June 27, 2016 (Fort Worth, Texas) – As a fourth year camper at Camp El Tesoro, Camp Fire’s 223-acre camp in Granbury, Kadin Ward has an idea of what to expect – great activities, new friends and a lot of fun. But this year had something in store for Kadin that even he couldn’t predict. On one of his first few days as a two-week camper, he stumbled upon a fossil during a walk. Intrigued by the shapes and texture, he began looking for more.
“I thought, well if there’s one fossil, there’s probably more. So I started looking for fossils any chance I got,” Kadin said.
Within five days, Kadin found more than 1,000 fossils on El Tesoro paths and grounds. He has always enjoyed collecting fossils, but this is his largest collection by far. Kadin sees fossils as a way of looking back in time. His passion about the collection earned him a nick-name among other campers that he is rather proud of – ‘Fossil Boy’.
“At Camp El Tesoro we are able to use our natural resources to encourage youth to appreciate nature,” Tanner Rohne, Camp El Tesoro Director said. “Our programs believe in teaching youth to discover and develop their passions, which we call sparks. Kadin found something he really loved about nature and he was able to embrace that interest at camp.”
Camp El Tesoro embraces the ‘Leave No Trace’ principles, in which one states “Leave what you find”. On a sunny afternoon during one of his last days at camp, Kadin and his cabin took a hike on a wooded path at El Tesoro. They distributed each of the more than 1,000 fossils for other campers to discover.
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