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DECATUR, Ill. (AP) — Of the half-dozen teenagers who crowd around a planter stationed at a south door to MacArthur High School, Victoria Dickson is the one who literally stays down to earth.
"We need more soil," she announced matter-of-factly while other students are busy putting zinnias and coleus into the pot and asking their teacher how they look.
Directing her next comment to Christian Flinn, 15, so he'll give her some room, she said, "I want to put some more handfuls in."
Victoria, 15, is one of 42 participants in Camp Earth, which stands for Education, Avocation, Recreation Through Horticulture, a six-week summer day camp for Decatur public school special-education students ages 14-21 wrapping up its 24th year this week.
A first-time camper, Victoria is a MacArthur student who hopes to become a zoologist one day.
"I'm actually making a lot of friends, and I'm usually not that social," she said. "It's also making me more tolerant of being outside, even though the sun and the insects annoy me.
"Sometimes zoologists have to stay outside for long periods of time, working with the animals."
Lori Brown, director of Independence Pointe, said the purpose of Camp Earth to give students vocational training and experiences they would not normally have.
"We're trying to teach skills to help them in life when they get employment and become more independent," Brown said.
Based at MacArthur High School, where campers eat breakfast and lunch, Camp Earth is divided into seven groups of two staff members and six students who go around Decatur improving and maintaining landscapes/planters at amany public schools, businesses and more. Field trips on Fridays are part of the schedule, too.
"We get around," said Thomas Taylor, the Camp Earth coordinator who's been with the program from the beginning. "We're one of the best-kept secrets in the city."
The Macon County Mental Health Board purchases the service from Independence Pointe, a division of Macon Resources Inc., also known as MRI
Vocational training taught by Janette Taylor covers such topics as how to dress for work. "It means no booty shorts," said Joseph Arreaza-Muyuz, 17, another student at MacArthur.
Hands went up every time she asked someone to read the next question aloud, including the hands of those who had trouble doing so.
"Nice reading, Jermaine," Thomas Taylor said after Jermaine Woodfork, 18, a student at MacArthur, completed a passage about the importance of being a team player.
Helen Perkins, 20, a student at MacArthur, volunteered during discussion about possible careers that she wants to be a wedding planner. She has been coming to Earth Camp since she was 14.
In his second year at the camp, Jermaine Hunter, 17, a student at MacArthur, said he thought before he went it would be boring but likes it now that he feels he's gotten good at gardening.
"I learned not to kill plants," he said. "I used to cut the roots and messed it up a lot."
The students aren't the only ones who benefit from Camp Earth, however.
Each group of campers also adopts "grandparents" and helps them beautify their yards.
Delores Hack, 78, is among them and said she's been especially thankful to have the extra "grandchildren" since losing her husband, Bennie, in January.
"I love flowers, but I'm not one to dig in the ground," Hack said. "They're really friendly kids, and I look forward to seeing them."
She also likes sitting out on her porch early in the morning when the weather's nice, admiring her hanging baskets and planters filled with flowers.
"It's just me, a cup of coffee, my newspaper and my flowers," she said. "I love it."
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Source: (Decatur) Herald & Review, http://bit.ly/2afhlSz
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Information from: Herald & Review, http://www.herald-review.com
This is an AP-Illinois Exchange story is offered by the (Decatur) Herald & Review.
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