Summer means big events, epic adventures and new camps!

“Adventure Crew is definitely an excellent program … even though we meet other students from different schools for a short time, we have so much fun and make lasting memories!” --Adventure Crew teen

At Adventure Crew, summer just might be our busiest season of the year. Our events team, Miriam Wise and Shauna Steigerwald, assisted by our new Operational Support Specialist, Ellory Overcast, is deep into the preparations for our signature annual summer events, Ohio River Paddlefest and the Great Ohio River Swim.

Meanwhile, our program team, led by Director of Programming Paige Young, is putting the finishing touches on an epic, adventure-filled summer line-up, including three exciting new camps for 2023.

These past favorites are happening again in summer 2023:

  • “Crew Day”, our annual end-of-school-year celebration for students who participated in 50 percent or more of our adventures during the school year, this year held at Camp Friedlander;

  • The “Mighty Dozen” for students who participated in 12 or more adventures during the school year; for 2023, we’ll offer a camping, hiking and rock climbing trip to Red River Gorge;

  • The weeklong “Advanced Destinations” trip to remote wilderness site Owakonze, thanks to our partners at Camping and Education Foundation;

  • Curated one-day outdoor adventures designed for the specific needs of partner nonprofits that engage our city’s teens.

And this year, thanks to generous funding from the Woodward Trust, we are launching three new summer camps for Crew students who participated during the school year. Each camp has a theme, blending our teens’ favorite summer adventure sports with experiential education in the ecosystems and stewardship of the natural spaces where those adventures take place.

  • Cycling will introduce bike mechanic workshops thanks to our partners at MoBo Bicycle Co-op; urban road riding skills in partnership with Queen City Bike; and mountain biking skills thanks to GOT DIRT founder, Olivia Birkenauer.

  • Kayaking and water-based ecosystems camp will be a collaboration with the Little Miami Conservancy, Mill Creek Alliance, Loveland Canoe and Kayak, and the Thomas More field station, where they’ll study plankton during a boat ride on the Ohio River.

  • Finally, an Adventure Crew sampler will feature a different adventure sport each day — all focusing on environmental stewardship — with fun field games sprinkled in.

The camps filled up within 20 minutes of registration opening! We’re so excited to be able to offer these new adventures to Crew teens. And our sincerest thanks to you, our Adventure Crew family, for helping to make summertime opportunities possible for hundreds of city teens this year. If you’d like to learn more about volunteering, hop over to our volunteer page to request more information.

 
Libby Hunter