Paying It Foward: COVID Kids Meet STEM Chickens #126
Jack Browne, Wichita Falls Times Record News edition, Sunday August 3, 2025
After 110 years, Camp Fire North Texas continues to build caring, confident youth and future leaders by adapting to children’s needs and interests.
Providing a safe, outdoors-focused space and engaging programs for kindergarten to fifth grade children allows them to form lasting relationships and develop a sense of belonging, all while actively engaged in learning.
Today’s youngsters are far different than prior generations.
As I visited with Erica Bundt executive director of Camp Fire North Texas, she noted “COVID babies’ earliest years and first engagements were with others who wore masks.”
She notes these kids interact very differently than prior generations. They are better able to read facial expressions and sense what people are feeling. They favor more touch in their engagements with physical sensations a key part of their experiences.
The 2025-2026 Camp Fire experience is organized around the WFISD schools schedule to provide a safe after school environment with engaging activities that provide new experiences and skills and help children to grow while participating in their own education.
I saw nine chickens in their temporary home at Camp Fire offices during my visit. Chicken coops are under construction and will afford Camp Fire after school children new experiences by learning how to raise these egg laying chickens.
With the hands-on work of feeding, watering and recovering the eggs these experiences will create long term memories.
Other hands-on science, technology, engineering and math experiences will include working gardens raising vegetables and flowering plants that attract butterflies. Children will learn the tasks necessary to produce the foods needed by butterflies, chickens and people.
Construction of the second to last segment of Circle Trails along the Wichita River has disrupted the habits and resting grounds of many animals in Camp Harrell. These animals will be more active during the construction and include wild hogs, possums, raccoons and even ferrets.
Anticipated interactions between local wildlife, the chickens and the gardens will show how people and animals interact and what it takes to protect and provide food sources.
The Camp Fire 2025-2026 program provides twice weekly pickups at 15 different elementary schools throughout our area as shown at https://campfirentx.org/after-school/. The program only costs $30 per child for the entire school year.
Challenges faced by Camp Fire are the need for volunteers and funding for their programs. Consider sharing your blessings with an organization that prepares the next generation for life.
Jack Browne is a community activist and former technology engineer, sales and marketing executive at Motorola and other top tech companies.