Outdoor Environmental Education & Labor Day Alumni Weekend | YMCA Camp Orkila

Spring has arrived on Orcas Island, and with it come the sounds we love most — nets splashing in the pond, kids calling out over microscope slides, buses beeping across the fields and pulling through the gate with another school ready to discover something new through our Outdoor Environmental Education programs that run in the spring and fall.

This is a big season for us. We have new spaces to share, new stories to tell, and, as always, a lot of learning happening — for students and for us. You’re part of this community, whether you are a volunteer, a past participant or staff, you’ve brought students for outdoor education, or you’re somewhere in between. We’re glad you’re here and were excited to share what’s new.

Robinson Education Center

Last May, we cut the ribbon on the Robinson Education Center — a building more than a decade in the making and the result of years of fundraising, permitting, landscape design, and the kind of patient, determined work that doesn’t make headlines but makes everything possible. The Robinson Foundation, whose lead gift made this building a reality, joined us for that celebration, and it was a day none of us will forget.

But ribbon cuttings are just the beginning. This spring, the Robinson Education Center is fully alive for the first time. The landscaping is complete. The boardwalk is lit. The native plantings are showing their first signs of life after a long winter. And as of today, the building is full of students from the greater Seattle area and beyond, nets in hand, pulling live freshwater samples from the pond and preparing microscope slides in one of our most beloved classes — more on that in a moment.

The building itself is an instructional tool. Our facilities superintendent, Steve Miller, and his crew of four maintenance professionals — including Jason Dean, who just celebrated his 31st year on Orkila staff — worked for years to ensure that every detail serves a purpose. Solar panels are coming for the exploration breezeway to make energy systems visible and teachable. A viewing site for our well water system invites questions about where water comes from and how we protect it. And the entire footprint of the building was designed to benefit, rather than burden, the wetland ecology it sits within.

Perhaps the most unexpected gift of the Robinson Education Center is what it revealed about a place we already loved. No matter what time of day you visit the upper pond area, you are likely to be surrounded by birdsong. It has always been a remarkable bird sanctuary — and now there is finally a place to sit, observe, and enjoy.

We are grateful to the Robinson Foundation, to Steve and his entire team, and to everyone who believed in this project long before there was a building to show for it.

The Pond — Where Science Comes Alive

There is a moment that happens to nearly every student who walks down to the pond for the first time. It usually occurs about three steps from the water’s edge. The nose wrinkles. The eyes widen. The nets go in, and none of that matters anymore, because there is an entire living, breathing, squirming freshwater ecosystem in the bin, and it needs to be identified immediately.

Pond Investigation is one of Orkila’s most beloved classes, and the Robinson Education Center has given it a home worthy of the experience. Nets drag through the water. Microscope slides are prepared with the focused urgency of scientists who have somewhere to be. And sooner or later, inevitably, someone discovers a caddisfly larva — a tiny insect that has wrapped itself in a handmade nest of sticks and debris, tucked in like it has nowhere to be and no intention of leaving. Students find them deeply relatable. If you’ve ever seen a sixth grader bundled in a sleeping bag at 7 a.m., unwilling to emerge, you understand why.

Summer Update

As spring settles across the Pacific Northwest, people from all over begin turning their attention to summer at Orkila. This year feels especially meaningful as we celebrate 120 years of camp, a milestone shaped by generations of campers, staff, and volunteers who have each left their mark on this place.

For some, this will be a first introduction to Orkila: an 8-year-old arriving for a five-day mini session, stepping into camp with a mix of curiosity and uncertainty. For others, it is a return to something familiar: a 16-year-old beginning their eighth summer through the Leadership Development Institute, or a member of our medical team who is part of a community that returns year after year to care for campers.

Summer at Orkila is made up of these overlapping stories. Firsts and returns. Small moments that grow into lasting memories, and a rhythm that feels both timeless and new each season. Mornings on the waterfront, afternoons in the forest, and evenings gathered together as the light fades over the Salish Sea.

Many of our sessions are already full or filling quickly this year, but there is still still time and space to be part of another memorable summer.

Join us at Camp: Alumni and Family Camp Weekends

We invite staff and volunteers to return for the Orkila Alumni Weekend over Labor Day, a chance to come back to camp, reconnect with community, and spend time together in a place that has meant so much to so many.

We also offer Family Camp Weekends throughout the year, welcoming campers of all ages. Explore upcoming sessions >>

As we celebrate 120 years of Orkila, we also invite you to Share Your Story >>

We hope to see you back at camp. In gratitude and community,

The Orkila Team

Learn more about YMCA Camp Orkila >>