Kids try out old-school fishing at summer camp

Verna Gates, founder and executive director of the Fresh Air Family, led summer campers in Trussville as they explored the art of fishing in July.

There were no modern rods to be found, as the children used sticks, bamboo cane, fishing line, hooks and worms as portrayed in the Mark Twain novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

“You learn a lot by doing,” Gates said. “I could have brought fishing poles, [but] I brought raw bamboo [out] here and they had to clip it and pull it and get it prepared, and they’re having to tackle it up themselves. I wanted to do something for our world and I picked science, even though I’ve been a writer all my life, because it teaches you a way to think. They’re learning a process, I’m not handing them anything, [and] they have to figure out the process.”

Gates founded the Fresh Air Family in 2006 with the mission to teach that every living thing deserves respect. The nonprofit organization hosts 17 summer programs, several of them in Trussville, and offers more than 400 outdoor education activities for families.