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Fox Valley Tents & Wheels
- Family Camping Club -
Elgin, Illinois

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About FVT&W's "Kid's Club"

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FVT&W's "Kid's Club" is something we began independently of usual FCRV guidelines.
Since our focus is on families, we decided that we would involve the children in the
operation of a club of their own that they could run with adult supervision.
This gives them a supervised amount of control of their own camping experience,
and provides a chance to learn leadership and the democratic process .
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The kids hold a regular business meeting at each function - just like the adult members.
They decide what programs they they will get involved in and how they will carry them out.
They decide how they will fund events or activities that will benefit them directly.
Our Adult Vice President oversees the kids and acts as an advisor, but its the children that
set the focus for their own "kid's club". They elect a President and a Secretary to preside at their meetings.

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Rob (FVT&W's Vice President) as he officiates a FVT&W  "Kid's Club" meeting
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Some of the kids piling firewood for our campfire supply (one of their 'camping chores')
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Kids at play - blindly swatting at a pinata
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A game of "'Fireman's Tug-of-War" with hoses and an empty milk jug on a rope
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A couple things that the "kid's club" has already accomplished ....
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1) They've established duties that each family's children have on camping weekends
          Can Crushing (we recycle and donate the cash to our Treasury)
          Campground Clean Up - at the end of the weekend
          ( We try to leave our sites cleaner than we found them)
          Clean up after our pot-luck dinners
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2) Camper Cash (an idea of our first "Kid's Club" President)
         If an adult witnesses a child going beyond the usual in helping contribute to the
         'chores' at a campout, the adult may award an appropriate amount of "FVT&W Camper
         Cash" to that child. The kids can then redeem their "Camper Cash" for prizes and articles
         from our "Camper Cash Store" that we open each weekend. We also use the "Camper Cash"
         as prizes for games and activities during the camping weekends so that they may choose to use
         it for a small purchase or save it for a 'larger' purchase...
         Our 'prizes' range from small trinkets to radios and flashlights.
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3) At the suggestion of the "kid's club", at the beginning of each camping weekend the rules of
         the club and the host campground are reviewed by the entire "kid's club" at their meeting so that
         each child is aware of them. (This helps to prevent trouble before it begins)

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