By Mark Ambrogi
The Touchstone Energy Camp has many aspects of a normal outdoor summer camp but with a twist.
“We select up to three students to go to the camp free of charge at Camp Tecumseh in Brookston,” said Mandy Saucerman, Boone REMC communications and marketing specialist.
The camp, which started in 2002, is designed for students entering the seventh grade in the fall of 2017. The students are selected from a group of applications. The students’ households must receive electricity from Boone REMC. Along with serving Boone County, Boone REMC serves parts of Clinton, Hamilton, Hendricks, and Montgomery counties. Boone RMC is a nonprofit electric utility cooperative.
“It’s the traditional summer camp type of experience,” Saucerman said. “They get to go horseback riding, zip-lining, swimming, rock climbing, archery, canoeing, all that fun stuff. Then mixed in with that to make it more of an energy camp, we’ve got activities for them to learn about electrical safety, and the importance of that as well as renewable energy sources, and how all that works, and why it’s important. They get the opportunity to test out what it’s like to be an electric lineman by climbing a pole and going up in a bucket truck and things like that.”
The overnight camp will be held to June 7 to 10. The campers spend three nights in the cabins and get picked up the morning June 10.
“The counselors are employees of the electric cooperatives,” Saucerman said. “So they get to learn a little bit more about careers in the electric cooperative industry.”
There are about 135 campers from around the state that attend the camp.
Applications forms are available at bremc.com/community/youth-programs/. The application deadline is Feb. 24.
