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Zombies, Nature, and Overcoming Fear

Whether it is a strength or weakness, I do not know, but I don’t have children of my own, and as a result, I tend to treat kids a bit more like short adults. Spending an enjoyable afternoon in the woods with a group of children, I decided my captive audience was as close I could come to a focus group, and so I asked them: if they could do any kind of day camp at all, what would it be? The resounding answer was a day camp with zombies. Thus, Zombie Survival Camp was carefully considered, researched and developed with great success.

That was perhaps my most valuable lesson in programming with children. Don’t just create programs you think they will like, or programs you think they need, or ask their parents what kind of programming they would sign their kids up for. Ask the kids what they want. Kids, after all, are people, too. When working with children, I take them seriously, and I don’t sugarcoat situations. In short, I make it clear to them that while I will do my best to give them the adventure that they so desperately want, they are largely responsible for their own safety, survival and happiness, and together we embark upon the great adventure engaging in a week of wilderness survival activities that could be found at any Scout camp, (except for the fact that ours are conducted in zombie-infested territory, where legions of gray-skinned high school volunteers may lumber out of the brush at any moment to satiate their thirst for human brains).

That, of course, is the second key to Zombie Camp. In order to give the kids the adventure they seek, there must be at least some element of risk involved, and they must be allowed to take it. Zombie camp is not for the "helicopter parent," and it comes with a full disclaimer to those who sign up. There are no manicured trails; we will be blazing our own. There will be ticks and poison ivy. Whether it is hot or temperate or pouring rain, we will be outside. We will go to the riverbank, take off our shoes and squelch our toes in the sand and mud. Trees may be climbed. Knees may be scraped. The occasional ankle may even be twisted, but so far, we have not had a single camper devoured by a zombie.

In many ways, Zombie Survival Camp is very much a program about building teams and overcoming fears. The fears they face are many, whether it may be that the moss they just touched on that log might be poisonous, or that the wild goose feather they just picked up might have disease on it, to the terrifying aspect off the zombies themselves. In fact, the zombies serve a useful purpose in helping put their fears in perspective. Compared to the zombies, nature is much less frightening, and when working together as a team, they manage to defeat the zombies; valuable lessons in true courage are learned.

This leads to my final key to Zombie Survival Camp: imagination. It’s not just about treating kids a little more like adults, it’s about acting a little more like a kid yourself. It’s about finding your inner child, grasping the imaginative potential of every moment, and for a few hours each day allowing yourself to pretend that zombies really do exist.

Ann Cejka
Program Coordinator
Ushers Ferry Historic Village
Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation
5925 Seminole Valley Tr. NE.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52411
Phone: 319-286-5764
www.ufhv.com

536 East Avenue, LaGrange, IL 60525 | Phone: 708-588-2280 | Fax : 708-354-0535