Prairie Day Campers experience pioneer life, importance of voting at Girlhood Home

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Nine day-campers, a handful of National 19th Amendment Society volunteers and several experts spent parts of their day Wednesday at the Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home and Museum.

The annual Prairie Day Camp combines fun activities, a meal representative of pioneer times — headlined by fried chicken and corn on the cob — along with some learning opportunities.

Cheryl Erb of the National 19th Amendment Society said several of the activities focus on the importance of voting and what it means, as Chapman Catt is most known for her work organizing the effort to pass the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

“That’s the whole reason we’re here, because of the power of the ballot box, and Carrie’s fight to get women the right to vote,” Erb said. “When they come to Prairie Day Camp they need to hear that.”

Nancy Simerson, a member of the National 19th Amendment Society, said the day-campers went through the motions of registering to vote, filling out voter registration cards with their names and birthdays, then voted on secret ballots for which of two toys they would like to receive at the end of the camp — a set of dominoes or a mini Connect 4-type game.

After voting they also got “I voted” stickers

Erb said when the votes were tallied later in the afternoon the Connect 4 game was the winner by a narrow 5-4 margin, so even those who would rather have had dominoes received the other game — because that’s how elections work.

Also on hand during the day were Mitchell County Auditor Rachel Foster, who talked about the importance of voting and what the winning majority means, and Floyd County Conservation Naturalist Heidi Reams, who led the campers on a tour of the native prairie established near the girlhood home.

One surprise of the prairie tour was the discovery of a couple of bluebird chicks in a nest in a bluebird box.

Reams had opened the box to show the kids the nest and talk about the importance of cleaning out the box each year, and was surprised to find the chicks.

She said it’s unusual to see babies this time of year, and she carefully placed the nest back in the house after giving the campers a chance to look — but not touch.

Reams said bluebirds tolerate humans and won’t abandon a nest because it has been touched or moved.

‘These guys are going to be all grown up and out of the nest within a couple of weeks,” Reams told the kids. “So by the time you are going to school these guys will be out of the nest. So this fall we have to make sure this gets all cleaned out so it will be ready for next year.”

The Elks Charitable Foundation again sponsored the Prairie Day Camp this year so there were no fees. The camp is open to students in grades one through five.