Lagoon Island Adventure Summer Camps at the Environmental Learning Center in Vero Beach

When summer arrives on the Treasure Coast, one of the best gifts you can give a child is time outdoors, and the Environmental Learning Center in Vero Beach has built a camp experience around exactly that idea. The ELC's Lagoon Island Adventure Camp invites kids into a hands-on, feet-wet exploration of the Indian River Lagoon and the ELC's beautiful island campus. For young explorers, it is a chance to trade screens for salt air, mud, and discovery, all while making friends and building the kind of memories that last well beyond one summer.

A Camp Built Around the Lagoon

The ELC sits on a 64-acre lagoon-island campus in the heart of the Indian River Lagoon, one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in North America. That setting is the classroom. Campers can take pontoon rides on the water, stop at spoil islands, walk boardwalk nature trails, and get an up-close look at the creatures that call the lagoon home. The nonprofit's mission is to educate, inspire, and empower people of all ages to become active stewards of the environment and their own well-being, and its summer programs put that mission into practice for the youngest members of our community. Campers entering the early elementary grades through middle school are grouped so activities meet them at the right level of curiosity and independence.

Why Outdoor Camp Is Worth It

There is real value in unstructured, nature-based play. Time outdoors has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in children and to spark creativity in ways a classroom rarely can. Group activities help kids practice teamwork, patience, and listening, and when learning is wrapped inside a pontoon ride or a wade through shallow water, knowledge sinks in without ever feeling like a lesson. Screen-free days also encourage independence and confidence, giving children the freedom to get a little muddy, ask big questions, and see the natural world as something worth protecting.

The ELC's Role in Our Community

The Environmental Learning Center serves thousands of children and adults every year through school excursions, camps, adult education, and public programs. Its location also connects visitors to some remarkable neighbors, including the nearby Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, recognized as the first national wildlife refuge in the country. For local families, the ELC is a reminder that world-class nature education is right in our backyard. A summer spent at the ELC is more than childcare or a way to fill the calendar. It is an investment in raising curious, capable kids who understand the lagoon they live beside and feel a sense of responsibility to care for it. If you are looking for a way to help your child fall in love with the Treasure Coast's wild side, this is a wonderful place to start.

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Nikki Kalin

Nikki Kalin literally has the Treasure Coast, especially Vero Beach as her home and her office. Having grown up and educated in Indian River County Nikki works with a deep knowledge to tend Vero Vine with a continual reach into all the communities of the Treasure Coast. She is in the vineyard virtually every day. Following its growth, nurturing start-ups, longtime roots, and branches of businesses, non-profits, municipalities, and everyday people. Nikki makes certain Vero Vine is connected.

The “real world” is Vero Beach Marketing where Nikki was recruited and is being mentored by Creative Director/ Owner, Stacy Cook. Nikki’s daily efforts include website management, email marketing, newsletter development, and most notably social engagement. Nikki has been instrumental in the deployment for the last two years of the “VeroBeach Marketing Summit” coordinating scheduling for regional and local experts in the digital space. In 2018 Nikki was responsible for the Email Marketing break out session, presenting her experience and insights to an audience of local businesses and professionals.

All of this is on behalf of local business clients and Vero Vine contributors. Nikki curates the good news about events, philanthropic happenings, and all the adventures in the Paradise of Vero Beach and the Treasure Coast. Updating Vero Vine, Vero Beach Foodie, and all of their client’s websites and Socials Nikki Kalin makes sure that the world has everything on Vero Vine within reach.