Twenty-five elementary-school children attended a four-day camp in July to listen to plant presentations, do hands-on projects and make friends.

This year's Earth-Kind Kids Camp, organized by the Youth Activities Committee of the Fort Bend County Master Gardeners, had a theme of "Growing Healthy Plants." All lessons related to horticulture followed by a hands-on reinforcing project at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds 4310 TX-36 in Rosenberg.

For example, the third-through-fifth graders learned about carnivorous plants from Master Gardeners Melody Lindley of Sugar Land and Esther Salazar of Richmond. Lindley talked of the four different types of carnivorous plants - snap traps, sticky traps, pit traps and bladder traps - what plants fall into each category, what they eat, how they capture their food and where they grow. Salazar followed up with a hands-on re-creation of carnivorous plants by the youngsters using bottle caps, pipe cleaners, hot-glue guns and even a fake fly.

"Every activity has a hands-on component, which re-enforces what they learned through the lesson," said Master Gardener Donna Blackburn of Sugar Land and Youth Activities Director.

Other camp topics included Zen gardening, pollinators, seed balls and "Ugly Vegetables & Ugly Vegetable Tasting."

Master Gardener Deb Matherly of Sugar Land talked about "Hamburger Plant" and Master Gardeners Ed Plant of Rosenberg and Clarence Gray of Missouri City talked about "Composting."

Matherly said, "The Hamburger Plant session shows kids that hamburgers don't grow in trees and that every part of a hamburger can be identified back to its original food which is a plant."

Plant said, "I talked about how to build a compost pile having browns and greens and water." Campers identified items for Plant as being brown or green, meaning carbon or nitrogen, "Then they glued colored paper on a compost bin page that they could take home and show their parents because it has the instructions on how to build a compost pile," he said.

Both Matherly and Plant are frequent camp participants and enjoy interaction with the youngsters.

Said Matherly, "This is my third year. The kids are great. The people that work here - the volunteers - are great. We have a lot of fun, and I think it's a great value for the kids of the community."

Two participants in their third and last year of camp are Amelia, 9, of Missouri City, and Caleb, 9, of Richmond.

Amelia explained that she likes camp "because Master Gardeners are really nice and all their activities are really fun. This year my favorite thing was the carnivorous plants. I loved the balloon fight and Cowboy Larry," she added. As to her daily trip from Missouri City to Rosenberg, Amelia said, "It's worth it."

Like Amelia, Caleb likes Cowboy Larry. "I've roped a few times. It's fun. I really liked the water balloon fight."

He also likes the variety. "Each year they switch up different activities." This year he liked talking about pollinators.

"Camp is a 16-year tradition that started in 2009 and skipped two years because of COVID," said Blackburn.

"We start talking in February about what we want to do at camp. We try not to repeat things from the year before because we have repeat campers. We decide what we want to do and then someone always says 'Oh, I'd like to lead that activity.' They plan it, and we work together with them."

Blackburn said a lot of volunteers step out of their comfort zone to prepare a lesson on something they may not be particularly knowledgeable about, but they do research to see what's appropriate for this age group. "They learn before the campers do," she said.

But camp is more than studying about various plant-related topics.

"They (Master Gardeners) like to come because it's fun," said Blackburn. "They get to know each other, and many friendships are built among the volunteers. Everyone is so positive and they like working with the campers."

In their second year of camp participation are Elliott, 9, of Katy and Master Gardener Vivian M. Schott of Katy and both would like to come back next year.

Elliott said, "It's all about plants and you can do experiments." He said he likes it all as well as meeting new friends.

Schott said she came back because "The kids are cool. They're very energetic. They have a blast. I have a blast watching them having a blast. I'm coming back next year and hope all the kids do, too."

Master Gardener Jerry Zona of Fairchild can relate to those feelings. He's been part of summer camp since 2018 "because I enjoy working with the children and it's good for my health, too. If you give yourself to other people, it's good for you."