With the 2024-2025 at a close, the Portland Outdoor Explorers are deeply honored and EXCITED to begin our third summer camp since starting up in March 2023!

To prepare, we’ve created a packet of information to help campers and their guardians have an EXCELLENT summer with us. This packet will go out weekly on Sunday evenings before a week of summer camp, so the information will always be available. We’ll also be updating our website in the near future to reflect some of the more pertinent information that is within the packet, so it can be available 24/7/375 for everyone.

If you haven’t had a chance to sign up for summer yet, there’s still time to do so! Just click on the button below and register today!

What follows is a preview of our summer packet:

Welcome!

The Portland Outdoor Explorers are thrilled to have your student(s) joining us for our Sword and Sorcery summer camp!

What a Day with POE Might Look Like
Portland Outdoor Explorers is excited to be a fully child-led program, offering students the chance to learn and play in ways that feel right for them.

For this reason, Portland Outdoor Explorer (POE)’s rules typically center on child and councilor safety. This includes physical, emotional, and mental safety.

Each day, we will meet at the corner of NE 62nd and NE Thompson, to establish our base camp for the day. Students will line their bags up in a “gear line” so they can be easily accessed throughout the day, as well as picked up quickly in the unlikely event of an emergency. Once all of the students have arrived, we will go over safety rules and boundaries, and then invite students to choose an activity in which they are interested.

Each day, councilors will provide options for an array of outdoor activities that will allow students to exercise their fine and gross motor skills, create works of art, open opportunities for social and emotional growth, learn about the flora and fauna native to the area, or just have time to be feral. The depth to which each activity is explored is in the hand of each child and adaptable to fit individual needs and interests.

Students are welcome to snack at their discretion—after all, they know best what their body needs—however, we encourage frequent water breaks throughout the day to help our students stay hydrated (we consider this a part of physical safety).

We ask that all students come prepared with their own snacks, drinks, and other food items as our ability to provide these items is limited.

Every 80 minutes, students will be prompted to reapply sunscreen and drink water.

If outdoor temperatures rise to 80℉, we will offer water balloons and squirt guns to help us cool down.
If outdoor temperatures rise to 95℉, we will relocate to our indoor location at the Rose City Park United Methodist Church.

Any time program transitions to our indoor location, guardians will receive a text message at the number(s) we have on file to inform them of the change and reason. Pick-up times will remain the same.

Pick-Up and Drop Off Times and Locations

Pick-up and drop off for summer programs will be at Rose City Park located at the corner of NE 62nd and NE Thompson St.


On Non-Travel Days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Program runs from 8:30am to 5:30pm. Any drop off and pick-up times within this time frame are acceptable.

On Travel Days (Tuesday, Thursday)
On travel days, students will be prompted to use the bathrooms, sanitize their hands, and will listen to a safety talk about our van, The POEmobile, before entering and traveling with us to one of our adventure locations.
On Tuesdays, we will adventure to Dabney State Park or Mary S. Young State Park for hiking, fort building, rockhounding, and other high-energy outdoor activities.
On Thursdays, we will adventure to The Imagination Station or The Fantasy Forest for more play-based activities.
In order to ensure students have ample time to learn and play on our adventures, we leave promptly at 9:30am. If you are unable to arrive by or before this time, please text or call a counselor to inform us.

We will be returning to Rose City Park by or before 3:45pm. If for any reason it seems we will be delayed (such as heavy traffic), a text message will go out to the phone numbers we have on file to inform guardians of the delay, what time we expect to return to the park, and any further updates.
Our Indoor Location

On occasion, we may need to relocate to our indoor location at Rose City Park United Methodist Church. We make use of the Narthex located behind a set of red double doors directly across the street from the parking lot located on NE 58th Ave.

The address for the church is 5830 NE Alameda St. Any time program transitions to our indoor location, guardians will receive a text message at the number(s) we have on file to inform them of the change and reason. Pick-up times will remain the same.

Required Gear and Supplies

• Backpack
• Spare clothes (shirt, pants or shorts, underwear, socks)
• Weather-appropriate layers
• Close-toed shoes for walking and running
• On travel days, students may also bring water shoes
• A hearty lunch
• Snacks
• Extra snacks
• Sunscreen (even when it is cloudy out)
• Students are also welcome to bring a hat and/or sunglasses for extra solar protection
• A refillable water bottle
• Any necessary medications (example: an inhaler, insulin, etc.) and/or assistance devices (example: noise-canceling headphones, fidgets, mobility aids, etc.)

Please do NOT bring:

• Weapons of any kind
• Electronics (unless they are a necessary part of your child’s mental or physical disability assistance/comfort)
• Controlled substances If a child needs medicine, please reach out to us so we can help you fill out the necessary forms and ensure the medication is in its prescribed case, fit for travel, and has your child’s name on it.
• Anything that cannot be wet or dirty

Please have your child’s name printed clearly on their items.

Clearly labelling your child’s gear allows us to properly ensure anything accidentally left behind can be returned swiftly. Everything else will go into our Lost and Found. Whatever items have not been reclaimed before the end of the season will be donated before the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.

Our Safety Information

Anti-Bullying Policy
In order to ensure the physical, mental, and emotional safety of our staff and students, POE has instituted an anti-bullying policy. This includes, but is not limited to, a ban of discriminatory, inflammatory, or adult language (this includes swear words and conversation topics that are not age-appropriate), non-consensual physical violence (we allow consensual physical play such as roughhousing; not things like throwing punches), gaslighting, and other bullying tactics.
Students who perpetrate bullying behavior will be subject to our disciplinary policy.

Disciplinary Policy
Generally, we hope to perform disciplinary action as little as possible. However, where disciplinary action is necessary, it should feel fair to all parties involved and should be underpinned by clear expectations. The times these would be used is if there are safety concerns or bullying/ discrimination.

The basic outline of the disciplinary action:

A verbal warning may be issued by a counselor with a clear description of why the incident was unacceptable. Students may be coached on ways to avoid the triggering incident or unacceptable behavior.

If the behavior persists past a verbal warning, a written incident report will be made and presented to parents. These reports detail the time, date, and location of the incident, the details of the incident itself, and what, if any, corrective action is recommended by counselors.

If the behavior continues or is of considerable severity (at the discretion of the administration), a conversation with the student’s guardians will be had on the actions and a plan made together to insure the safety of all children.

Continued incidents will result in a review of the child’s continued enrollment. Depending on the severity and frequency of the incident(s), your child may be removed from program to ensure the safety of all.

Other Safety Information
Each counselor is trained in adult, child, and baby CPR and first aid through The Red Cross.

Each counselor has access to a personal first aid kit which is kept stocked at all times.

A larger first aid kit with additional supplies is kept on site at all times.

In the event of a severe injury, guardians will be called to inform them of the incident. An ambulance may also be called if medically necessary.

Camp Names
POE runs most of our programs in public parks. As such, anyone within those spaces may overhear the names of our students. In order to add an additional layer of protection for ourselves and our students, everyone is given a Camp Name. These are typically nature-based names, and completely up to the child using the name!

Contact Information

Alex Frost
Pronouns: She/They
Phone: (541) 207-5495
Email: alex@pdxoutdoorexplorers.com
Availability: Alex is available Monday through Friday between the hours of 7am and 7pm. In case of time sensitive things please reach out via text so they can assist as soon as possible.

Haylee Wagner
Pronouns: She/Her
Phone: (971) 373-3369
Email: haylee@pdxoutdoorexplorers.com
Availability: Haylee is available Monday through Friday between the hours of 10am and 6pm.

Laura Grant
Pronouns: She/They
Phone: (559) 273-4132
Email: laura@pdxoutdoorexplorers.com
Availability: Laura is available Monday through Friday between the hours of 9am and 6pm. Correspondence outside of these hours will be addressed at the earliest opportunity.

It’s not too late to sign up for our summer camps; there is plenty of room for all! Just click on the button below to register today!