Volunteer-run Tumalo Day Camp teaches wilderness skills

Published 9:45 am Monday, July 28, 2025

Tumalo Day Camp, organized by Camp Fire Central Oregon, has been going strong for more than 30 years. Offering outdoor skills for children aged 4 through 16, it operates at Tumalo State Park and runs on volunteers.

Cece Valceschini, camp director, was glad there wasn’t fire or smoke on a recent July 21, and said the first day of the second session went well. Other than this week, there was a session in late June and one Aug. 18-22.

The camp has between 120 to 130 campers. Around 15 older teens serve as counselors in training and there are around 18 volunteer counselors. This is the camp’s 36th year.

“I want them all to have an appreciation for the outdoors,” said Valceschini, who has worked for Tumalo Day Camp for 33 years this summer. “I want them to have an appreciation for getting out, liking it, feeling safe, having some knowledge to encourage them to keep going.”

One perk for counselors is that their own children are allowed to join camp for free.

Young campers circle around the outside and listen as volunteer teen camp councilors, center, sing a song to start Tumalo Day Camp, which has been running for over 30 years, led entirely by volunteers, at Tumalo State Park. Andy Tullis/The Bulletin

“I believe that’s why the camp is so good, because all the counselors that are there want their own children to have a nice experience, so they tend to go overboard in being excellent teachers and doing fun stuff and much more so, I believe, than if we had just a paid staff,” she said.

Tumalo Day Camp is focused on learning outdoor skills such as building a fire, different kinds of outdoor cooking, using a compass and a map, using a pocketknife, learning essential items to have the wilderness, first aid and more. Fourth graders and those older also have an overnight experience at the nearby campground.

“We also do skits and goofy songs,” she said. “On Friday afternoons, each group puts on a skit for the rest of us, that their counselor in training has taught them throughout the week, and that’s always very entertaining.”

Each day has a theme, which have included pajama day, favorite foods and a day focused on careers. The counselors in training share themes with Valceschini, and winners are announced for best costume.

Because the counselors are volunteers, it can be a scramble to find available volunteers and make sure they are trained in time. One of the counselors in training is working as a counselor this week to fill in. The camp is staffed for August but Valceschini wouldn’t mind another two or three volunteers. She is also always looking for counselors for the next summer.

Volunteer Camp Counselor, Jolynne Ash, of Bend, center, smiles as she plays with four year-old campers during a parachute game with balls at Tumalo Day Camp, at Tumalo State Park Tuesday. Andy Tullis/The Bulletin

“The more you get the word out, it always pays off,” she said.

The main qualification for counselors is to enjoy being around children. Each group has between eight to ten kids, plus the counselors in training. The second qualification is being flexible. Though a group may not accomplish every skill in a given week, Valceschini mostly wants to make sure campers have fun and learn something.

“Smoke could happen, things could get canceled, rain could happen, maybe you can’t go on a hike every day,” she said. “Things change.”

Grandparents, aunts and uncles, college students, retirees and parents have all served as volunteers. Since the counselors in training teach the games and do the running around, volunteers in wheelchairs or with mobility problems have been successful. Valceschini has also had counselors who didn’t speak English well, which similarly worked because the counselors in training could fill in the gaps.

“The kids loved it, didn’t know the difference, they thought it was interesting,” she said of a counselor who primarily spoke Spanish.

Valceschini has repeat counselors and volunteers who attended Tumalo Day Camp themselves as kids. Some people come from Portland and camp in Central Oregon for the week specifically to volunteer.