High Tech Meets History

The "Extreme” Journey Through Hallowed Ground Summer Camp to Lead Middle School Students on 175-Mile Tour of U.S. History and Lessons of Leadership

Camp Program Expands to Loudoun County and Albemarle County in 2007

For Immediate Release  
April 16, 2007
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Watch our video to catch a glimpse into one day of this remarkable camp.

Waterford, Virginia – For two weeks this summer, over 50 students in sixth through eighth grades from Albemarle County and Loudoun County, Virginia, public schools are participating in The Extreme Journey Through Hallowed Ground Summer Camp, for hands-on lessons in American heritage and leadership.   Starting in mid-July, students will participate in an “extreme” camp that will take them on a high tech trip through history following the 175-mile Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG.)

This is the second year The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership is co-sponsoring this camp and this is the first year the camp will be offered to Loudoun County students.  According to JTHG officials, last year’s camp, organized in partnership with Albemarle Public Schools, was a smashing success and they expect the camp to be in high demand.

The camp takes students on hiking, biking, and canoeing trips along one of America’s most historic paths between Gettysburg and Monticello. Students will record the trials and triumphs, lessons of leadership from the Revolutionary period through the Civil War using state-of-the art video iPods and digital cameras to create a video documentary, or "vodcast," journaling their experiences.  They will work with expert historians, archaeologists, and national park service guides to unlock the stories and lessons of leadership that that are demonstrated throughout this region.

During the Extreme JTHG Summer Camp, students will engage in fun and intense learning activities such as, biking to historic sites along the C&O Canal, role-playing as cannoneers at the Antietam battlefield, lunching over an open fire before heading to an archeological dig, and canoeing the Potomac with a local historian to the Ball’s Bluff civil war battlefield.

Last year’s camp succeeded in getting students engaged.  On the second day of camp last year, Tyler Hooper, an Albemarle County public school student, who said he ordinarily enjoys playing video games and lacrosse, was dressed-up and given a role-playing identity as “Earnest Johnston,” an 1880s student who spends his days skipping school to attend to his family farm.   He noted, “It’s fun because the boy I’m role playing sure lives a lot different from how I do, and using the video technology really helps us learn about the history.”

The program is being headed by Angela Stokes, a teacher at Albemarle County schools.  Ms. Stokes said, “The rich American heritage found along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is something that has shaped every day of our contemporary American experience.   By getting students engaged in this history in such an intense, real way, the Extreme JTHG Summer Camp is an exciting way to get students to understand that history is not just something from our distant past, but rather something that we live every day.”  Ms. Stokes added, “Plus, it’s just a lot of fun, too!”

Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, said, “The richness of American history along the Journey is what makes it such an exciting experience for all who visit it.   As the Extreme JTHG Summer Camp shows, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a unique and wonderful place where recreation and education combine to create real life civic engagement for students of every age.”