Joseph Pfeifer Kiwanis Camp

Since 1929 Pfeifer Kiwanis Camp, located on 88 acres near Ferndale, has provided a free summer residential camping program for 9 to 14 year olds. Pfeifer Camp offers the Alternative Classroom Experience, parenting workshops, teacher-training workshops, ropes course training, an annual Honor Camp program, and a Counselor-in-Training program for 14 to 17 year olds. The Alternative Classroom Experience (A.C.E.), which operates from September through May each year, is a 30-day residential, educational, and wilderness experience for 3rd, 4th, & 5th graders who are not achieving their potential in the regular classroom. This prevention program provides a highly structured classroom with certified teachers. Besides academics, campers learn problem solving skills, crisis management skills, and acceptance of personal responsibility through a variety of outdoor, environmental, and team-building activities. Other components of the program are mandatory weekly parenting workshops, a transition period where students are monitored upon return to their regular classroom, and long-term follow up through the completion of 7th grade. In addition, the members collaborate with other local youth agencies to provide continued service during the teen years. As an incentive, all campers who continue to do well in school receive a free scholarship for summer camp. Pfeifer Camp is unique in that all of its programs are free to participants. Pfeifer Camp is one of the few Arkansas camps certified by the American Camping Association and the only one licensed as a residential child-care facility through the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The quality of the camp and its programs has been recognized on local and national levels. The International Association for Experiential Education named Pfeifer Camp as Organization of the Year in 1998. The director was a White House Champion of Change. The camp has also been evaluated through 3 research projects with significant results.