Screen Free Summer Camp

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. Overloaded with TV, instant messaging and video games, it's easy and unsettling to imagine kids spending their summer break indoors. But this year Valley Forge National Historical Park is enticing kids to explore its 3,600 acres of lush vegetation and abundant wildlife and discover some of America's earliest history through its new Junior Ranger Adventure Camp.

Beginning June 28, kids, 8-12, can hike the Park's forests and meadows, interact with American Revolution characters, wade through a stream and examine fossils from the Great Ice Age. At the end of each weeklong session, campers earn Junior Ranger badges and certificates to reward their achievement and show off to family and friends.

Summer camp programs have long represented an excellent way introduce youth to new passions, develop lasting friendships and revel in the warm weather of summer. The Junior Ranger program provides these benefits and more, educating campers about the challenges to Continental Army soldiers during the winter of 1777-78 encampment at Valley Forge, and the plants and animals found there then and now.

The program is offered through the Upper Merion Parks and Recreation Department, in cooperation with the National Park Service, in multiple weeklong sessions from June 28 to August 6. Activities run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily and a weeklong session costs $189. The outdoor-based camp will be held rain or shine and participants will need to bring appropriate outdoor attire and shoes, lunch, water, snacks and sun/insect protection.

For more information or to register visit www.uppermerionparkandrec.org or call Heather Melck, at 610.265.1071, ext 139.

About Valley Forge National Historical Park
Valley Forge National Historical Park educates present and future generations of Americans about one of the most defining events in our nation's history by preserving the natural and cultural resources that commemorate the encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777-78. To learn more visit www.nps.gov/vafo.

The Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ltd. is a nonprofit, membership-based sales and marketing organization that aggressively promotes the Valley Forge area and Montgomery County as a convention site and leisure visitor destination by encouraging patronage of its 500-plus member hotels, restaurants, attractions and services. The Bureau's Web site, at www.valleyforge.org, serves visitors, meeting planners, tour operators and residents.