More than 35 at-risk children and teenagers from Petrozavodsk and the Pudozhsky region of Karelia came together at a Christian summer camp on an island in Vodlozersky National Park. The campers had a unique opportunity to experience living closer to nature, spending their days in physically and morally healthy activities. The camp leaders, meanwhile, got practical experience on how to organize such a camp, and created a model for continuing it in future years.
The participants were divided into four groups—each assigned tasks to keep the camp clean, collect water and wood, and clean the courtyard of an old church on a neighbouring island. Prayer meetings and sessions discussing the Gospels were held for everyone, as were classes on ethnography, physics, entomology and other subjects. In addition to hiking, boating and visits to local villages, educational games were also organized—such as a game to improve teamwork; a survival game based on a Jules Verne novel; a role-playing game to improve family relationships; and a game to encourage civic participation. At the end of the summer, the campers organized a day-long festival for St. Elijah that was attended by local villagers and some foreign visitors.
More than 35 at-risk children and teenagers from Petrozavodsk and the Pudozhsky region of Karelia came together at a Christian summer camp on an island in Vodlozersky National Park. The campers had a unique opportunity to experience living closer to nature, spending their days in physically and morally healthy activities. The camp leaders, meanwhile, got practical experience on how to organize such a camp, and created a model for continuing it in future years.