Kids learn about life on the prairie at day camp

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

About 10 children, age kindergarten through fifth grade, visited the Carrie Lane Chapman Catt Girlhood Home near Charles City on Wednesday to participate in a variety of games and activities relating to life on an 1860s farm.

The National 19th Amendment Society hosted its annual Prairie Day Camp, where the kids took a prairie walk guided by a Floyd County conservationist and enjoyed old-fashioned pressed apple cider made on-site.

Lunch, with a menu of foods Chapman Catt would have eaten growing up as a child, was also provided.

“We’re trying to re-create a day of life on the prairie,” said Lindsey Hines, summer intern at the museum, who planned and coordinated the event. “We want people to learn who Carrie is, why the right to vote is important, and have some fun prairie recreation.”

The right to vote — especially giving women that right — is a cause for which Chapman Catt was a champion, and the kids participated in a mock election, conducted by Floyd County Auditor Gloria Carr, who later taught the children about the history and importance of voting in the United States.

“Hopefully they’ll get an idea of what it’s like to vote, how to vote and why it’s important,” Hines said. “That’s one of the things we were emphasizing today.”

Although Hines was the guiding force behind the day camp, she said she had a lot of helping hands belonging to volunteers and board members.

“Part of the focus of this event is to get parents and kids on site so they can learn about our museum,” Hines said.

The kids participated in games and activities that would have been appropriate for farm life in the late 1800s.

“We went on a little walk through some of the grassy places and we got to mark down things,” said Adeline King, age 9, who attended the day camp.

King said the kids also went inside and voted, went outside and “did checkers,” washed their hands and ate lunch. She said she learned a lot of things about what life was like back in the “old days.”

“I learned that there were no electrical devices,” she said, and mentioned that she would not like that.

Prairie Day Camp is led by the National 19th Amendment Society in partnership with Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.