Bring Them Back
Ensure our children have the chance
A targeted effort to let local school districts know the 5th grade overnight camp is important
Use the below template to help generate your email to local school district superintendents.
Our current focus is getting Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Siloam Springs Public Schools back. Have another school district you would like to see at ONSC? We would love to hear it. Feel free to customize and use this template your way, and copy alex.foster@onsc.us on your letter to school leadership if you'd like our CEO to follow-up.
Dr. Debbie Jone
Dr. Jared Cleveland
Dr. Jeff Perry
Shane Patrick,
Dear Superintendent [LAST NAME],
My name is [YOUR NAME] and I live in [CITY]. [I am the parent of a student at ___ / I am a grandparent in this district / I am
a graduate of these schools].
I am writing to ask the district to restore fifth grade participation in the overnight residential program at Ozark Natural Science
Center in Huntsville.
For most children, this is the first time they sleep somewhere without a screen, hold a salamander, walk a creek bed, and
understand that they are part of something living and much larger than themselves. Overnight camp builds things that a
classroom cannot: empathy for animals, real ecological literacy, confidence outdoors, and the sense that the natural world
belongs to them and depends on them.
Our students are inheriting decisions about water, land, forests, and climate. I would like them to meet those things in person
before they are asked to make decisions about them.
[ONE OR TWO SENTENCES IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Why this matters to you, or to your child. This is the part that gets
read.]
I understand budgets and instructional calendars are tight, and I am not asking the district to ignore that. I am asking what it
would take to bring fifth grade back, and whether the community can help solve it. If cost or transportation is the obstacle, I
would genuinely like to know, because there are people in this community, myself included, who would work on it.
Ozark Natural Science Center has served this region since 1990 and reaches more than 4,000 students a year. Our kids
should be among them.
Thank you for your time and for your service to our students.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR ADDRESS, so they can see you are in the district]
[YOUR EMAIL AND PHONE]
The ask: How can we get our kids back?
Budgets are tight, school pressures are real, and this experience is necessary. If you've made it this far, you have likely been at this camp yourself or know a child who has -- nothing can replace the experience of immersing our children in nature. Thank you for your support of this work! You are making a difference.