 2 0 1 4 |

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May 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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