Prior to Your Visit

Step 1

To reserve your date, submit a date reservation form. Staff will respond by providing you with a Facilities Use Agreement, which includes the amount of your deposit for the space. Now your date is on our calendar.

Step 2

Return the Facilities Use Agreement and provide a deposit in the timeframe specified on the agreement.

Step 3

Prior to 30 days before your visit return your Food Service Agreement and Program Coordination Form. After you submit your Program Coordination Form, a program coordinator will be in touch to begin planning your visit, including creating a schedule.

Step 4

The week before your visit, final arrangements will be made with a program coordinator, you need to provide a final count, and provide a participant log with ALL the names of people that will be in your group.

On the Day of Your Visit

Visitors must maintain at least a 1:10 adult to youth ratio. They must also bring a First Aid Coordinator. Please bring the following forms for all participants, including adult chaperones.

• Health Form
  • Health forms must be on-site but they stay with the group and the group ensures the security of these forms.
• Assumption of Risk Form
• Photo Release
• Demographics Reporting Form

Additionally, we require that all groups provide a Proof of First Aid Certification for their First Aid Coordinator.

After Your Visit

After your visit, we ask you return our Feedback Sheet and Billing Form. You will be invoiced for your visit.

 

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Groups We Serve

Upham Woods is a year-round, residential outdoor learning center serving organized groups including schools, 4-H camps, scout groups, youth and adult conferences and retreats, and adult education workshops.  Throughout the year we are open to the public with a diverse and fun series of public program days.  We also partner with local community organizations to provide after school and community-based programs.  Our experienced staff provide outreach through local library programs, on-site classroom programming, and participation in other local community organization events.

Organizing a Program Booklet for Youth

If you are interested in creating a program booklet, may we suggest some popular ideas? Some things you might want to include are:

• A statement of goals and objectives
• The daily schedule
• A map of Upham Woods
• A list of teachers/chaperones involved
• A description of teachers’/chaperones’ role while at camp (i.e. who is first aid person, cafeteria person, arts and crafts person, etc.)
• Group names with a list of youth in each group
• Teachers/chaperones assigned to which groups
• A page for youth expectations/objectives
• Clean-up and table setter assignments
• A map of Black Hawk Island
• Behavior expectations
• Campfire songs
• Scavenger hunts
• Cabin assignments
• Journal pages
• Blank pages for notes on lessons for follow up back in classroom

You can use these suggestions or ask the Program Coordinator for more.

Youth’s Objectives

Give youth a chance to set their own objectives or decide as a group. By letting them have ownership of the experience their visit to Upham Woods will be greatly enhanced. Students can write down these thoughts in the booklet. Perhaps these thoughts could be used as a time capsule for the end of the school year to see how students have changed. Perhaps they could be used as a “words-of-wisdom” for the group that comes to camp the next year.