The Wylde Center offers unique camp experiences to families in and around the Decatur area.
During our Winter, Summer and Fall camps, your child will explore this urban setting complete with native plants, garden, resident chickens and native wildlife. Campers will enjoy planting, tasting fresh organic fruits and veggies from the garden, searching the garden for insects, birds, frogs and salamanders, creating engaging and thoughtful crafts, caring for our live chickens and other fun, educational activities.
About our camps
Our camps are led by two highly trained Wylde Center educators. Cumulatively, our education team has over 40 years of experience teaching and leading outdoor education programs in areas such as science, agriculture, history, art and language arts. With the wealth of knowledge and diversity of backgrounds on our team, there is truly something for every camper!
At the end of each week during our summer and fall camps, your camper will have the opportunity to explore Hawk Hollow, just one of 5 green spaces the Wylde Center manages. They will get behind-the-scenes access to all the fun that site has to offer including, playing games, exploring the creek, visiting the Hobbit Houses, making S’mores around a campfire and optional water fight.
Camp registration is first come, first served, and there is a 16 camper limit to maintain a low camper to educator ratio. Spots fill up quickly, so register soon!
Questions should be directed to Sarah Dasher, Education Director: sarah@wyldecenter.org
Upcoming Camps
Summer Camp 2021
We have made the difficult decision not to hold camp this summer. After reviewing CDC best practices, looking at similar camp's plans, and developing what we feel would be the appropriate protocols and procedures, we feel that meeting the highest standards for the health and safety of our students and staff during the pandemic would be at odds with much of what we believe makes our summer camp so fun--interactive play, preparing and tasting new foods together, and uninhibited exploration of our beautiful space.
Please know that there is nothing we as educators look more forward to than holding a wild and free summer camp with your campers, and we are looking forward to doing so as soon as we can.
Meet the Education Team
Thom Flynn
Camp Educator
Thom joined the Wylde crew in April 2018! He grew up into Chicago (and loves their pizza), but has since been bouncing around the United States working seasonal jobs. Most of his time has been spent in the woods of New England teaching at a residential environmental education company. However, during the summers, Thom has worked on farms and lead conservation trail crews in Connecticut, Illinois, and Oregon. While new to Atlanta, he is stoked to be able to combine his love for education and farming at the Wylde center; running around with kids and vegetables is his passion! In his free time, he enjoys kayaking, running, woodcarving, journaling, traveling, and hanging out with chickens.
Jillian Eugene
Camp Educator
Jillian grew up in Atlanta attending the Waldorf School during her formative years and later attended Eckerd College and majored in Anthropology and Spanish. While in college, she studied abroad for a year in Spain, did medical anthropology research in Mexico, and gained initial experience teaching gardening lessons to elementary school students with the Edible Peace Patch Project. After graduating, she taught English in a small, beautiful town in Thailand to 2nd-6th grade for a year and a half. She later returned home to become a FoodCorps Service Member at Wylde Center, teaching gardening, nutrition and cooking classes at two Atlanta Public Schools. She is happy to continue as an educator with Wylde Center! When not working, she enjoys traveling, swimming reading, painting and spending time outdoors.
Nichole Lupo
Farm to School Manager
An educator and musician, Nichole Lupo grew up gardening with her dad in Lexington, South Carolina. She got her first job in a restaurant and her love of good food was born. Searching for a way to combine her love of growing and eating fresh food with her desire to continue teaching children, Nichole began working with metro Atlanta’s Farm to School movement in 2007. She has spent the years since writing and implementing garden-based whole foods nutrition curricula, leading Farm to School workshops for teachers, instructional coaches and principals, and teaching in classrooms and gardens connecting existing curricula to delicious, garden-fresh food. Nichole has been the farm to school manager at the Wylde Center since November 2012. She enjoys working with her committed colleagues, her talented teachers, and her excited, inquisitive students.
Sarah Dasher
Interim Education Director
Sarah joined the Wylde Center in 2016 as an educator after a brief career as a copywriter and editor. Though she has been actively engaged in the Atlanta food system since college, her love of teaching came as a surprise in 2014, when she spent a year teaching in school gardens as part of the first cohort of FoodCorps service members in Georgia. During this time she discovered the absolute joy of supporting young eaters' explorations in garden and kitchen classrooms. Her happy places are leading a class through the Wylde Woods for an ecosystem exploration, spending time with the chickens during after school programs, and sitting around the table with young eaters trying a meal they prepared together.
Camp Safety and Security
The safety and security of our campers is always our first priority. There is a CPR and First Aid certified counselor present for each day of camp, and we have the following safety measure in place:
- All Wylde Center staff members, including camp counselors, have current background checks.
- We maintain a small ratio of campers to adults, and Wylde Center campers are never left unattended. Counselors perform headcounts regularly and always before and after changing locations.
- The entire camp site is walked before camp week starts to identify any hazards and address them before the start of camp.
- Outside visitors to our camp locations are limited during camp hours.