Children will have a chance to enjoy the outdoors while learning a bit of Alabama’s history during the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger Summer Camp.  The four-day camp is in July, and will take place in either Selma, Marion or Lowndes County. There is a maximum of 30 children per day, and each camp is from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Theresa Hall, park ranger for the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, said the camp is a way for the rangers to teach the children more about the outdoors while providing a fun and safe outlet.

“We try to do Junior Ranger Summer Camps every summer to give the kids something to do,” she said. “We try to get kids learning outdoors.”

The first day, arts and crafts will be held Saturday, July 7 at the Selma Interpretive Center. Children will explore the topic, “What does Freedom Mean to me?”.

“It is to give them different ideas of what different symbols of freedom are, and what different people think freedom is,” Hall said.

Saturday, July 14 is the second day, and the topic is “Camp out with the National Park Service”. The Lowndes County Interpretive Center will host this day, as it allows the participants to explore the outdoors and its importance in Alabama’s history.

“A lot of kids, especially kids that live in the city, don’t have the opportunity to get out in the outdoors,” Hall said. “The kids are gonna put together tents, and learn about camping out.”

The children will then learn about people that lived in the “Tent City” in 1966-1967.

“After the voting rights, people had to live in the Tent City in Lowndes County because they registered to vote,” Hall said. “They were kicked out of their jobs or kicked off their land, because they registered to vote.”

On Thursday, July 19 the camp will be in Marion at the Marion Public Library.

“A lot of kids in Marion don’t have the opportunity to come down this way, so we want to take the camp to them where it is convenient for them,” Hall said.

The children will learn about the Civil Rights Movement during the third day of camp. The theme for that day is “Sing Loud! Sing Proud! Freedom Songs and Stories of the Movement”.

“They’re gonna sing songs and learn about the [Civil Rights] movement, like ‘Oh Freedom’ and ‘This Little Light of Mine,’” Hall said.

The last camp date, July 28, will be a culmination of all four camps, and will take place at the Lowndes County Interpretive Center. A parent or guardian must stay with their child during camp hours, and are responsible for transportation to and from the camps.