Sandy Museum’s “No Tech” Summer Camp Wraps up Strong

By Nicole O’Neill, For The Mountain Times

After four weeks of camp, the Sandy Historical Museum wrapped up the last week of its “No Tech” summer camp on August 20th with a game of trivia with residents of Cascadia Village’s retirement community.  Teams of seniors and campers answered questions about animals, Oregon, and American history.  Cascadia Village Community Relations Director Jessica Clemence says it was a great opportunity for the generations to come together and learn from each other, “It is so important to bridge the generation gap and for young people to spend time with older people.”

On Monday campers visited Scenic Fruit Company to learn how the Boring company processes and freezes fruit and enjoy blueberry smoothies. Tuesday, No Tech campers spent the morning volunteering at the Hoodview drive through food bank, loading food into cars and learning how the food bank feeds people in our community.

Throughout all four weeks of the program, No Tech campers visited local organizations and businesses to learn about different jobs, how local government works, and where their food comes from.  After the morning field trips campers spent the afternoons outdoors at local parks.  Each week, No Tech summer camp served 15 campers.  While the museum hopes to expand the program in 2027, staff is looking at whether that will mean more weeks of programming or expanding the number of campers in each session.  Museum visitor and administrative support specialist Pamela Skellenger says it was delightful to see the young life and curiosity in the museum.  “History can be healthy and it's important for the kids to have a sense of community.”  According to Skellenger, the camp program also educated the Sandy community about the museum, “The camps introduced a lot of our community to the museum for the first time, and made a real sense of family.”

Sandy resident Kristen Franz sent her daughters to all four sessions.  She especially appreciated that camps were all day and included indoor and outdoor activities, “The girls learned so much through a great mix of hands-on activities, from rock painting and cooking lefse to STEM projects about surface tension and erosion.  They also got to visit local businesses, farms, food banks, and community centers, which was a highlight!”  Fantz’s seven year old daughter, Palmer says her favorite thing was visiting local state park, Bonnie Lure, “Eating and making leftse was so fun.  That was my favorite.  We did a fun thing every day!  I also liked getting donuts and putting food in peoples’ cars.”

While No Tech camp is done for the summer, the museum is expanding its kids art class offerings with a weekly anime/manga art class starting this month.  Museum staff is exploring Thanksgiving, Winter Break, and Spring Break camp options as well.

Nicole O’Nell is the Sandy Historical Society Museum Executive Director