Camp Life Launch: Week One in the Books!
The first session of Camp Life Launch is officially a success. Nobody burned anything down, several campers now understand unit pricing better than most adults, and at least one fitted sheet was defeated. Here's how the week went, day by day.
Day 1: Planning & Prepping Affordable and Nutritious Meals We started with a quick nutrition lesson — the kind that finally explains why your parents want you to eat your vegetables — then planned simple, affordable lunches campers could make themselves all week. A field trip to local restaurants showed what eating out actually costs, followed by a grocery store run where campers compared unit prices and scanned labels for whole grains. Turns out saving money and eating well aren't mutually exclusive.
Day 2: Strategies for Financial Health Field trip to the bank to learn how an ATM works and what else banks actually do. Back at Headquarters, we covered budgeting, saving, investing, and building good credit. Bonus lesson: cooking, cleaning, and general self-sufficiency are also financial strategies, since not paying someone else to do it is its own kind of savings account.
Day 3: Home Maintenance No field trip today — the house was the field trip. Campers toured the fuse box, the electricity meter, the water meter, the water heater, and the HVAC system. Then it was on to laundry (washed, dried, folded, fitted sheets included), plus mopping, vacuuming, and sweeping. We closed with plunging toilets and snaking drains, so no one has to pay a plumber for what they can now do themselves, for free.
Day 4: Auto-Maintenance The weather turned up the heat, so we hit the gas station early. Campers learned the difference between regular and premium, the finer points of gas station etiquette, and how to fill a tire and squeegee a windshield like they mean it. Back at Headquarters: everything about a Chevy Equinox, including how to change a tire and check the oil — followed by a foam-gun car wash, which doubled as a much-needed cool-down.
Day 5: Fire, Safety, and Navigation LAFD opened the day with fire safety and CPR lessons — skills we hope campers never need but are glad they have. We closed out the week with a hike through Griffith Park using paper maps. No phones.
Week 2 starts soon. We'll keep the foam gun charged and the paper maps folded, just in case.
Camp Life Launch runs out of Los Feliz. Follow along at @lifelaunchla.
