Lily Casteen was 7 years old when her parents enrolled her in ARC
Natural History Day Camp, on the back acres of Panorama Farms in Earlysville. Now in her 20s and a wildlife conservation major at Virginia Tech, Casteen says the summers she spent at “mud camp,” first as a camper and then for seven years as a counselor, were instrumental in setting her on her current career path.
“I’m now doing exactly what I was doing there,” but on a bit larger scale, says Casteen, who’s in Alaska this summer, surveying a threatened species of ducks. “I learned so much from Kevin, and from the other people around me.”
“Kevin” is Kevin Murphy, a retired science teacher who’s been the camp’s director for 33 of its 38 years. The goal of ARC Natural History Day Camp is to “teach young people how to be observant, inquisitive, sensitive, and resourceful.” And discovery is imperative: Every day, campers explore a different habitat—pond, creek, meadow, or forest—“to see what each area has to offer.”
One of the most important lessons, recalls Casteen, is to “leave no trace. When you turned a rock over in a stream, you had to turn it back the way it was. I still do that.”
Sponsored by the garden clubs of Albemarle, Rivanna, and Charlottesville (hence the ARC in its name), the camp runs for two weeks every June, rain or shine, because everyone knows that exploring woods and streams is even more fun when you’re soaking wet and covered in mud.