Under the bright morning sun, campers of all ages, from babies to grandparents, gather around a small campfire. Each camper walks up to the fire and tosses in what looks like a sprig of evergreen and shares what they hope to learn that day.

“I really want to see the creature that made its track by the creek and see where it spends its time,” one camper said.

The campers are participating in the Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center Community Camp. This is a particularly momentous season for Ravenwood founders Brett and Laura Holmquist, because it marks the group’s 10-year anniversary.

Laura, a wildlife biologist, and Brett, a teacher, formed the nonprofit with the philosophy of imparting in people a deep connection with the land based on inquisitive learning.

“Brett and I both worked at different camps, and we just found that having an extended stay and building a real strong connection with the land and the people you are creating that experience with — we thought it was important. It needed to happen more,” Laura said about Ravenwood’s niche.

“How we like to think about it is instead of information delivery, it’s really about the experience. The idea is that you create an experience so strong that the information just comes a long for the ride,” she added.

It’s the second day of camp, and already the campsite looks comfortably lived in. Clothes hang from lines in front of family-sized tepees. Temporary showers have been set up. A long table is covered with washed dishes drying in the sun after breakfast, and a “natural mystery museum” is filled with items, such as pine cones, that campers have found in the woods.

“We call it the natural mystery museum. It’s different from a natural history museum because of this model we use with a deep nature connection — experience versus education,” Laura said. “It’s not like we’re saying, ‘Oh, that’s a fir tree pine cone. We say, ‘What tree did that come from? What do you think? Where did you find it? What’s around it?’ and we ask a lot of questions.”

Campers work on solving the mysteries during the three-day camp.

“When you’re curious about it, and you find out about it, you are going to remember it, whereas if we just walk around telling everybody what’s here, you say, ‘Oh, great.’ It goes in one ear and out the other because you’re not building that connection,” Laura said.

A nearby dry-erase board lists the mammals, amphibians, birds, insects, berries and trees campers have found written in the shaky scrawl of young children. The list includes moose scat, skunk tracks, deer hair, huckleberries and a yellow crab spider, among others. This gives campers a focus on being observant in their surroundings.

Back at the campfire, the last person tosses their evergreen sprig into the fire. Brett then teaches the group an American Indian water blessing with a slow and fast verse. He invites people to get up and dance.

“This song has two distinct parts,” Brett said. “One brings to mind the slow waters, still waters, lakes, ponds, puddles, and the other part of the song is the fast-moving waters, the turbulence, the rolling, the roiling, the chaos, the babbling streams, waterfalls.”

Eleven-year-old Teoman Ozaydin of Istanbul, Turkey, picks up a basket of shakers and offers them to each camper. Teoman is camping with a sibling and his mother and father, who spend summers with relatives in Kalispell.

“I think the best part about this camp is being with my family,” Teoman said.

Once the shakers are all handed out, Brett announces: “Here we go.” Some of the young campers get up to dance. Thirteen-year-old Molly Adams of Kalispell joins the dance holding the hand of Sascha Laroche, 5, of Missoula. They stomp their feet to the beat of the song and skip faster on the second verse.

Molly has attended Ravenwood camps since she was 7 or 8, said her mother, Jane.

“It’s a great time to be here with Molly,” Jane said. “She wants to start mentor training [at Ravenwood].”

Sascha is attending camp with a sibling and her mother, Kris.

“You talk about how deep the learning is as opposed to just learning the science of nature, creating an emotional bond with the world, not just an intellectual understanding,” Kris said.

Kris said this community camp also brings different generations together in most activities.

“It’s rare to spend time with children at camp. Usually they send kids off to do activities, but here we’re doing them as a family,” she said.

Campers break up into groups for the first activities of the day — making a circular willow hoop game and rawhide pouches. Campers making the game venture out into the woods to find branches to form the hoop.

“They’re going to harvest the branches, so they’re going to learn a tree just by making that game today,” Laura said.

Sometimes campers play hiding games out in the woods. The games aren’t just about fun but learning to be comfortable in nature, Laura said. She used a camouflage game as an example.

“[They] run out in the woods and hide from you, and they may be really still, and there might be something crawling on them that normally they would freak out about, but because they are so intent on me not seeing them, they build that comfort, knowing, ‘Oh gosh, it’s not going to hurt me,’” Laura said.

Laura sits down to make a hoop with her daughter and reflects on what it means to have Ravenwood reach its 10-year milestone.

“It does really feel like an accomplishment,” she said, surrounded by the sounds of conversation, a crackling campfire and branches snapping under the feet of campers in the woods exploring.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.