Local Thousand Oaks Moms Create Service-Learning Summer Camp That is Fun-Filled and Community Inspired
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 12:55PM 
Thousand Oaks locals, Meredith Madnick Cornelius and Anne Byer Marquart decided to create a summer camp focused on service-learning after they wanted to send their own children to one and realized there were none available for younger children.
From that realization, Camp Helping Hands™ (CHH) was born. CHH is a co-ed summer day camp for kids ages six to 13 with service-learning as its core theme. Service-learning emphasizes both service and learning and requires participants to use their knowledge and skills to address real-life needs in their own communities.
At Camp Helping Hands, campers will do just this by following the four phases of the service-learning process: investigation, planning, taking action, and reflection. When campers are led through this collaborative process, they share and invest their ideas and skills and feel truly committed to the project and to making a difference. Local organizations from the community will join as service partners, and local college students will lead the groups as CHH counselors.
The theme for 2011 is “Living: Our Place in the World,” and the three-week session will be hosted at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. During week one, CHH campers will work with Waste Management to see firsthand how a landfill can be transformed into a pollinator garden. After a brief facility tour, which includes an up-close visit with Avian Entertainment falconers and their bir
