<p>I'll also post something in the summer programs forum, but I'm hoping my fellow parents won't mind if I recommend a wonderful program that my daughter did last summer, Landmark Volunteers. If you have a high school sophomore or junior at home, this is ideal! Kids work in a team with about 10 to 12 other teens for one- or two-week periods. Sites include national parks, historic monuments, camps for kids with special needs (like Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall camp), sports or cultural groups, etc. </p>
<p>My daughter did her stint at an Audubon Center in the Northeast, and she had a blast. Her team worked very hard during the day restoring trails, painting, setting up for the annual festival, etc. They were very well supervised day and night. They shopped for groceries together, cooked, cleaned up, etc. In the evenings, they did mini golf, took in a movie or two, and played paintball! So even though it was hard work, there was time for fun, too, and she met some great kids her age. She left with a real sense of accomplishment, that she had really helped make a difference.</p>
<p>A two-week period is very easy to work into a busy summer, and it gives kids a chance to live away from home in a supervised setting. Please PM me if you have questions.</p>
<p>On the college front, D wrote her Common App essay about her summer experience, and she also received a wonderful recommendation from the team leader, which we sent out as a supplemental rec to each college she applied to. I would love to help spread the word about this worthy group. There is a fee involved, but it goes to feed and house and supervise your child so that the nonprofit group doesn't have to shell out the money. I feel it was money well spent, and it's tax-deductible too. For more info, check out <a href="http://www.volunteers.com%5B/url%5D">www.volunteers.com</a>.</p>
<p>Nice to see this thread. I did some research into Landmark, although my child ended up NOT attending, but it seemed to be a quality organization, with a variety of possible experiences, and affordable.</p>
<p>This looks like a terrific organization. I looked at a few different places where they have volunteering opportunities and each one was different. In Colorado, they work with kids at a camp and sleep in platform tents, in Pennsylvania/NJ they will do a variety of things from manual labor to helping the rangers and sleep in cabins. In Virginia, there's an opportunity to work at Williamsburg and stay at William and Mary dorms. Sounds great!</p>
<p>If your child is into outdoors work also check out the Student Conservation Association (<a href="http://www.thesca.org%5B/url%5D">www.thesca.org</a>). I did it the summer before my junior and senior years and LOVED it. You work with 5-7 other high school students for up to a month on projects that range from trail maintenance to forest clean-up to just about anything you can imagine in the wilderness/outdoor areas. Some camps are isolated with almost no public interaction and some are even located in a state or national park. My first year was at a park in Pennsylvania--we maintained hiking trails, assisted with "historic programs" of the park, etc. We got to visit the Amish villages and had a pizza night at the park ranger's home. My second year was in the backcountry of Alaska and we worked on trails as well as improving the habitat for the wild animals of the area--bears, elk, etc. Your leaders are atleast 21 (usually two of them) that have tons of outdoor experience. It's like camping with strangers but after a day or two its like a month long family campout. The last week of the program, the group plans a backpacking trip and goes somewhere to explore without working. The only costs are the transportation to the airport nearest your site and any supplies (backpack, sleeping bag, etc) that you don't already own. Oh, and you should enjoy sleeping in a tent ;)</p>
<p>I also did the Landmark Volunteers the summer before my sophomore year and enjoyed it, in Colorado. 2 weeks was a great start that led me into my month-long programs with the SCA. <em>Didn't mean to highjack the thread</em> :)</p>
<p>My daughter did Landmark a few years ago (Jamestown/Yorktown program). She had a great time and loved the work, especially building a split rail fence. It wasn't the topic of her essay, but it did help her receive a local community service scholarship.</p>
<p>I did SCA in the backwoods of Bryce Canyon, Utah, THIRTY years ago. That's correct, 30 years ago. I still have a barbwire scar on my arm (still proud of it), as we repaired and installed fencing in the non-populated areas. Drank out of the stream, bathed in the pond, ducked the lightning, dug our own latrines, slept in old-fashioned tents, and backpacked during a drought, during which we ran out of water and had to dig a pit to find enough muddy water to drink... Not for the faint-of-heart, but a wonderful experience. And FREE. You just have to get yourself there and back. They feed you, etc. :)</p>
<p>Yay--another SCA alum! I can still recall the boy in my group from the inner city who originally went only because he wanted to quit smoking (no tobacco allowed on the trip) and came out loving the outdoors and now is studying Forestry or something along those lines. And quit smoking. Ahh yes...drinking in the stream, bathing in the pond--or a heavy rainstorm--every few days, setting up rope systems to hang food between trees to keep it away from bears, etc. Great times to be had...</p>
<p>My daughter attended the Colorado Rocky Mountain Village site last summer. It is INTENSE, working with severely developmentally disabled kids and adults (one week each). You do not actually have to be a Landmark Volunteer to work at the camp, but it provides a kind of umbrella/social network if you do. </p>
<p>She is a natural at this kind of work, seeing through to the heart of people and being able to essentially overlook the differences to see what is special about each of them. I loved her stories about the kids and the qualities and specially endearing traits she loved. But she would be the first to say it was really, really emotionally and physically intense, and is not for the faint of heart or for someone who is just trying to get community service hours.</p>
<p>My D did Landmark twice. She went to Vermont the first time and worked at the Marsh Billings Rockerfeller estate and then to Maine to Agassiz Village. She really enjoyed both experiences and still has friends from both programs. She would have loved to go back last summer, but she went to a photography program instead. I'd highly recommend Landmark as well.</p>