Celebrating 20 Years of Partnership with CCE of Warren County
by Hannah Lasher, Skye Farm Assistant Director
2025 marked Skye Farm’s 20th year of partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Warren County, a partnership that has allowed thousands of local kids to experience summer camp with full scholarships over the years. As 2025 comes to a close, we want to celebrate all the good this partnership has done!
Twenty years ago, then Skye Farm Executive Director Rev. Harold Shippey was on the Board of Directors for Warren County CCE’s camping committee and helped establish our connection. The program has operated in much the same way ever since; school nurses, guidance counselors, and social workers in Warren County schools recommend children who they believe would benefit from a camp scholarship. Many campers that come to Skye Farm through the program come from low-income households and may have experienced things like homelessness, family trauma, loss or incarceration of a family member, or other challenges affecting their social or emotional wellbeing. Families apply, CCE team members review and approve applications, and 50-100 campers, depending on the year, are registered with Skye Farm through a combination of scholarship funds from the county, from Skye Farm, and from private donations raised by CCE each year.
Campers attending Skye Farm through this program receive the exact same experience as any other camper and are often able to attend multiple years in a row, allowing for the kind of growth in self-confidence, friendships, and independence that the camp experience can foster. Several long-time campers from the program have even grown up to become summer staff members, helping to create the camp experiences that they loved for the next generation of campers.
The benefits of this partnership are deeply appreciated by Skye Farm, by CCE, and by the local community. Michele Baker, 4-H & Family Living Administrative Assistant and Skye Farm’s primary point of contact with CCE for many years, had this to share about the program’s benefits: “Working so closely with the staff at Skye Farm makes the paperwork process easier for both the families and the camp during their busy season. The youth in Warren County benefit greatly from the partnership between CCE and Skye Farm Camp – the location of the camp makes it much more accessible for families to transport their children to and from camp – before our partnership they had to drive over 2 hours to get to camp. Skye Farm Camp remains one of the most affordable camps in Warren County, without this partnership, we would not be able to offer so many youth opportunities to get outdoors.”
In an interview following Skye Farm’s receipt of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Community Partner Award in 2008, Harold Shippey reflected on the benefits of working with an organization that is so involved with youth in the county: “That means a greater integration of our camping program with local children, and as is evident by the award we’re receiving, an opportunity to cooperate more directly with organizations that care for youth in our community.” Today, Harold remembers fondly the impact of those early years, especially the dedication of long-time Skye Farm Registrar Judy Palmer in working through camper paperwork with families and with staff like Michele at CCE.
Parents of campers receiving scholarships through the CCE program see the benefits in their kids. “The time that my son spent at Skye Farm had great impacts on his social skills and the willingness to try new activities and/or foods,” one mom of a first-time camper in 2025 said. “At first, he was very withdrawn and homesick. If I were to ask him now how he would feel about attending another summer program, I don’t believe there would be any hesitation! Especially if there are dogs!”
Another mom of campers who are multi-year veterans of the program had this to say: “My two boys have been attending Skye Farm since 2020, and my oldest even spent a summer working there. Year after year, it’s their favorite part of summer. The impact has been lasting. Skye Farm has helped them grow, find confidence, and discover a community where they truly feel they belong. We absolutely love Skye Farm!”
The stories of campers and their families who have benefited from the opportunity for a free week at camp are endless. As the current Skye Farm Assistant Director, just off the top of my head, I can think of one teen camper who told me his time at camp has changed his relationship with nature and now wants to find a job where he can appreciate the outdoors, a pair of siblings who got excited about going to church for the first time after their first camp experience, and several campers in foster care whose excitement to return to camp for a second year and see the familiar faces of the staff they had bonded with was truly heartwarming. Part of what makes summer camp experiences so special is the unplugged nature of it—not only are campers unplugged from phones and technology, but they’re “unplugged” from the daily routines, comfort zones, and stressors of their everyday life. For kids coming from situations with extra financial, familial, or mental/emotional stressors, the benefit of that unplugged environment can be even greater.
“The story I share with potential funders, county supervisors, and even families is about a brother and sister I met about 15 years ago,” said John Bowe, Executive Director of CCE of Warren County. “They were both part of the county camp program and came from a household of limited means. Their mother could not pick them up at the end of the week, as she had no vehicle and had to rely on others. We made the decision to go get them using a CCE association vehicle. As I drove them home, the girl asked her brother if he had met another set of siblings who were there from the foster system. Apparently, they had limited visitation with one another and so they spent the whole time together as much as possible during camp. They ate together and were often seen holding hands as they moved from location to location. The girl remarked that she could not imagine not seeing her brother every day and being able to talk to him and play with him. Imagine the impact the week made not only on the siblings from foster care, but the appreciation fostered in the siblings who were riding with me.”
The ability to serve the youth of our county, our neighbors, at Skye Farm is a blessing, and we wouldn’t be able to do it at the level we have for the last 20 years without the partnership with CCE. “We look forward to many more years working with CCE,” said Robyn Vernon, Skye Farm Site Director. “It is such a special and uniquely effective program that impacts the lives of so many families in our community. I am so grateful that Warren County is committed to helping children get to camp who may not have the opportunity otherwise. You can feel the gratitude from the campers and their families at pick-up and drop-off.”
“My hopes for the program is that it continues to grow,” said Michele Baker, “making it possible for us to send as many youth from the county to camp as we can where they can experience the outdoors in a safe, supervised setting, learn new skills, gain confidence, and make new friends.”