MoYava 4-H Summer Camp
For a week each summer, 4-H members age 8-18, from both Yavapai and Mohave Counties, convene at the Harold and Mitzie James 4-H Camp & Outdoor Learning Center on Mingus Mountain for a week of fun, and community during MoYava Camp. The camp is surrounded by magnificent vistas, valleys, and meadows on 55 acres of unspoiled Ponderosa Pine forest.
The camp offers modern, clean and comfortable facilities. The 100-bed camp has modern heated cabins with restrooms and accessible shower facilities. There is a spacious pavilion, dining hall, deck, fire pit and various activity areas for programming as well as a large lawn for recreation and learning. A pond provides opportunities for swimming, boating, and fishing. A health center is centrally located, and all staff have passed federal and state background checks.
The 4-H Camp Program is grounded in university and research-based learning, which allows youth to reach their full potential through experiential learning, leadership, and life-skill building. 4-H Camping is cooperative group living in a natural environment that focuses on hands-on learning and developing life skills by providing a framework for mentoring and role modeling. At camp, youth learn how to take care of themselves and become more independent while enjoying a variety of sessions and socializing with peers, teen leaders and adults from differing backgrounds. Camp provides a sense of belonging through building social skills, inclusion, and lasting friendships.
4-H Camping Programs have the unique opportunity to reach a variety of audiences, bringing together those from limited income, underserved families as well as those with access to a variety of services, youth living in both urban and rural areas, and those who participate in other aspects of 4-H through their local clubs.
Camp provides leadership opportunities for senior 4-H members (14-18) who serve as camp counselors for younger campers, chaperoning them throughout the week, which fosters empathy and communication. This year’s camp activities included: air rifle, knot-tying, animal encounters, team-building activities, solar cooking, an overnight hike and camp-out, boating, swimming, salsa making, arts & crafts, fort-building, planning and performing skits, games, and a camp skill-a-thon. Additionally, campers are responsible for keeping their cabins clean and helping to keep the camp facilities in order in a fun, but competitive way, earning team/cabin bragging rights.
While Camp costs are kept as low as possible and discounts are available to households with more than one camper, scholarships are made possible by Tractor Supply Company’s annual Paper Clover campaigns, whereby store patrons can purchase paper clovers via donations to 4-H in their local counties. Those funds stay within the county and are used to support 4-H youth camp and leadership opportunities.
If you know a young person who could benefit from 4-H camp, as well as all the hands-on, youth-led opportunities that the year-long 4-H program provides: learning by doing, growing through challenges, expressing their ideas and using their influence to drive positive outcomes, contact your local 4-H today!