The week started with each of the 14 Roane State Community College’s Cumberland Business Incubator Make Camp 2015 campers aged 8 through 18 customizing their personal safety glasses so they could easily be identified if left behind. The amazing result? Not one camper lost their safety glasses during the 5 days of camp! More safety rules for use of the Maker Space followed as well as an overview of the options for Monday making; video documentary, tile art work, rockets or woodworking followed by all campers attending a Karate session taught by a third degree black belt. By the end of the first day campers were talking about production runs of some of their projects to sell. Entrepreneurs in the making!

Rocket launching was the lunchtime activity followed by more creative making options before the State Park Ranger arrived with their owls and educational session. Tuesday’s making options included laser engraving dog tags, soldering a gravity switch light (turns on or off based on gravity) or woodworking to build a park bench. A problem solving team-building exercise was part of the lunchtime activity. The Cumberland County Storytelling Guild presented a storytelling workshop in the afternoon with each camper crafting a personal story or telling a fable before returning to the Maker Space to do more making.

Wednesday’s early morning focus included fabric art skills of cutting to a pattern, sewing, machine embroidery, creation of individual camp T-shirts as well as bracelet or keychain beadwork, woodworking to build a birdhouse or decorating one of two Little Free Library boxes built during Make Camp 2014. One of the Little Free Libraries will be returned to the location outside the Cumberland Business Incubator with the new park benches, and the other will be donated to the Pleasant Hill location of the Crossville Housing Authority. The afternoon making activities included creation of hand-stamped greeting cards, embellishing terracotta pots and more woodworking projects.

Thursday provided an educational session on vermiculture (worms) and planting of the terracotta pots. Copper forming using a one-of-a-kind machine allowed the campers to create wind-chimes, art and jewelry. Frighteningly realistic horror movie scars and wounds were added to most of the campers arms provided by a professional make-up artist.

Friday added Scratch computer coding skills to the camper’s learning experiences as they developed their own animated computer games. 3D paper craft skills kept campers busy with scissors and glue as well as completion of all their woodworking, laser, art and rockets projects in anticipation of their families arriving for Show and Tell at the end of the day.

Many thanks to all the volunteers involved in CBI’s Make Camp 2015. Tom McDunn, Carol Judy, Lynn Falk, Harold Schultz, Diane Morey, Chris Doster, Cumberland Mountain State Park Rangers, The Cumberland County Storytelling Guild, Jean Corbett, Bill Savarese, John Cole, Marcia Hiltabidle, Rita Reali, Louise Goodman, Dave Clark, Roger Pearson, Mark Lenham, Heather and Emily Booth, and Cumberland County Bank for their donation of bottled water. To see all the photos from Make Camp 2015, click here.

Make Camp 2016 will be held the week of July 11 – 15, 2016. There will be new projects and making opportunities and more budding entrepreneurs developed! Contact Holly Hanson or Bonnie Moedano at cbi@roanestate.edu or 931-456-4910 for more information.