Florida Agricultural Museum to host summer camps

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In 1983, a group of concerned agriculturalists and historians, with the help of Agricultural Commissioner Doyle Conner, established the Florida Agricultural Museum in Tallahassee. In 1997 the museum moved to its current 460-acre home in Flagler County with all the original buildings. The mission behind establishing the museum was to preserve Florida’s agricultural past, and currently the museum is also active in the conservation of heritage livestock including rare Florida Cracker cattle, horses, and sheep.

This summer, the Florida Agricultural Museum will be hosting two camps for children, a theater camp and a horse camp.

The theater camp, dubbed the Fuzzy Mouse Players, will invite children to tap into their creative side. Unlike ordinary theater camps, the Fuzzy Mouse Players will not be working from a pre-set script or working with existing costumes/set pieces. For each of the two one-week camps, children will create their own play, and in turn create their own set pieces and costumes.

“We are not like other theater companies [because] we are not working with a play, we are working with a theme,” said Amy Lake, head of the theater camp.

The first week’s theme will be “Once Upon a Time in the Old Caldwell Barn,” while the second week’s theme will be “Once Upon a Time in the Faraway Forest.” Lake said that campers will play fun, introductory theater games, get to know their counselors, and then set out creating their own play. Once the kids formulate ideas, Lake will work to turn those ideas into a script. Children will then have the hands-on experience of building set pieces (of cardboard and other materials), and their own costumes. Performances of each play will happen at the end of the coordinating week with a performance free for the public.

The horse camp, which is one of the museum’s most popular programs, is best suited for new rides and children between the ages of eight to 16 years old. For the weeklong program, campers will learn horse safety, equine behavior, identification of breeds, grooming, tacking up, ground handling and other basic riding skills.

Campers are also encouraged to pack bathing suits for fun days such as sprinkler days and their end of the week lake party, where the horses will join in on swimming.

For more information on the camps, which take place outdoors in the Caldwell Barn and have a limited capacity, go to floridaagmuseum.org.