Camp Ketcha

Camp Ketcha is a year round non-profit organization located in Scarborough, Maine. It is located on 107 acres of meadow, forest, and wetlands. Its mission is to educate family and youth to appreciate the outdoors and nature through year-round workshops and a traditional day camp for children. Camp Ketcha opened its doors in 1964 and serves on average, 3,000 youths in the community a year.

Property

From 1964 to 1999, Camp Ketcha operated out of a barn that as part of the original property purchased. In 1999, a fire destroyed the barn and a new, larger building was put in its place. The new building includes offices, classrooms for the Montessori preschool that operates in the winter months, a conference room, and a large, airy Great Room.
Camp Ketcha has an extensive trail network which neighbors the 90 acres of the Scarborough Land Trust. The trails are open to public use when the day camp is not in session.

Day Camp

Camp Ketcha offers five types of day camp; traditional, specialty, equestrian, vacation, and academic.

Traditional Day Camp

The traditional day camp offers a chance for children ages 3–14 to experience the Camp Ketcha land through program areas such as swimming, arts and crafts, drama and music, sports, ropes courses, environmental education, and archery. The camp runs through the months of June, July, and August. Campers are broken into groups depending on their age in order to ensure age-appropriate activities.

Specialty Camps
Specialty camps are themed camps that run for a week at a time. Parents are given this choice at summer registration. The themes change week to week and often include day trips and guest speakers that fit the theme. Specialty campers also experience all the program areas that traditional campers visit. Depending on the theme, specialty camps run for ages 5–14.

Equestrian Camps
Equestrian camps are similar to the specialty camps, in that equestrian campers also go to all program areas in addition to daily horse-back riding and horsemanship.

Vacation Camps
Vacation camps are the same as the traditional day camp, except that they are offered during school vacations, such as February and April vacation weeks. These camps offer most of the traditional day camp program areas, depending on the season.

Academic Camps
In the 2014 summer season, Camp Ketcha offered another type of day camp. Academic camps are offered for children entering Kindergarten in the Fall of that year as well as a Math camp for children aged 5–9 (entering kindergarten to entering fifth grade). These camps are different in that they are run by experienced teachers instead of a regular counselor. These camps use both the Camp Ketcha property and a nearby school to achieve their purpose.