RECREATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AREAS

2,221 CAMPER DAYS IN APRIL ON 12 AREAS

A total of 2,221 camper days by 986 persons, covered by 46 permits, was the April record of short term use on 12 Recreational Demonstration Areas of Region One. Shelby Forest, near Memphis, Tennessee, received the greatest use with 28 per cent of the total of camper days, 33 per cent of the persons and 50 per cent of the permits. The area offers one four-unit, 112-camper capacity center and one short term lodge. Recreational Specialists of the Service believe the Shelby Forest record might be surpassed by other areas, including the 10 which reported no short-term use, if communities and organizations were acquainted with, and took advantage of, the recreational facilities now available.

NEW AGENCIES GET CAMPING PERMITS

Four newcomers already are listed among the nan-profit organizations which have obtained seasonal permits for occupancy of Recreational Demonstration Area camps during 1939. They are the Bangor Brewer Y. W. C. A., for Camden Hills, Maine; the Blue Knob Camp Association, for Blue Knob, Pennsylvania; the Labor Camp Committee, of Pittsburgh, for Raccoon Creek, Pennsylvania, and the Otter Creek Camps, Inc., for two camps at Otter Creek, Kentucky.

Swift Creek Camps Association is being organized to occupy one camp at Swift Creek, near Richmond, Virginia, and several additional community organizations are expected to be in operation during the summer. Other groups which will be making use of Recreational Demonstration Area organized camps for the first time include the Medford, Massachusetts, Council of Girl Scouts, for Bear Brook, New Hampshire; the Washington, D. C., Welfare and Recreation Association, for Catoctin, Maryland, and the State Teachers College, of California, Pennsylvania, which will occupy Laurel Hill on a seasonal basis instead of sharing with another group as it did for a short time last summer.

The current issue of The California Bulletin, published by Teachers College, is devoted entirely to "Camp California" and its program. The summer schedule provides:

1). A corrective program for the individual with defective speech;

2). A training course for prospective teachers of speech rehabilitation, and

3). A program of nature education for teachers, students and nature counselors.

At the left may be seen one of the informal lessons in speech correction which a young camper was receiving at Laurel Hill last summer when Associate Recreational Planner James F. Kieley snapped the photograph.