Not Your Usual Summer Camp

The urban jungle during summer is no place for kids. To be able to live by the ocean, however, is another matter.

Catalina Island Camps is a 14-acre site just off Howlands Landing, on the west end of Catalina Island with programs and activities that will surely pique even the most introverted child’s interest.

According to Tom Horner, executive director and owner of Catalina Island Camps, it is “a camp setting with supervised activities and role models. Not many kids get the chance to spend a week or two living right on the ocean, and doing that with a group of kids their own age, those are very unique experiences.”

Unique in a way other traditional summer camps don’t offer kids a chance to “go snorkeling in the cove. And our cove has just amazing snorkeling. You don’t have to go 20 feet offshore and you’re seeing incredible marine life, a diversity of life underneath the water,” Horner says.

And the kids love it.

Horner says that if “you talk to them (the kids), they’re excited they had a chance to see a Garabaldi, or to see the leopard sharks in our cove. They just think it’s so cool to see that in the wild. They don’t get to see animals in the wild beyond birds and squirrels at home.”

But more than unique summer activities, the camp also strives to develop the kids’ social skills and environmental awareness.

“We want to develop community. We want to develop a love for nature,” says Horner.

With the social skills aspect, kids are are taught “how to be part of a team, how to make friends, how to take care of your own belongings, how to be responsible for yourself, how to respect others,” Horner explains.

As for loving nature, Horner tells us that the camp teaches kids to see “the diversity of life. We have bald eagles that live near us, and we’ll see them sometimes. We have seals and sea lions. We have Catalina fox. There are bison on the island in addition to all of the stuff in the water.”

The importance of letting kids learn about society and nature is the goal of Catalina Island Camps.

“It’s an important thing for kids because they’re the generation that’s going to have to protect all of this as they grow up and it’s going to be based on what they love. You protect what you love,” adds Horner.

The camp isn’t just for summer proclivities too. Horner says, “We have a school year science program. School groups come out to Catalina for our Catalina Environmental Leadership Program. We’ll have about 125 kids a week learning science as part of a school field trip for three or five days.”

Horner also adds that the year-round programs aren’t just for schools and kids, “We’ll rent on weekends to church groups, Scout groups, and Y groups, and that sort of stuff. So the facility’s available for those kinds of programs as well – adult and kid programs.”

Catalina Island Camps is accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA) and is a member of the Western Association of Independent Camps (WAIC).

For more information on what Catalina Island Camps can offer, visit http://catalinaislandcamps.com or call (626) 296-4040.

The mainland office for Catalina Island Camps is located as 707 W. Woodbury Rd., Unit F Altadena.